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Blonde Crazy

1931, Movie, NR, 78 mins

Blonde Crazy: Review

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Cagney plays a nonviolent con man who lives by his wits instead of the muscle he flexed earlier in THE PUBLIC ENEMY. He is a bellhop who connives to get his girl friend Blondell a job in the hotel's linen room. They next compromise a sucker in the old badger game; Blondell is caught necking with the sucker in a car where Cagney has planted a bottle of booze (then against the law, it being Prohibition). The investigating cop is a plant whom Cagney persuades to leave as he comes upon the scene, later demanding and getting a payoff from the sucker for the favor. Cagney and Blondell next move to the big time, NYC, where the tables are reversed: Calhern fleeces Cagney out of $5,000 belonging to Blondell. In anger, she takes up with another man, straight-laced Milland, marrying him. To vindicate himself, Cagney commits a robbery and is caught and sent to jail. Blondell's marriage fails; when she learns that Cagney has gone to prison trying to recoup her money, she visits him, promising to wait for him. It's a simple story but told with such gusto by director Del Ruth and acted with such verve by Cagney and Blondell that the charm and funny banter delighted audiences who flocked to see this new wisecracking love team. Cagney's delivery was still at an incredible speed and newcomer Milland matched the machine-gun articulation with his own rapid-fire delivery. It was too much for Del Ruth. In the middle of production, he separated Cagney and Milland and bellowed (according to Milland in his biography, Wide-Eyed in Babylon), "You two remind me of a couple of goddamn woodpeckers. Now, tonight, get together somewhere and go over it so that tomorrow we can understand it. Right now I'm catching one word in four. Good night!" They had it right the next day. The film was a success, paying off well at the box office. Cagney, always a good businessman, advised by his brother Bill, went to Jack Warner after the release of BLONDE CRAZY, and told him the studio realized millions from his recent pictures and that he wanted a raise from his $450-a-week salary. Warner told him no, forget it. Cagney shrugged and walked, the first major star to buck the system, which created a furor in Hollywood. Cagney was still relatively new to the industry but his movies, THE PUBLIC ENEMY, SMART MONEY, and BLONDE CRAZY had made him box-office dynamite. Warner knew it and, after public fulminations, capitulated, giving the feisty actor a new contract at $1,000 a week. Cagney had achieved a major breakthrough for his fellow actors and his walk-out would be duplicated by others, including Bette Davis, as the talent continued to struggle against the traditional greed of the Hollywood producer. Songs: "When Your Lover Has Gone" (E.A. Swan), "Ain't That the Way It Goes" (Roy Turk, Fred Ahlert), "I Can't Write the Words" (Gerald Marks, Buddy Fields), "I'm Just a Fool in Love with You" (Sidney Mitchell, Archie Gottler, George W. Meyer). leave a comment
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