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| Title: BLONDE CRAZY Cast: James Cagney, Joan Blondell Year: 1931 Rating: **** |
Something about James Cagney, especially in his youthful early-1930's energetic programmers, and how he brings out the best, and worst, from his
leading ladies — as in the best performances and the worst attitudes...
Enter Joan
Blondell dealing with Cagney’s conniving Bert Harris, half the
fun of this con-game comedy/drama centering on Harris, a suave hotel
employee who sees the right girl is hired: and it’s the blonde cutie
Joan, as Anne Roberts, who fits the bill since men simply melt at her feet...
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Louis Calhern and Noel Francis in BLONDE CRAZY
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And here’s where our
climbing antihero sees his future mapped out: together this
made-in-heaven duo swindle small-time-victim Guy Kibbee until meeting Louis Calhern, a successful big operator (flanked by seedy blonde Noel Francis) danging a tempting-apple with a bigger worm inside...
One scene
involving a horse race, which is Cagney's revenge against Calhern, is rather confusing compared to the simpler, more fun and involving con-games earlier on — yet the chemistry between
Cagney and Blondell, and the hidden desire for his platonic partner that
slowly comes to light, is what makes this CRAZY shine...
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| Joan Blondell and Ray Milland in BLONDE CRAZY |
Eventually a young
Ray Milland (almost completely unrecognizable) as Joan’s sophisticated/elegant new gent makes Cagney realize
what, or rather, whom his drive’s been centered, and what he'd lost in the process...
And while a tacked-on
“crime doesn't pay” ending (actually a kind of Film Noir harbinger) is a letdown, the rest works just fine:
Especially a pre-Code bathtub scene with Blondell that’s quite…
revealing.
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| James Cagney in BLONDE CRAZY |
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James Cagney in BLONDE CRAZY with Joan Blondell
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| Guy Kibbee in BLONDE CRAZY with Joan Blondell |
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| James Cagney in BLONDE CRAZY with Joan Blondell |
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| BLONDE CRAZY with Joan Blondell |
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| James Cagney in BLONDE CRAZY |
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| James Cagney in BLONDE CRAZY |
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| Bathtub scene from BLONDE CRAZY with Joan Blondell |
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| Polly Walters in BLONDE CRAZY |
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| James Cagney from BLONDE CRAZY |
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