Directed by Jack Bernhard
Produced by Martin Mooney
Screenplay by Kenneth Gamet
From the novel Once Too Often by Whitman Chambers
Cinematography: George Robinson
Film Editors: W.L. Bagier & Jason H. Bernie
Music by Irving Gertz
Cast: Leslie Brooks (Claire Cummings Hanneman), Robert Paige (Les Burns), Michael Whalen (Stanley Mason), Russ Vincent (Blackie Talon), James Griffith (Al Herrick), Emory Parnell (Police Capt. Bill Murdock), Walter Sande (Hack Doyle), John Holland (Carl Hanneman), Mildred Coles (June Taylor), Selmer Jackson (District Attorney Ed Chalmers), David Leonard (Dr. Geoffrey Kippinger)
In a way, Blonde Ice (1948) serves as a model for the crazy/murderous chick movies that came along years later — Black Widow, Fatal Attraction (both 1987), stuff like that. And thanks to the gorgeous new Blu-Ray from ClassicFlix, it also demonstrates how B movies from this period — that most of us know from late-night TV and horrible VHS tapes and DVDs — were often the work of people who really knew their craft. The sets may be minimalistic (as in skimpy and generic), and there may be a one-and-done feel to some of the performances, but the production values are much better than some would expect.
At this point, I should admit a bias: I’d rather watch a cheap picture like this than some big-budget major studio thing any day. I’m more Sam Katzman than Samuel Goldwyn.
Every guy the beautiful gossip columnist Claire Cummings (Leslie Brooks) meets is instantly smitten with her, something she seems to be well aware of — and ready to use to her, and her bank book’s, advantage. While it might work out well for Claire in the short term, it’s not a healthy arrangement for the guy in the long term.
Claire marries a wealthy businessman (John Holland), then he turns up dead on their honeymoon, an apparent suicide. Her old flame Les (Robert Paige) comes to her aid, and seems to be uncomfortably chummy with the new widow. Soon the cops are watching him and questioning the suicide thing. The bodies pile up as Claire’s alibis get lamer and lamer. Then she sets her sights on a hotshot lawyer who’s running for Congress.
There’s a whole lotta fatale in this femme.
Blonde Ice is one of those terrific B movies with its own Poverty Row sense of logic, playing like a film noir version of the Bela Lugosi’s Monogram Nine. Don’t think too much, just enjoy the ride. And quite a ride it is. (How could all these men not see that this chick is Bad News?)
Leslie Brooks is terrific. She looks great and plays a scheming, murderous loon really, really well — with her eyebrows doing a lot of heavy lifting. Musician-turned-character-actor James Griffith, one of my favorities, makes his screen debut here as one of the men under her spell (and he’s still alive at the final fade). One of the writers was Kenneth Gamet who wrote several excellent films starring John Wayne (Flying Tigers, Wake Of The Red Witch) and Randolph Scott (The Doolins Of Oklahoma, A Lawless Street), before heading to television. And the cinematography by George Robinson helps conceal how cheap the picture really is.
That cinematography is well served by ClassicFlix on their Blu-Ray. Working with 35mm material from the BFI National Archive, it looks far better than you’d ever think you would see it. I was blown away.
ClassicFlix finds the best stuff that’s out there and makes sure it looks even better when they’re through with it. And that’s all us collectors can really ask for, ain’t it? Highly recommended to fans of noir and Poverty Row.
The Hannibal 8 