Blood Money (1933)

Absolutely the worst movie.

Absolutely Fantastic

Absolutely Brilliant!

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

It's a real shame that you cannot buy this most engaging movie any more, as the distributor seems to have gone out of business. "Blood Money" is a really interesting movie, formerly available on an excellent DVD disc, released by Vintage Film Buff, "Blood Money" (1933) was directed with a real punch and considerable style by the super- talented Rowland Brown, who makes the most of an extremely gritty screenplay in which the charismatic George Bancroft plays a bloodsucking bail bondsman and the lovely Frances Dee (of all people) a masochistic, high society floozy. Judith Anderson is also in there pitching as the hero's former glamour interest (!) while the legendary Blossom Seeley sings a couple of Rodgers and Hart numbers.

...who spent so much time over at RKO playing the sweet young thing. Dee plays the catalyst of the entire story, even though, sometimes, you won't even know what she is up to.The main character, however, is George Bancroft as Bill Bailey, a bail bondsman and PR man extraordinaire. It shows how well connected he is as just about every criminal in town has bail through Bailey. He knows the attorneys, the judges, and most of the underworld. He carries around cigars that say "Bailey For Bail" on them. It's mentioned later that he was once a cop that got thrown off the force for graft, and even though he's a gray character, he plays this like Popeye - "I am what I am", and you know something, I liked him. I liked him because he was on the level about who he was and what he did. He has a girlfriend (Judith Anderson as Ruby Darling) who seems to be a madam, maybe not, but for sure runs an upscale saloon complete with torch singers. And she, like Bailey, "is what she is". She does not pretend.And then a different kind of customer walks into his establishment - socialite Elaine Talbart (Frances Dee), arrested for shoplifting, and hands him a six thousand dollar ring as collateral for much smaller bail. She claims the whole thing is a big misunderstanding (it is not). At first Bailey is just intrigued because her family is so wealthy, but soon he is falling for the girl. However, Elaine's big downfall, and the downfall of everybody she encounters, is that she is a spoiled brat who is addicted to excitement and danger. And THAT is why she starts a relationship with Bailey. He shows her a side of life she has never seen before.One more thing, towards the beginning of the film Ruby's baby brother gets out of prison. Nope. There was no mistake. Her little brother Drury is a thief and probably will always be one. He doesn't like violence, he just likes money and isn't partial to hard work.And then one day at the races when Bailey is with Elaine, over walks good looking Drury, and when she finds out his past she gets a twinkle in her eye...a ticket to even more excitement! Boy, has she got that right because Drury is about to pull another bank job. When he skips town with Bailey's bail and with his girl, it starts warfare with Ruby and the underworld on one side and Bailey, who realigns himself with the police, on the other side. The thing that nobody knows is that the act of betrayal that starts it all is caused by a decision Elaine makes unilaterally. How does this all work out and what was that decision? Watch and find out. I'll just say that the end of this film was a blast.There are some great individual scenes in this one that are strictly precode - at Ruby's, Bailey offers a gentleman a cigar, "he" turns around and turns out to be a woman in a man's suit. She takes a puff of the cigar and says "you big sissy!". Bailey busts out laughing. A woman comes into Bailey's office with a boy about 15 and wants to put up his bail. She says "her boy is a good boy". Bailey asks what the charge is and she says "assault" - that was code for rape in even the precode era. Bailey asks how old the girl was, and the boy says 38. Bailey laughs at the thought - a thought that would not be funny today. Finally, a woman runs screaming out of a building claiming that a man advertised for artists' models, she showed up, and he attacked her. Elaine asks where is the artist? The woman points to an office, and Elaine grabs the ad and walks deliberately towards the office. Hot stuff from Fox, a studio not usually associated with precode stuff.

Bail bondsman George Bancroft is known all throughout New York City and encounters people from every scrape of society in this pre-code crime drama. But he's going to need every ounce of street-smarts when he strikes up an acquaintance with kleptomaniac Frances Dee, a woman with a rather animistic sexual appetite. Judith Anderson gets to display a rare glamorous side here as the nightclub hostess obviously in love with Bancroft, with her famous mole darkened into a beauty spot. Dee gives Bancroft several looks that It's nice to see her playing a softer character. This is a fast-moving programmer, made on a dime, but not showing it. Quick edits, snappy photography and dialog, nice musical interludes by Blossom Seeley (singing such standards as "Melancholy Baby"), and a side of seedy New York sung about in the same year's "42nd Street" diluted in most movies. There's hints about lesbianism in addition to Dee's whacked-out libido. Tons of familiar character actors pop in and out, most notably Etienne Girardot, Chick Chandler (as Anderson's gangster brother), Clarence Wilson and Edward Van Sloan. There's even a very young Lucille Ball in a quick appearance! An exciting dog racing sequence is one of the film's visual highlights, and the finale is downright suspenseful, like something Hitchcock might do.

I called this film a "Pre-Code" film because up until the strengthened Production Code was enforced in 1934, Hollywood was a very sleazy place by even today's standards! While in the mid-30s through the 50s films were sanitized (in some cases, too much), in the Pre-Code days, topics like adultery and extreme violence were common and it was not too unusual to hear cursing, discussions of abortion or prostitution and even occasionally nudity--even in supposedly family films like TARZAN AND HIS MATE! While BLOOD MONEY isn't nearly as rough and family unfriendly as many of these films, it deserves to be considered a Pre-Code style film because the main character and his wife had an "open marriage"--he was allowed to sleep around as long as he "came home to her when the day was through". Also, the film features a bad woman who loves to break laws and have sex--though in the later 30s and for the next twenty or more years, women were NOT supposed to particularly like sex! The story is about a guy named "Bill Bailey" (George Bancroft) and he's a rather resourceful but sleazy character who is a bail bondsman and best friends with the mob. Through conniving, blackmail or what have you, Bill is able to get practically anyone off for any crime--provided they can pay! Into this supposedly charmed life comes a truly crazed young rich lady (Frances Dee)--a woman who is addicted to stealing, promiscuity and self-destruction. At first, his affair with her is approved of by his wife (Judith Anderson) but when Dee steals some bonds and sets up the wife's brother, Bill's life falls apart---leading Bill to become the mob's #1 target! This results in one of the most exciting endings in a 30s film I have ever seen, as a bombing plot to kill Bailey is discovered at the same time they also discover that Dee was responsible for the mess! Decent acting, nice pacing and direction and an exciting and daring script, this is a good example of a Pre-Code film that has managed to stay exciting even more than 70 years later.