Post by mikef6 on Jul 15, 2018 0:47:41 GMT
Blonde Ice / Jack Bernhard (1948). In film noir which features a femme fatale, the main character is usually the male who plays the sap for her. “Blonde Ice” is the rare one that puts the femme in the lead role and most of the film is from her POV. The FF in question is Claire Cummings (Leslie Brooks) who, when the film opens, is getting married to the rich Carl Hanniman. Once the ceremony is over, she retires to the balcony to declare her undying love to newspaper man Les Burns (Robert Paige). “I’ll be thinking of you on my honeymoon,” she tells him. Wow. Consider the implications of THAT! Claire proves to be the textbook sociopath, doing anything she has to, including murder, to get the wealthy life she thinks she deserves. Toward the end, someone tells her, “I once said I couldn’t figure you out; I can now. You’re not a normal woman. You’re not warm. You’re cold like ice. Yeah, like ice. Blonde ice.” The middle section gets a little repetitious with discussions over and over about alibis and motives so that it seems longer than its 74 minute run time. You keep asking yourself when they would get back to the mayhem. Ultimately, though, Claire’s murderous ways continue making this a highly satisfying noir. Also in the cast are two of my favorite ‘40s supporting players: Walter Sande and James Griffith.
Claire gets an unwelcome diagnosis from a psychiatrist (David Leonard)
If “Blonde Ice” can be said to have an auteur, it would be writer - producer Martin Mooney. Mooney had a long career as a newspaper man who was well-known for his articles on gambling rackets in New York. He was once fined and served time for refusing to name a source. He was almost 40 when he came to Hollywood to work for the Gower Gulch studio PRC. He served as associate producer for Edward Ulmer’s “Detour.” One writer said of Mooney: “[His] stories were fresh, dialog crisp, and who got top production values on the screen, far exceeding the restrictions of his budgets” (“Poverty Row: 1930-1950” by Gene Fernett, 1973). BI was the first of two movies from Mooney as an independent producer.
“Blonde Ice” was shot at Chaplin Studios in Los Angeles. The site of Chaplin Studios (started 1917) at 1416 N. La Brea Avenue is now the Jim Henson Company Lot. Kermit the Frog is displayed prominently but there is a entrance arch and a representative gate with a cut-out of Charles Chaplin inside. A nice tribute to the past.
Claire gets an unwelcome diagnosis from a psychiatrist (David Leonard)
If “Blonde Ice” can be said to have an auteur, it would be writer - producer Martin Mooney. Mooney had a long career as a newspaper man who was well-known for his articles on gambling rackets in New York. He was once fined and served time for refusing to name a source. He was almost 40 when he came to Hollywood to work for the Gower Gulch studio PRC. He served as associate producer for Edward Ulmer’s “Detour.” One writer said of Mooney: “[His] stories were fresh, dialog crisp, and who got top production values on the screen, far exceeding the restrictions of his budgets” (“Poverty Row: 1930-1950” by Gene Fernett, 1973). BI was the first of two movies from Mooney as an independent producer.
“Blonde Ice” was shot at Chaplin Studios in Los Angeles. The site of Chaplin Studios (started 1917) at 1416 N. La Brea Avenue is now the Jim Henson Company Lot. Kermit the Frog is displayed prominently but there is a entrance arch and a representative gate with a cut-out of Charles Chaplin inside. A nice tribute to the past.