Blonde Crazy (1931)

This movie is the proof that the world is becoming a sick and dumb place

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

Bert Harris (James Cagney) is a bellhop at a small town hotel. When a looker (Joan Blondell as Anne Roberts) arrives, he arranges for her employment in the housekeeping department.Bert is a schemer who is loose with the truth and has a love of the ladies. He says, "The world owes me a living." Despite the fact Bert is "not a collar ad", Anne is intrigued by his persona. But she is a good girl, immune to his advances. Still, they become partners and use a small-time frame to finance their move to a larger city.Being a fan of films about grifting, I really enjoy this film, which includes multiple examples of the con. The stakes get higher as the story continues. One con is reminiscent of "The Sting".It is also fun to watch pre-Code films, with their peculiar characteristics and their vernacular. Bert, though a criminal, displays an odd code of ethics that is central to the story, though unacceptable by Hays' standards.Cagney displays his usual bluster and bravado. Blondell is charming. Watch for the very young Ray Milland.

The wide eyed Joan Blondell was one busy actress in the early thirty's, making sometimes a dozen films a year. Playing opposite James Cagney whom she had come from Broadway with to make her film debut in his first film as well, Blondell truly epitomizes the Depression era jazz baby, pre-code leading lady. Even playing gold diggers, she always had a huge heart of gold beneath the surface, and ultimately her characters are always looking for true love even though they had their eyes set on expensive purse strings. She plays a maid in a fancy hotel, and becomes involved in Cagney's schemes of getting rich quickly, but as those games continue to blow up in his face, she wises up to him, and sets her sights elsewhere. But in the course of true love, he does finally learn some common sense, and begins to see the cute Blondell as more than just an easy mark for his lecherous moves.If the lost film "Convention City" is any indication of why the code came in, then the earlier made "Blonde Crazy" is definitely one of the films that led the Catholic legion of decency to create such a movement in making films less scandalous. There is a famous shot of Blondell in thus film seemingly naked in a bathtub with Cagney coming in, looking for her money, to which she tells him that it in her underwear. Cagney goes outside and begins fondling her bra and panties, and seemingly having way too much of a good time. Guy Kibbee, playing a lecherous customer, also makes unwanted advances at her, and her responses to his pass are nothing short of genius. Blondell was an actress way ahead of her time, and up there with Barbara Stanwyck, Ginger Rogers and Jean Harlow comes off as someone that any guy would not only want to have as his pal, but ultimately hope to settle down with as well. Maude Eburne is very funny as Blondell's boss, with veteran character actor Charles Lane in one of his first films, playing the type of grouchy curmudgeon that would make him a fan favorite for almost the next 70 years. The plot line goes a bit astray with the Louis Calhern character as the film goes on, but the sassy script never lets up and with great leads and an early appearance by Ray Milland, this is one pre-code film that is definitely worth catching.

(Possible spoiler) Great fun as long as Joan and Jimmy are flirting and sparring -- she has a great right hook, which she's forced to employ repeatedly, and he has an unusually expressive vocal delivery, including a "HAW-nee" endearment unlike anything he ever attempted again. It's a rock-'em, sock-'em early talkie with the two stars at their most appealing, Cagney so full of energy that he seems to walk an inch or two above the ground. There's plenty of pre-Code intrigue, too, and the casual sexuality is pretty eye-opening for 1931. Blondell is pretty, spirited, and authoritative; like film historian David Thomson said, as far as professionalism goes, it is difficult to overpraise her. Up to the "Sting"-like episodes of the pair fleecing Louis Calhern (looking very dapper in black tie), it's a raunchy treat. But then the plot takes a wayward detour, with Blondell falling into an unhappy marriage with Wall Street crook Ray Milland. (Exactly how this blue-collar honey could charm her way into his high-society family is not clear.) The last 20 minutes or so plod into melodrama, chase, and only semi-happy ending, with the two stars finally in the clinch we knew they'd be in all along. Breezy going for the first two-thirds, though, and even when the narrative veers off, the stars are right on track.

Bellhop James Cagney and hotel maid Joan Blondell have a lot of ambitions during Depression Era America. They've seen the American dream go belly up on Wall Street, seen lots of people lose everything they have to crooks and chiselers and have decided if you can't beat 'em, join 'em. And Cagney has entitled what he considers the Depression to be, the age of chiselry.These two are obviously so suited for each other. But for what each considers practical reasons they hook up with other people. Cagney hero worships noted confidence man Louis Calhern and Blondell takes a shine to polished and dapper Ray Milland, a wall street broker. Each becomes quite disillusioned.This is a good piece of historic Americana, depression era. People like Cagney and Blondell lost a lot of ideals in that period and it rings true even today. Later on Preston Sturges would take some of the same themes in Blonde Crazy and use them in a more comedic way. But this film is still pretty good on its own merits.