The Bamboo Blonde (1946)
A pilot of a B 29 meets Louise Anderson, a singer in a New York nightclub. He falls in love with her, but he had to leave next day for action in the Pacific. He lets paint her picture on his bomber, the "Bamboo Blonde" and becomes a hero with his crew sinking a Japanese battleship and shooting down a Japanese fighter wing. Back in New York, he leaves his fiancée and engages him to Louise.
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Too much of everything
How sad is this?
Excellent but underrated film
It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.
The Bamboo Blonde came out in 1946 just past the era of World War II when this story would still have an appeal. It's a minor league musical with one of the major league vocalists of the day Frances Langford.Russell Wade a young pilot assigned a new crew is in his last night in the states and he meets up with Frances Langford, singer in a struggling nightclub owned by Ralph Edwards. On his last night state side they have an innocent fling and he goes off to war with her picture and the reputation of a lady killer. Wade's also slightly engaged to Jane Greer.But after a run of bad luck the crew paints Langford's picture on the fuselage and the plane starts racking up zeroes with Memphis Belle like clockwork. Langford becomes a celebrity due to the Army Air Corps publicity machine. She's also quite the inspiration to our fighting men.The film is narrated in flashback by Ralph Edwards who's turned The Bamboo Blonde into a cottage industry. Some forgettable songs by an unforgettable singer. It's a pleasant piece of post war fluff.
After seeing "Career Girl" the other day - I can honestly say this film is tons better. The only thing that didn't change was that Iris Adrian was still her best pal and still cracking those one liners. With RKO's better production values ("Career Girl" was a PRC production and it showed) Frances Langford looked a million bucks. Having Anthony Mann as director didn't hurt either.Bamboo Blonde is a big cosmetic company and the story is told in flashback to a reporter who comes for a story.Captain Pat Ransom (Russell Wade) is stood up by his fiancée, Eileen (a gorgeous Jane Greer in an early part) - he then meets Louise (Frances Langford), a singer at a club and together they have a wonderful night. When he has to rejoin his crew she plys him with magazines and gumdrops - she's a grand gal. They go to a photo booth and later back at the base an artist paints her picture on their plane and christens her "The Bamboo Blonde". When the plane becomes a famous bomber, Louise's manager decides to cash in on the name by billing her as "The Bamboo Blonde". Pat and Louise meet again when the bomber goes on a nationwide tour. True love doesn't run smooth and Eileen is there to put a spanner in the works. This film ended rather suddenly as well, with Eileen revealing her true colours when she doesn't invite Pat's parents to a big party. The cosmetic empire was obviously an after thought.You view a Frances Langford film to hear her beautiful voice and sing she does. "I'm Good For Nothing But Love", "I'm Dreaming Out Loud", "Moonlight Over the Islands" and "Right Along About Evening" are far superior songs than any in "Career Girl". Miss Langford is far better photographed in this film as well - she is ravishing.
Okay, this movie isn't Citizen Kane. But it is an hour of so of zippy well-produced entertainment -- and I think you have to say it is one of the most perfectly typical movies of its time. I mean, it has every stereotypical character, traditional plot device and normal production touch you might expect in a light comedy produced during wartime. We have a fast-talking and slightly corrupt nightclub promoter. We have an adorable torch singer with a heart of gold. And we have a somewhat naive leading man who nevertheless possesses the sterling qualities that will make him a war hero. Oh, and don't let me forget -- we also have a beautiful and manipulative woman, the sort who doesn't like to lose.The plot is your basic boy-meets-girl stuff. It concerns a man who meets a nightclub singer -- very cutely, of course. They have a nice long chat over dinner and fall deeply in like. The fellow goes to war the very next day. Boy and girl secretly pine for each other, even though each of them knows they really don't have a right to do so. The girl's lovely face gets painted on the nose of our hero's B-29. The plane and crew becomes famous for heroic exploits (which consist mainly of surviving) and then hero and torch singer are reunited for a bond tour. They have to pretend to be lovers. The problem here is that the hero's rich-bitch fiancé intrudes. She doesn't love the guy at all, but now that he's a war hero, she demands that the big lunk go through with the ceremony.You can kind of guess how this one ends. Can't you? Oh, please. And there's a big twist at the end, when we find out about the fellow's family background -- but if you don't see this one coming a half-hour in advance, you probably haven't seen enough thirties and forties movies.Naturally the lovely Miss Langford has some elaborate production numbers, with a wonderful big-band soundtrack.Now, this sort of summary might make this movie sound like the oldest and tritest story ever filmed. But the fact is that every now and then someone produces a movie that so perfectly encapsulates every convention of its genre that you stop seeing a lack of originality as a flaw. Instead you can marvel at its perfection, the way you can admire a perfectly cut diamond. Nothing original about a perfectly cut stone, is there? But it sure looks purty.So of course the boy and girl fall in love. Of course they conquer all. Of course Frances Langford gets to wear skimpy outfits and sing her lungs out. No wonder Bob Hope took her on so many USO tours.I gather that Anthony Mann's involvement is one of the reasons this movie works so well. He became a noted director in the years after this film was made, and while I can't count myself as one of those who is obsessed with his work, I know that there are many who are. Suffice it to say that some directors might have made a mess of a movie like this one, but Mann keeps it moving right along, and the level of acting is pretty much what it ought to be. Okay, so maybe the critics were right when they called this movie clichéd and hackneyed. But there was a reason for those clichés: Sometimes they actually worked. Next time this one shows up on cable, put your feet up, put your mind on hold and let yourself enjoy the darned thing.
As a masterclass in what a great auteur can do with trite, uncharacteristic material, 'The Bamboo Blonde' is a must see. With a bizarre mixture of war propaganda, romantic comedy and musical, Mann manages to offer a prototype of the frayed masculinity so familiar from his noirs, Westerns and historical epics (see the final third, the ritual humiliation of the amiable hero); as well as his subversive interest in signs (see especially the musical number where the heroine walks through a landscape of labelled props), and the gaping difference between their value and the reality they hide. All this AND Jane Greer, as duplicitous a nay-sayer here to American masculinity as she would be a year later in the greatest ever noir, 'Out of the Past'.