He Was Her Man (1934) Lloyd Bacon

    The team of Cagney and Blondell never reached the iconic level of Tracy and Hepburn though these two Warner Brothers stars set off plenty of sparks in their six films together. Released in 1934 just short of the start date for the newly enforced policing of Hollywood sinema, ‘He Was Her Man’ is a slight but entertaining drama from the most street wise of Hollywood studios. Both stars play it low-key in this downbeat story, with Cagney even sporting a mustache.

    The plot evolves around Flicker Hayes (Cagney) recently released from jail and seeking revenge on the gang members who set him up to take the rap. Not expecting Flicker to be vindictive, his former buddies include him in on a new job. He squeals to the police on the plan, a drug company’s safe, resulting in one of the gang members being caught and sentenced to die in the electric chair. To avoid getting bumped off for his revenge driven deed, Flicker skips town settling in San Francisco where he meets down and out former prostitute Rose Lawrence (Blondell) who is on her way to a small fishing village to marry Nick Gardella (Victor Jory), a respectable fisherman she met who loves her despite her immoral past.  A couple of the gang members come west on a tip to find Flicker who decided to take Rose to the fishing village figuring the small out of the way town is a good place to hide.  Flicker and Rose don’t plan it but they fall in love.

    The gang members soon manage to track Flicker down at the seaside village, only they want to kill Rose also figuring she knows too much. Flicker, who she only knows by his alias Jerry Allan, convinces the thugs Rose knows nothing of his past and if they agree to leave her alone he’ll go with them. As the film concludes, Flicker and his two assassins drive off toward the ocean where they will do their dirty deed. Rose marries the kindly Nick as the film comes to a rather poignant conclusion.     

    Despite the movie’s final wedding scene, the film ends on a despondent note with our gangster hero going off to his death. Cagney is subdued in this film and fans who like the hyperactive Jimmie may be disappointed. Blondell in a rare lead role is also fairly subdued as Rose avoiding her usual perky wise cracking style. Victor Jory does well as Nick Gardella, the Portuguese fisherman in love with Blondell.  As a pre-code film, it met the standard sinful requirements in a few instances. First Bondell’s character makes it clear she was selling herself to survive and that wedding dress she wears at the end of the film is low cut enough to qualify for 2009. There is also, early in the film, a scene when Cagney’s character is squealing to the cops, telling them that the drug company going to be robbed is loaded with “junk and nose candy.”

    Directed by Warner’s studio director Lloyd Bacon, the film lacks the kind of action most folks expect from a Warner’s gangster film. Its countryside by the seas location instead of the big city is also a change of pace from what is generally expected. While this is not a must see, it is worth a look and Cagney and Blondell completist will be pleased.

** 1/2

There’s Always a Woman (1939) Alexander Hall

    “There’s Always a Woman”, is pretty much a forgotten film in Joan Blondell’s filmography. Made for Columbia in 1938, the film is a less sophisticated “Thin Man” variation with Blondell and Melvyn Douglas as the husband and wife detective team. The film won’t make you forget Nick and Nora or even Jean Arthur and William Powell in “The Ex-Mrs. Bradford”; still it is a fun light weight movie.

    What’s make the film most enjoyable is Joan Blondell, who on loan to Columbia, is out of her sassy, smart aleck Warner’s Brother mode and into a more Carole Lombard/Jean Arthur type, though there may be a little Gracie Allen tossed in too.   The snooping couple are Sally and Bill Reardon who are going broke operating a detective agency due to a lack of clients. William, a former Assistant D.A. decides to go running back to get his old job when the bills begin to pile up too high. Sally meanwhile, is determined to make the private eye business a success and stumbles onto a client, Lola Fraser (Mary Astor, another tie to The Thin Man) who suspects an affair is going on between her husband and his former fiancée (Frances Drake). Lola’s advance practically wipes their debits off the books. The remainder of the story involves the comical sleuthing of the Reardon’s trying to track down the murderer of a double homicide.

   The script and the jokes are rather thin though Blondell confirms to all that she is a wonderful comedienne. She’s excellent in a scene when the police are interrogating her under a harsh light and the only ones to show a strain from the interrogation are the police while Joan remains as perky as the moment she walked in.  My biggest problem with the film is the treatment Sally receives from her husband, which is a bit troubling unless you think pulling your wife’s hair or making gestures that you are going to smack her for “disobeying” you are the stuff of yucks. Bill Reardon comes across as an archaic Neanderthal who only wants his wife home, cooking with those pots and pans in the kitchen, and not meddling in a murder investigation though in the end she is partially responsible for solving the case.

   Alexander Hall, who keeps things moving at a nice pace directed the film that was based on a short story by Wilson Collison. Columbia’s original plan was for this to be the first in a series, however it only resulted in one sequel in 1939, “There’s That Woman, Again” with Douglas reprising his role, however with Virginia Bruce replacing Blondell. The film opened at Radio City Music Hall in April of 1938 to moderate business. Look for Rita Hayworth in a bit part as a secretary to an attorney.

Night Nurse (1931) William Wellman

       Violence against women, alcoholism, child abuse, racy dialogue, gangsters, lust driven interns, bootlegging and sex – “Night Nurse”, a 1932 William Wellman melodrama, has it all. You never have seen so much vice tossed and mixed into one 75-minute cinematic festival of sin.  In addition, it stars two of the sexiest, talented and biggest stars of the pre-code era, Barbara Stanwyck and Joan Blondell. If you add in a young virile, though nasty Clark Gable, you cannot ask for more.
              

    Lora Hart (Barbara Stanwyck) wants to be a nurse and is at first turned down by the old biddy nurse in charge because she lacks the required education. You see Lora had to quit school to help out with her family. Dejected and on her way out of the hospital, a gentlemen entering accidently knocks her bag out of her hand. Well, it turns out the man is Dr. Bell (Charles Wininger) head of the hospital. To make amends, for dropping the contents of her bag all over the floor, and staring at her legs as he picks up the dropped items placing them back in her bag, he arranges with the nasty head nurse, now all smiles, apologetic and under the assumption Lora knows Dr. Bell, for Lora to start her training on the night shift.  She is set up to share a room with fellow nurse the jaded gum chewing Maloney (Joan Blondell). Soon the two are going out partying and undressing together, even sharing a bed after being caught coming in after curfew by the old biddy nurse. On a more serious note, Lora get some real medical emergency education assisting doctors in surgery, sometime successfully and well sometimes not so much. One night, while on duty in comes Mortie, (Ben Lyons), a bootlegger we soon find out, with a bullet wound. Bound by duty to report all bullet injuries to the police, Mortie, who deep down is a swell guy, convinces her not to do so.

 

     Upon graduating, both Lora and Maloney get jobs as private nurses for a well to do family with Lora as the night nurse and Maloney taking the day shift. Their main responsibilities are taking care of two young children, whose father is dead and whose mother is too busy drinking and partying to care of them.  The kids are heirs to a large fortune and this is where Nick, the Chauffeur (Clark Gable), enters the scene. Nick is a low life who is arranging, along with a crooked doctor in on the plot, to starve the children to death, marry the widow mother, and get access to the kids’ trust fund. Of course, our heroine, discovered what Nick is up too and with the help of bootlegger Mortie manages to save the day and the kids but only after being viciously beaten by Nick and giving a blood transfusion to save one of the malnourished young girls.  

    “Night Nurse” was one of the first of the pre-code films released on home video under the Forbidden Hollywood banner back in the 1990’s. Back in those days, the VHS series was hosted and introduced by Leonard Maltin.

 

    The film is dated in many respects but there is much to keep you interested. Racy wild dialogue like when a young intern tells nurses Stanwyck and Blondell that they can’t show him anything he has not just seen in a delivery room and  the children’s mother wildly yelling out at one point “I’m a dipsomaniac and I like it!” And what other film ends with the audience being told that Clark Gable has been “taken for a ride.”  Mortie, Lora’s bootlegging admirer and the guy who knows the guys who took Nick for his final ride end up with Lora riding off into the urban sunset.

    Gable, in an early role, is convincingly evil as Nick the Chauffeur. Had he not become a star he could have had a good career portraying immoral characters as he does here and in some other early performances. With his gruff voice, he is perfect. Joan Blondell is her sexy and sassy self and for anyone who has followed this blog knows Joan, along with Stanwyck, are two of my favorite actresses. This was the second of three films they appeared in together. Stanwyck is wonderful as the strong willed nurse determined to save the children from the cruelty being imposed on them by Nick and an inattentive mother. In one scene, she actually drags the drunken mother across a room hoping to get her to pay attention to what is happening to her daughters and mutters under her breath “you mother!” The part itself does not require much depth from an acting perspective just a lot of toughness and a ‘have been there before attitude’ from Stanwyck, which she does so well. Just how tough was Stanwyck? Well, here she puts the soon to be anointed “King” Clark Gable in his place and just two years later, she cuts down to size a young John Wayne in “Baby Face.” That pretty tough! Interesting enough, Warner Brothers had the chance to sign Gable to a contract but passed on him leaving the door open for MGM to sign the future Rhett Butler.

 

   

    The screenplay is based on a novel by Dora Macy, aka Grace Perkins. Reading a review of the novel in Time magazine (6/13/30), demonstrates the faithfulness of the screenplay to the book except for the character of Nick who in the movie seems to have replaced an Uncle, along with a sister-in-law, as the brains behind the plot to starve the children.

Directed by William Wellman, who keeps the pace moving, though like many Wellman films it is rough around the edges, but never dull. “Night Nurse” was the first of five films Wellman would make with Stanwyck. The others were “The Purchase Price”, “So Big”, “The Great Man’s Lady” and “Lady of Burlesque.”   With at least ten sinful pre-code films in her credits Stanwyck stands up there alongside Norma Shearer, Greta Garbo, Ruth Chatterton and other queens of pre-code films.

 

 

Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933) Mervyn LeRoy

Directed by Merlyn LeRoy with songs by Al Rubin and Harry Warren and choreographed by Busby Berkeley (in the credits he is listed as dance director), “Gold Diggers of 1933” was the second of Warner Brothers three 1933 backstage musicals, all reflecting the depression though none as directly as this one.

    Opening during a rehearsal with the ironic and iconic “We’re in the Money” sung by Ginger Rogers (Fay), in a full face close up dressed in an outfit lined with silver dollars and a strategically placed large silver dollar covering her “private parts.” Along with a chorus of scantily dress showgirls, Rogers sings:

 

                                   “We’re in the Money, We’re in the Money,

                                     We got a lot of what it takes to get along.

                                     We’re in the Money, The sky is sunny,

                   Old Man depression, you are though you’ve done us wrong.”

 

 Rogers does one amazing verse of the song in Pig Latin. It’s a brilliant start to what is, probably the grittiest musical ever made. The musical number comes to an unexpected stopped when the sheriff and his boys come in and seize all the property and costumes including snatching Ginger’s most personal piece.

    This opening scene sets up the tone for the rest of the story, with Fay’s sarcastically informing the three leads, as they talk about being out of work again, “it the depression, dearie.” 

    The story centers on Carol (Joan Blondell), Polly (Ruby Keeler) and Trixie (Aline MacMahon). Unlike Warner’s two other depression themed  musical’s “42^nd Street” and “Footlight’s Parade”, it is the ladies who carry this film with the male characters all pretty much regulated to supporting roles. Financially, the three chorus girls are forced to share an apartment, the same bed, the same clothes and even resort to stealing a bottle of milk from a neighbor for breakfast. Their luck soon changes when Fay informs them producer Barney Hopkins (Ned Sparks) is putting on another show and wants the girls in it. He has everything he needs, a script, a theater, the girls, everything that is, except the money. Help comes from an unexpected source when Polly’s boyfriend Brad Roberts (Dick Powell) an aspiring songwriter, who lives in another building, conveniently located just across the courtyard from the girls, is over heard playing his own composition. Barney likes the kid’s stuff and wants him to write the music for the show as soon as he can raise the money. Brad unexpectedly offers to put in $15,000 for the show but no one believes him. After all, where is a young out of work songwriter going to get that kind of money? When he does inexplicably show up with the money, the girls believe he turned to crime to get the cash. When the show opens, Brad’s past appears in the form of his snobbish blue-blooded brother J. Lawrence Bradford (Warren Williams) and the family lawyer Faneul H. Peabody (Guy Kibbee). Both plan to derail Brad’s show business aspirations and his interest in chorus girl Polly by threatening to cut off his inheritance.

    Mistaken identities and shenanigans between Carol, Trixie and older brother Lawrence and the lawyer Peabody lead to various mishaps, unexpected love and of course a happy conclusion. That is until the final extraordinary Busby Berkley depression drenched extravaganza featuring Joan Blondell performing “Remember My Forgotten Man.”  This is one of Busby Berkeley’s most stunning, and certainly his most somber production number. It begins with Blondell’s as a streetwalker singing, more like talking, the story of her forgotten man. We cut to a homeless man walking the street as we now hear Etta Moten begin a powerful bluesy  version of “Forgotten Man”, the camera pans upward from the man  to Moten and then over to other war widows all sitting mournfully by their tenement windows. We next cut to another homeless man lying on a street corner. As Blondell passes by, a cop taps the homeless man with his bat nudging him to move on. Blondell gives the police officer a dirty look and steps in between the two, pointing out a war ribbon hanging on the inside of the man’s jacket, which we see in close up. She sends the man on his way as the police officer grudgingly moves on. This three-minute introduction segues into a spectacular musical montage of marching soldiers returning home to parades and loved ones, it then turns to a darker vision of those same soldiers at war, marching in a drenching rain. We next see the men still marching, some wounded with blood on their faces and other with bandages, carrying the most severely wounded as they continue marching, marching and marching. Berkeley cuts to a row of men now standing in soup kitchens and breadlines and still hopelessly marching.  He comes full circle by returning to Blondell in a spectacular shot encompassing all the marching soldiers, the poor, the downtrodden homeless men and women all who are now forgotten as the film comes to a quick and stunning end. Berkeley leaves us with one of the strongest political indictments to come from, not just a musical film, but from any film.

    I described in detail this approximately seven minute sequence because its impact is so strong and as relevant today as it was more than seventy years ago. As Matthew Kennedy states in his biography “Joan Blondell: A Life Between Takes” “My Forgotten Man” has never gone out of date. What is the government’s responsibility to the dispossessed? What are the effects of war and neglect on women?”   Kennedy also says that Jack Warner did not envision the “My Forgotten Man” number as the finale; however it was so powerful it could not be inserted anywhere else.

    “Gold Diggers of 1933” according to the Motion Picture Herald was one of the top moneymakers of the year.  It is easy to see why depression era audiences were attracted to the film and could easily identify with the three female leads, the thematic topicality and enjoy the swipes taken at the pretentious, snobbish rich characters. The cast is wonderful with special kudos going to Joan Blondell and Aline MacMahon. Blondell is particularly satisfying, coming across as sincere and real, especially in her scenes with Warren Williams where he tries to buy the girls off. Aline MacMahon is hardnosed as the opportunistic Trixie in her efforts soak Williams and Peabody for all they have. However, it is Blondell and the closing number, “Remember My Forgotten Man” that really knocks you out.

    The film was roughly based on a 1919 play called “The Gold Diggers” which according to the IBDB ran for 282 performances on Broadway. A silent film version was made in 1923. The first sound version came out in 1929, called “Gold Diggers of Broadway” directed by Roy Del Ruth and starred Nancy Welford and Winnie Lightner. “Gold Digger of Broadway” has the distinction of being one of the earlier sound films and additionally one of the earliest Technicolor films.        

    Though the film is credited, as being directed by Mervyn LeRoy, it really had two directors, LeRoy, for the straight story, was no stranger to making films with depression era themes having made some of his best work during this period. Along with “I Am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang” and “Little Caesar”, he also did “Three on a Match”, Five Star Final” and “Hard to Handle.” After leaving Warner Brothers, LeRoy, eventually making his way to MGM, lost that gritty streetwise Warners look as his films took on the more of the MGM gloss. Warner Brothers was so high on Berkeley after “42^nd Street” he was given a blank check for “Gold Diggers” creating some of his most creative expressionist like musical numbers.

    Throughout the movie, “Gold Diggers of 1933” pushes the buttons on the pre-code limits. As previously mentioned there are plenty of scantily dressed chorus girls in the opening number. The girls are seen in various stages of undress in the dressing room, as are the three roommates in their apartment. Joan Blondell especially provides some views of her various attributes. The “Pettin’ in the Park” sequence is notable for silhouetted shots of the chorus girls who are definitely naked behind the curtain that is slowly raised by a smirking Billy Barty. In this production number, Barty plays a leering baby up to no good. In addition to the curtain raiser, he manages to look up a chorus girl’s dress and hands Dick Powell a can opener during the number so he can “open up” a metal type swimsuit Ruby Keeler is wearing.

    Of the three backstage musicals Warner Brothers released in 1933, it is arguable which is the best. Many feel it is “42^nd Street”, for others it’s “Footlights Parade” and for still others it is “Gold Diggers of 1933.”  For me, it is “Gold Diggers”, which stands out in its uniqueness from the others for a few reasons. It is socially conscience and significant to what we are going through today. Additionally, as previously mentioned, the finale is just powerful. Second, I like the idea of the women in the leading roles here. Blondell and MacMahon’s characters are strongly defined and intelligent parts. Finally, Gold Diggers of 1933” has resonated with filmmakers over the years including Arthur Penn who used “Gold Diggers” as the film playing when Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow duck into a theater in his 1967 film “Bonnie and Clyde”

Blonde Crazy (1931) Del Ruth

    Over the years, there have been plenty of movies about grifters, confidence men, scam artist and flim flam men. Think David Mamet’s “House of  Games”, Lubitsch’s “Trouble in Paradise”, “The Grifters”, “Confidence”, “The Flim Flam Man” and “The Sting” just to name a few. An early entry in this sub genre, just to give it a category, is Roy Del Ruth’s 1931 film “Blonde Crazy.” Starring James Cagney, who would play a scam artist again a couple of years later in Merlyn LeRoy’s “Hard to Handle”,  and Joan Blondell along with Louis Calhern and Noel Francis, “Blonde Crazy” is a lively, witty and entertaining piece of pre-code cinema that is enhanced by the screen chemistry of its two stars.

    Fresh off his career-making role in “The Public Enemy” Cagney is Bert Harris, a bellhop and small time grifter working in a hotel in a small mid-western town. In walks Anne Roberts (Joan Blondell) looking for a job as a chambermaid. Bert eyes her lasciviously and decides it worth having her around. He arranges for the last recently filled chambermaid position to be vacated and for Ann to get the position. Looking for Ann to be ever so grateful, he arranges for her to come up to an empty room in the hotel so they can be along and she can demonstrate just how thankful she is.  Instead, Bert gets a slap in his face, one of many he will receive from Ann.

    Despite Bert’s fresh attitude Ann soon hooks up with him and do their first con together scamming a hotel guest. They soon are off to a big Midwestern city where they meet Dapper Dan Barber (Louis Calhern) and Helen (Noel Francis) two big time con artists they team up with only to be swindled out of five thousand dollars by both of them.  Ann meets rich Wall Street investor Joe Reynolds (Ray Milland)  who is everything Bert is not, successful in an honest job, has friends who are into the arts. Joe is the kind of guy Ann would like to settle down with. However, there is a score to settle with Dapper Dan, and Ann comes up with a successful sting of her own that will get their money back from him.  Bert now wants to marry Ann, but she has fallen in love with Joe. They soon marry while Bert looks on.

    One year later Bert is living in a small apartment when there’s a knock on the door. It’s Ann, and it seems that honest Joe is not that law-abiding. Ann explains that Joe has embezzled thirty thousand dollars in unregistered bonds from his company.  Ann wants to borrow money from Bert so Joe can pay back the firm. Only problems is, Bert is broke. After Ann married Joe, Bert quit grifting. Still stuck on Ann he comes up with a plan to help her husband only to be double-crossed by Joe when he notifies the police and Bert is caught in the act and arrested. Ann realizing she is love with Joe, who now faces years behind bars, swears her love and promising she will wait for him.   

    Up until the phony happy ending “Blonde Crazy” is unencumbered by censorship. There’s plenty of spicy dialogue delivered by many in the cast. Racy scenes include Cagney ogling Blondell’s body when she first arrives at the hotel looking for work, Blondell discreetly naked taking a bath giving the audience, if not Cagney, a partial view of the right side of her breast. We also have Cagney inspecting Blondell’s panties and bra to find where she hides her money (in her bra). Considering all this, why the filmmakers felt that Cagney had to pay for his sins with jail time is a mystery and Blondell as the woman promising to wait for him has been done so many times since it has become a cliché. Despite this, the film is a real pleasure to watch. Cagney and Blondell, in their fourth of seven films they made together are a perfect match as comfortable together as a pair of well-worn shoes. I don’t think the fast talking Cagney ever had a better match than the wise cracking sassy Joan Blondell.

    The Cagney persona that became so recognized was not yet fully developed at this point in his career. There are scenes early in the film that seem a little off kilter coming from Mr. Cagney. For example, the first half or so of the film is comedic and Cagney’s character, Bert, keeps greeting the ladies with a loud uncharacteristic “Hello Honeeeeeey!”  Later in the film, as it turns more serious, shades of the Cagney persona emerge that we know so well. This does not deter from the film, it is more just an interesting point as you watch Cagney’s career and persona develop from these early films to the classic Cagney we know so well.  

    Written by the team of Kubee Glasmon and John Bright who also wrote or had a hand in writing  “The Public Enemy”, Three on a Match”, “Smart Money”, “Union Depot”, “Taxi” and “The Crowd Roars”, all films that costarred both or at least either Cagney and Blondell. Directed by Roy Del Ruth, one of Warner Brother’s studio directors the film is solidly made. Del Ruth made some of his best films during the pre code period under the Warner Brothers banner. Later in his career, his films became more uneven with atrocious work like “The Babe Ruth Story” and “The Alligator People” mixed in somewhat more successful films like “West Point Story” and a lot of TV work. 

    “Blonde Crazy” opened in New York at the Strand Theater on Broadway in early December and was a triumph at the box office guaranteeing Cagney’s and Blondell’s continued success. According Matthew Kennedy in his recent biography “Joan Blondell: A Life Between Takes” Blondell, like Cagney, went from one film to another with little or no breaks in between. The Warner Brothers ran their studio like a factory. In just over a year since she was signed to a contract, Joan made twelve movies! Cagney, a huge star now with the success of “The Public Enemy” decided that after “Blonde Crazy” he wanted more money than his current contract with Warners was paying. When Warners refused, he walked out on his contract. Again, according to Matthew Kennedy, Cagney told Blondell she should do the same thing and demand more money. Insecure with no hit under her belt the size of “The Public Enemy” and responsible for supporting her family, Blondell stayed and continued to work. Cagney would return with a huge increase in pay while Joan continued to receive her contracted salary.    

    “Blonde Crazy” was released on VHS years ago as part of the “Forbidden Hollywood” series that came out in the 1990’s. Unfortunately, there is no sign of a DVD release. Maybe, if we are lucky some creative studio executive with get a brilliant idea and release a box set of Cagney/Blondell films, all seven of them!

 

Joan Blondell: A Life between Takes by Matthew Kennedy

    Joan Blondell, the big olive eyed round faced beauty who made more than fifty movies between her screen debut in 1930 and 1939 and more than 80 in her career is the subject of a new biography Joan Blondell: A Life between Takes by Matthew Kennedy. In addition to the movies, Joan was regular on the TV series “Here Comes the Brides” and made many TV appearances on such shows as “The Barbara Stanwyck Show,” “Burke’s Law” and “Starksy and Hutch.”  Blondell co-starred with James Cagney in more movies (7) than any other leading man did.  

    The book is a must read for any fan of Blondell and/or the early days of sound movies.

All of Warner Brother’s stars are on hand, Cagney, Bogart, and Eddie G. Joan starred with them all. 

   Joan’s private life was not as sweet. She came from a vaudevillian family that traveled the world. She was the oldest of three kids and the most talented. As Vaudeville’s days ended, Joan’s family hit on hard times, living in small apartments scraping for money. Joan got occasion work in small theater productions and odd jobs in between. One of those jobs was working at a circulating library where one night she was raped by a police officer. Joan was twenty years old.

    Her three marriages all turned out bad. Forced to have multiple abortions by her first husband, cinematographer George Barnes, and physically and mentally abused by third husband Mike Todd. She did have good relationships with her parents, sister and her children.   

      Joan’s entrance into the movies started with an audition for a role in a Broadway play called “Penny Arcade.” One of her co-stars was a young unknown actor name James Cagney. The play did not last long but the two young hopefuls were signed and brought out to Hollywood to co-star in the film version, renamed “Sinner’s Holiday.” This was the first of seven films they would make together. Joan signed a contact with Warner Brothers and they put her to work. Warner’s was like working at a slave labor camp, a production line where you went from one film to another. “The Office Wife,” “Other Men’s Women,” Illicit, Night Nurse,” “The Public Enemy” and “Blonde Crazy” were just some of the films within the first two years. “The Public Enemy,” “Night Nurse” and “Blonde Crazy” are today still considered classics from the era.  In 1932 Joan made ten films, in 1933 eight including “Blondie Johnson,” “Gold Diggers of 1993,” “Footlight’s Parade” and “Convention City.”  Gold Diggers one of the great depression era musicals is also notable for Joan’s classic emotional closing number “Remember My Forgotten Man.” “Convention City,” a supposedly lost film is considered one of the films that brought about the Hayes Office. The film is noted for scenes of bootlegging, dialogue with loads of sexual innuendo and the full chested Blondell not wearing a bra. The film apparently so outraged audiences and even Jack Warner that he eventually ordered the negative and all the prints burned. It has been rumored that prints do exist but if so, the film remains elusive.

   After her divorce from Todd, Joan’s career took a turn toward older and more supporting type roles. She also started doing a lot of television and even some theater work. Over the life of her career, Joan worked with many of Hollywood’s greats. In addition to Cagney, Bogart, and Robinson, she worked with Gable. Tracy, Dick Powell (her second husband), Bette Davis, Barbara Stanwyck, Katherine Hepburn, Jane Wyman, Steve McQueen, James Coburn, and Elvis Presley. In one of her last films, “Opening Night,” she was directed by John Cassavetes.

   Author Matthew Kennedy makes you feel and care for Joan giving you a portrait of a woman who was strong enough and resilient enough to overcome her personal tragedies and prevail. Highly recommended.

Sinner’s Holiday (1931) John Adolphi

    “Sinner’s Holiday” was James Cagney and Joan Blondell’s first film. Based on a flop Broadway play called “Penny Arcade” that both appeared in. The quality of the play may have had nothing to do with it being a flop. It was at the start of the depression and people did not have the money to spend going to the theater. Al Jolson purchased the rights to the play, and then sold it to Warner Brothers with the stipulation that both Cagney and Blondell repeat their roles in the film. Warners agreed and two future movie star careers were born, though they did not blossom with this film. Cagney was third billed in the film. Blondell who played his tart of a girlfriend was further on down the list. The stars were Grant Withers and Evelyn Knapp, two pretty much forgotten names today. Withers career started in silent films and it ended in the late 1950’s with his suicide. Evelyn Knapp worked in mostly “B” pictures and is best known for her work as Pauline in the serial “The Perils of Pauline.”    

    Made in 1930 during the early days of the sound era the film is typically talky and lacking a music soundtrack. It was directed by John Aldofi, who pretty much specialized in low budget films. Sinner’s Holiday takes place in Coney Island and centers around Ma Delano (Lucille La Verne) and her family, Harry (Cagney), Joe (Ray Gallagher) and daughter Jennie (Knapp). Behind the scenes of another concession, owner Mitch McKane is transporting illegal liquor and young Harry is heavily involved. Mitch accuses Harry of stealing, they argue and Harry shoots and kills Mitch, with the whole scene witnessed by Harry’s sister Jennie. The police investigate and Harry’s mother, a protective, tough old woman, takes the gun and plants it in Angel Harrigan’s (Withers) room. Angel is Jennie’s boyfriend who she plans to marry and who her mother thinks is a bum. As the police investigate the murder, they begin to focus on Harry, however, his girlfriend, Myrtle (Blondell)  provides him with an alibi when she tells the police she and Harry were together all night at the beach. The police eventually arrest Angel for the murder and Jennie  begs the police not to take him away finally admitting to what she knows that her brother is the killer. The police take Harry away. Angel and Jennie stay together and the Penny Arcade business goes on.

    The film is most significant the debut performances of Cagney and Blondell who both shine, especially Cagney, who lights up every scene he is in. He literary takes over every shot.  Notice the odd almost incestuous relationship between Cagney’s character, Harry has with his mother. Of course this would not be the first time Cagney’s character’s had a strange mother fixation. It would come into play again in “The Public Enemy” and still later in “White Heat.”  Blondell, her hair darker than we will get use too, also shines and even in this first film, she delivers a classic sassy line. When the police are asking if she was with Harry all night at the beach, her father tells her, ”think of your reputation!” To which she replies,  “You think of it, you worry about it more than I do.”  Grant Withers character is a bit of an odd ball, goofy, and not very appealing. Withers career though long would sink to “B” westerns and small parts. He was married for a very short time to Loretta Young who was seventeen at the time. The marriage was annulled.  

The Essential Joan Blondell

  As a big fan of Joan Blondell, I feel the need to spread the word. Subsequently, I am listing what I consider her most essential films, at least the ones I have seen, of which she made more than ninety.

    Born into a vaudevillian family Joan was in Show Business her whole life. She got her first big break when she was picked for a role in the Broadway play “Penny Arcade.” Also, in the play was another unknown by the name of James Cagney, The play only lasted about three weeks but both Blondell and Cagney were signed to be in the film version retitled “Sinner’s Holiday.” This was the first of seven times the two would appear in a film together.

    With her big olive shaped eyes, luscious full figure and a wise cracking sassy sexy style, Joan was perfect for both drama and comedy, at which she excelled, usually, in a supporting role. She never made it to the stratosphere of contemporaries like Stanwyck or Crawford, yet she sparkled and many times outshined the leads. Joan appeared in more Warner Brother’s film than any other actress did.

 

 

Sinner’s Holiday – as previously mentioned this is the first screen pairing of Blondell and Cagney, so if for no other reason that makes it worth seeing. The stars are Grant Withers and Evelyn Knapp. Cagney is third billed while Joan who plays his trampy girlfriend is further down on the bill. No classic, but Cagney’s magnetism already shines. Joan’s character Myrtle displays some of the sass that would become her trademark. In a scene where the police are looking for Harry (Cagney) she claims to have been with him all night at the beach. Her father tells her to “think of your reputation.” She responds, “You think of it, you worry about it more than I do.”

       

The Public Enemy – One the of the classic gangster films of the early 1930’s that made Cagney a star. Joan is the most overlooked of the female stars in this movie. She play’s Mamie who marries Matt (Edward Wood), Tom Powers (Cagney) childhood friend and partner in bootlegging. Jean Harlow has the actual leading female role of floozy Gwen Allen who has”known dozens of men” and of course it was an unbilled Mae Clarke whose face met with a grapefruit thanks to Jimmy Cagney. Most of Joan’s scenes are with Wood.

Night Nurse – One of the best known and raciest of the pre-code films. Barbara Stanwyck and Joan are tough as nails nurses who confronts what seems to be a contagiously sick evil medical profession and a plot to murder two children for their inheritance. A young Clark Gable, without his mustache, is also on hand as a menacing chauffeur in on the plot to starve the two kids to death. Unbelievable, but Blondell and Stanwyck talk tough, fast and undress a lot. William Wellman directed.

 

 

Union Depot – Joan has the lead in this entertaining and somewhat unusual pre-code film. Most of the film takes place at a big city railroad terminal. Joan is an out of work showgirl trying to get out of town. First, to get a way from a strange man who has been forcing her to read strange stories to him and second, to get a job out in Denver, She meets up with two guys just released from jail who through a series of incidents come into contact with counterfeit money. Douglas Fairbanks Jr. has the male lead who mistakenly takes Joan for a prostitute and takes her to a hotel across the way from the train station. Actually, Joan leads him to believe this since she has no money and it is hinted that she is willing to sell herself for a meal. When he sees she is stalling to “put out”, Doug thinks he is being played for a sap and slugs her. She breaks down crying because she can’t go through with it. Being deep down a good guy, he decides to help her by buying a train ticket with the unknowing counterfeit money. This is no major classic but it is good to see Joan in a lead role and looking so great. Check out the unexpected ending.

 

 

The Crowd Roars – Joan plays the girlfriend of James Cagney’s younger brother (Eric 

 Linden) who wants to be a racecar driver like big brother Jimmy. Ann Dorvak in Cagney’s main squeeze and Joan again is regulated to the second female lead in this early Howard Hawks racecar drama. While the film is dated in many ways Blondell’s sarcastic “race track” broad is still fun to watch.

 

Three on a Match- the story of three girls who grew up together and the different paths their lives take. Blondell’s character starts off bad going to jail but she straightens herself out as time goes by with just the opposite happening to Ann Dorvak’s character. Joan’s part is the largest though; I must admit Ann Dorvak steals the show. Another forbidden Hollywood gem loaded with code breaking scenes involving drugs, sex, child neglect and booze. Unlike postcode films, there is no redemption here.

 

 

Gold Diggers of 1993 – Probably, the greatest depression musical of all time and certainly one of the most risqué. Four showgirls, Joan, Ginger Rogers, Ruby Keeler and Aline McMahon are looking for their big break and the right man. Ginger Rogers and the chorus do “We’re in the Money” covered only in large coins of which Ginger has one ripped off her and is practically naked.  Three of the girls live together and are always in various stages of undress. Not to mention the naked silhouettes during the Pettin’ in the Park” number and the midget (Billy Barty) looking under the girls dresses, but it’s not just about the skin. This all leads up to the final production number, the remarkable “Remember My Forgotten Man” sung by Blondell. An epic portrayal of forgotten war veterans marching, breadlines, and old tenements integrated into a candid political statement of the times. Busby Berkeley at his best.   

 

Footlights Parade – Teams Cagney and Blondell in their only musical together. Joan is terrific in the role of Cagney’s wise cracking secretary and the real one with the brains. They are wonderful together. Another great Berkeley musical production. Blondell looks great, not surprising because the cinematographer was her first husband George Barnes.   

             

 

Dames – Dames is still another Warner Brother’s back stage musical with Joan, Dick Powell, and Ruby Keeler and again photographed by husband George Barnes. Not quite on par with Gold Diggers or Footlight Parade but still very good. Blondell and Keeler do battle for Powell.

 

The Cincinnati Kid – Joan is a professional dealer known as Lady Fingers in this Steve McQueen classic of the mid 1960’s. Especially importantly since she reteamed with former, Warner Brother’s co-star Edward G. Robinson.  This was only their second and last film together.

 

 

                         Deemed Essential

 I have not seen these films but from all I have read or heard they deserve the right to be considered essential:

   

 

 

 

Blonde Crazy – with James Cagney as a con-man bell hop and Joan a cute chambermaid. The film was released years ago on VHS but is hard to find.     

 

 

Blondie Johnson – A pre-code film with Joan as the leader of a criminal gang.

 

 

The Blue Veil – Joan was nominated by a supporting actress award for this film, as was its leading lady Jane Wyman. The film is apparently tied up in litigation and is not available for showing.

 

 

Cry Havoc – In this World Word II drama Joan is a volunteer Army nurse on Bataan. The film has a great female cast including, Margaret Sullivan, Ann Southern, Ella Raines, Fay Bainter and Marsha Hunt.

 

 

He Was Her Man – Again with Cagney, which pretty much in itself, makes it essential. Cagney is a safe cracker on the run. He meets Joan who is also on the run trying to get away from her own life.

 

                    Films for Further Research 

 

These are Joan Blondell films that are hard to find and have generally received good reviews or just sound interesting. Most, if not all, have never been released on home video or rarely, if ever, shown on TV. I could be wrong here and they may have popped up on TCM or somewhere else. If anyone knows where these films can be accessed please let me know.

 

 

Convention City – if it even exists. This pre-code film was supposedly so raunchy and Warners received so many complaints that Jack Warner ordered the negative and all copies burned. Yet there is always hope a copy exist somewhere buried in someone’s basement of junk or in some country in Europe. “Lost” films are sometimes found in the strangest places so we can always hope.

 

Goodbye Again    - Directed by Michael Curtiz, in this comedy Joan co-stars with Warren Williams. Of the three comments in IMDB all were favorable and it sounds like a pre-code gem.

 

Central Park – Another pre-code rarity made in 1932.

 

Big City Blues – Still another pre-code film. This ones a depression drama where Joan co-stars with Eric Linden, who played James Cagney’s kid brother in The Crowd Roars.

Humphrey Bogart has a minor role.

 

Back in Circulation – Co-stars with Pat O’Brien and Margaret Lindsay in this comedy-mystery.

 

There’s Always a Woman – According to a contributor on IMDB this film has played on TCM so be on the lookup. Joan is a Detective. Her co-star is Melvyn Douglas in this comedy-mystery. Mary Astor is also on hand. 

 

After “Nightmare Alley” Joan had roles in minor films like “Christmas Eve” and “For Heaven’s Sake.” Her career was shifting to smaller character roles and with the advent of television she dived right in including a co-starring role in “Here Comes the Brides.” A couple of prominent films from the 1950’s include “The Desk Set,” “This Could Be the Night,” “Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?”  and “Lizzie.”  In the 1960’s she appeared in “Angel Baby,” “Advance to the Rear,” “Waterhole 3,” and “Stay Away, Joe.”  The 1970’s saw a nice turn as a madam in “Support Your Local Gunfighter” also “Grease,” John Cassavettes “Opening Night” and “The Champ.”

 

Topper Returns (1941) Roy Del Ruth

    I am a big fan of Joan Blondell, so it will come as no surprise that when I saw “Topper Returns” (1941) on the shelf of my local library I immediately checked it out, having not seen the film in many years. The film is the third in the series of “Topper” films. The first was the 1937 Cary Grant/Constance Bennett film “Topper” followed by “Topper Takes a Trip” in 1938. The original film was based on a novel by Thorne Smith who is probably unknown to anyone under the age of 55 or so. He was best known for his humorous novels with supernatural overtones and large doses of sex. “Topper” is his most famous work, thanks to the movie and its two sequels. Other works include “Skin and Bones,” “Rain in the Doorway”, “Turnabout,” Night Life of the Gods,” and “The Passionate Witch” (co-writer Norman Matson). The last three were also made into movies. “The Passionate Witch” was changed to “I Married a Witch” which starred Fredric March and Veronica Lake and was one of the sources for the idea of the TV show “Bewitched.”

    “Topper Returns” is as equally funny as the original film if not better. Here the Kirby’s (Grant and Bennett) are gone but Mr. and Mrs. Topper (Roland Young and Billie Burke) are not, as are Topper’s problems with ghosts (he still sees dead people). It all starts when Ann Carrington (Carol Landis) and her best friend Gail Richards (Joan Blondell) come to the home of Ann’s father who she has not seen in many years. On there way to visit, the taxicab they are in flips over and though both women survive the crash, they need a ride.  Along comes Cosmo Topper with his chauffeur (Eddie “Rochester” Anderson) who the girls hitch a ride with, Blondell sitting in Topper’s lap.  After being dropped off at Ann’s father estate, the first night there Gail is mistakenly murdered when she and Ann switch rooms for the night. Gail’s sprit quickly rises and she soon enlists Topper to help find her body after it is stolen and to solve her murder.  

    A great supporting cast that includes George Zucco, Patsy Kelly, H.B. Warner, Rafaela Ottiano as Lillian the eerie maidservant, and Donald MacBride as the frazzled and not too bright police sergeant trying to investigate the murder.  The film is loaded with witty lines, and some dizzy lines executed to perfection compliments of Billie Burke’s performance whose character reminded me somewhat of Gracie Allen. Burke’s Mrs. Topper has that same kind of non-sensical logic. Eddie “Rochester” Anderson, so well known from the Jack Benny Show is a highlight here also. He cannot deliver an unfunny line. On top of all this is Joan Blondell, a terrific dramatic actress, as well as a great comedic one too. Here she delivers a zesty fun filled performance that is a delight to watch. For a change she has the lead role and deservedly so. In addition, she looks terrific as usual.       

    The film was directed by Roy Del Ruth who had previously directed Blondell in “Blonde Crazy.” Del Ruth is also responsible for such other pre-code films as “Dangerous Female” (1931 version of The Maltese Falcon), “Lady Killer,” “Blessed Event,” and “Employee’s Entrance.” This was probably his best period. Though his career lasted until 1960, (he directed his first film in 1917) his later career was very erratic. 

   If you like films with a mixture comedy and mystery such as “The Notorious Landlady,” “The Thin Man,” “Manhattan Murder Mystery” or “Silver Streak,” then you will enjoy this.