Blonde Crazy
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Brief Synopsis
Cast & Crew
Roy Del Ruth
James Cagney
Joan Blondell
Louis Calhern
Noel Francis
Raymond Milland
Film Details
Technical Specs
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Synopsis
Bert Harris, hotel bellhop, likes the looks of Ann Roberts so he arranges for her to get a chambermaid job that has been promised to someone else. Bert has a number of side businesses, including running a craps game, selling bootleg alcohol and blackmailing. After a successful blackmail attempt, Bert and Ann leave town to celebrate. At a more glamorous hotel in another city, Bert meets Dapper Dan Barker, a well-known con man. The two plan a job together, and Bert assumes that he and Dan will be working together. Instead, Dan cons Bert and gets away with $5,000 that belongs to him and Ann. Bert steals a necklace and pawns it to get back Ann's share of the money, and the two leave for New York in search of Dan. On the train, Ann meets Joe Reynolds and falls in love with him. Joe woos Ann with the poems of Robert Browning, and convinced that he is more cultured and more respectable than Bert, she agrees to marry him. Before the marriage, however, Ann thinks up a scheme involving horseracing that takes Dan for the money he stole from them and more. One year later, Ann visits Bert at his hotel. She confesses that Joe has embezzled $30,000 from his firm and is facing jail. Bert agrees to help them out and works out a scheme with Joe. That night when Bert visits Joe's office, Joe is waiting for him with the police and Bert is sent to prison. Ann visits Bert in prison to tell him that she realizes that she has always loved him and will wait for his release.
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Director
![](https://prod-images.tcm.com/Master-Profile-Images/RoyDelRuth.jpg?imwidth=188&height=141)
Roy Del Ruth
Cast
![](https://prod-images.tcm.com/Master-Profile-Images/JamesCagney.26868.jpg?imwidth=188&height=141)
James Cagney
![](https://prod-images.tcm.com/Master-Profile-Images/JoanBlondell.jpg?imwidth=188&height=141)
Joan Blondell
![](https://prod-images.tcm.com/Master-Profile-Images/LouisCalhern.jpg?imwidth=188&height=141)
Louis Calhern
![](https://prod-images.tcm.com/Master-Profile-Images/NoelFrancis.jpg?imwidth=188&height=141)
Noel Francis
![](https://prod-images.tcm.com/Master-Profile-Images/RayMilland.jpg?imwidth=188&height=141)
Raymond Milland
![](https://prod-images.tcm.com/Master-Profile-Images/GuyKibbee.jpg?imwidth=188&height=141)
Guy Kibbee
Polly Walters
![](https://prod-images.tcm.com/Master-Profile-Images/CharlesLane.jpg?imwidth=188&height=141)
Charles Levinson
William Burress
Peter Erkelenz
![](https://prod-images.tcm.com/Master-Profile-Images/MaudeEburne.55517.jpg?imwidth=188&height=141)
Maude Eburne
Walter Percival
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Nat Pendleton
Crew
Fred E. Ahlert
John Bright
Ralph Dawson
Buddy Fields
Leo F. Forbstein
Kubec Glasmon
Archie Gottler
Sid Hickox
Gerald Marks
George W. Meyer
Sidney Mitchell
E. A. Swan
Roy Turk
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Photo Collections
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Movie Clip
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Trailer
Hosted Intro
Film Details
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Articles
Blonde Crazy (1931)
As Matthew Kennedy wrote in his book Joan Blondell: A Life Between Takes, "In August of 1931, Joan signed a new long-term contract at Warner Bros. amidst much hope for the future. Jack Wagner saw great promise in her, and it was his intention to focus on her potential for stardom...On consideration, Joan did not have to wait long for a major break; she was in Hollywood just over a year before Blonde Crazy came along. But already she was the veteran of eleven movies, and it must have seemed to her that she was bumping around that town forever...Blonde Crazy was the happy reunion of Blondell, Cagney, and writers Kubec Glasmon and John Bright, all contributors to The Public Enemy. And just as Blonde Crazy was shooting, Joan received the good news, in September of 1931, that the Western Association of Motion Picture Advertisers (WAMPAS) had selected her as one of Hollywood's "Baby Stars," i.e., a real up and comer. The WAMPAS honor was well timed. Joan had appeared in two movies, The Public Enemy and Night Nurse (1931), that would endure as classics of the Warner Bros. tradition, but Blonde Crazy was the first time she was given a movie worthy of her talent and a leading role. "
Blonde Crazy, the story of a couple of grifters who have the tables turned on them, was a typical quick shoot with a production turnaround of only a few weeks with a premiere on November 14, 1931. Blondell later remembered her long days at Warner Bros., "We started work at 5 in the morning, makeup, all that junk, then whammo on the nose! Straight over to the set at 8, knowing all your lines. We'd work clean through the day until after sundown, then on Saturday and always right through Saturday night. They'd bring in sandwiches like straw for the horses and we'd finally make it into bed on Sunday morning as the sun hit the pillows."
The combination of Cagney and Blondell scored a solid hit at the box office as well as with the critics. Variety described it as "Wise remarks, a fresh guy and dame stuff. Quick pace and a performance by James Cagney typically Cagney. These give Blonde Crazy a fast start and keep it going most of the way...Joan Blondell is Cagney's business partner - and what a business - who loves him in other ways besides biz but doesn't find that out until her marriage to a comparative nice boy proves a flop. Everything depends on the dialog and playing - both come through satisfactorily. Cagney and Blondell make a natural pair. Louis Calhern uses his long experience to good effect in a class cheater part."
Mordaunt Hall in the December 4, 1931 New York Times wrote, "Unedifying though the incidents are and feeble as is the attempt at a moral, the greater part of James Cagney's new picture, Blonde Crazy, which took possession of the Warners' Strand screen last night, is lively and cleverly acted...Mr. Cagney is as alert and pugnacious as Bert Harris as he was as the quick-thinking young gangster of The Public Enemy...Miss Blondell gives an efficient portrayal. Mr. Calhern is equal to the demands of his part. Guy Kibbee furnishes some laughs as one of Harris's victims. Noel Francis gives a satisfactory performance as Helen, the blonde to whom Dapper Dan is partial for a time."
Director: Roy Del Ruth
Screenplay: Kubec Glasmon and John Bright
Cinematography: Ernest Haller and Sid Hickox
Art Direction: Esdras Hartley
Film Editing: Ralph Dawson
Cast: Bert Harris (James Cagney), Anne Roberts (Joan Blondell), Dapper Dan Barker (Louis Calhern), Helen Wilson (Noel Francis), Joe Reynolds (Ray Milland).
BW-80m.
by Lorraine LoBianco
Sources:
Joan Blondell: A Life Between Takes by Matthew Kennedy
The New York Times: The Screen December 4, 1931 by Mordaunt Hall
Variety Film Review 1931
The Internet Movie Database
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Blonde Crazy (1931)
Quotes
Now, you play ball with me... and your worrying days will be over.- Bert Harris
Yeah? How about the nights?- Ann Roberts
Well, I'll see what I can do about those too, honey!- Bert Harris
Mmm, that dirty, double-crossin' rat!- Bert Harris
Trivia
Notes
The working title of the film was Larceny Lane, which also was the British release title. Variety mentions that this was Joan Blondell's first starring role. According to an ad in Film Daily, Marian Marsh was originally announced for Joan Blondell's role. Film Daily reports different end dates, in one case noting that shooting finished at the end of June and in another, that the film was completed in late July. Modern sources include Dick Cramer (Cabbie), Wade Boteler (Detective), Ray Cooke and Edward Morgan (Bellhops), Phil Sleeman (Conman) and Russell Hopton (Jerry) in the cast and credit Perc Westmore with makeup. Modern sources also note that Polly Walters replaced Dorothy Burgess.
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