Villain of the Month: James Blaine
Most of James Blaine’s film career was playing small parts as unnamed policemen during the thirties in films like Postal Inspector (1936), After the Thin Man (1936) and Charlie Chan On Broaday (1937). His initial serial appearances were similar, playing a scoffing scientist in Flash Gordon’s Trip to Mars (1938) and Ralph Byrd’s boss in Dick Tracy Returns (1938).
But then came his breakout role as low down dirty skunk Bart Eaton who competes with rival villain Charles Middleton for a gold mine and the owner’s sister in the Johnny Mack Brown serial Flaming Frontiers (1938). Blaine followed this up with a similarly styled villainous turn as a sneaky scoundrel trying to control the fur trapping trade in Johnny Mack Brown’s final serial, The Oregon Trail (1939).
After minor roles as a carnival owner in The Green Hornet (1939), a threatened business owner in The Green Hornet Strikes Again (1940) and a state Governor in Winner’s of the West (1940), Blaine made his last turn as a serial villain. Riders of Death Valley cast Blaine as the brains heavy of a gang out to take control of all the gold mines in Death Valley, and hero Dick Foran’s in particular, who is barely able to keep his thuggish partner Charles Bickford in check. His final serial appearance was as an unnamed policeman in the Dead End Kids and Little Tough Guys espionage adventure Sea Raiders (1941).
Which of course foreshadowed the rest of his film career as he contiued to play bit parst as cops in everything from High Sierra (1941) and The Gay Falcon (1941) to Baby Face Mrgan (1942) and One Mysterious Night (1944).
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