One of my all time favorites.

Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

Blonde Crazy (1931) ** 1/2 (out of 4) James Cagney and Joan Blondell are small time con artists in a small town but they get in over their heads when they go to the big city. This is a decent little film but if it weren't for the stars then I'm positive it would have been worse. Cagney is good in his role but it's certainly not among his best performances. I think the character was meant to be annoying so I can't really blame Cagney for this. Blondell certainly steals the show and her scene in the bathtub was certainly the highlight. Ray Milland plays a small role and comes off quite stiff. A couple others have mentioned the ending and said it was stupid because Milland wouldn't have done what he did but I'm not so sure I agree. A rich rat would do just about anything and trying to get Cagney out of the picture seems like something he could do. I doubt the screenwriters did much thinking about it but in the end this film has some nice pre-code stuff.

Cagney is more than usually full of beans in this one—and for him that's really saying something. Unable to contain his energy and high spirits, he indulges in outrageous vocal mannerisms and looks half the time like he's on the verge of breaking into dance. Though (alas) he doesn't do any hoofing, he flaunts his amazing control of his body, darting and weaving through the role like a boxer in the ring. He gets to display the versatility of his talents as his character goes from crafty schemer to world-class chump, cynical operator to heart-broken lover. Explosive on screen, off screen Cagney was reported to be introverted, aloof and intense. Even in the midst of a zany performance like this one you can see a kind of quivering stillness at the heart of him. Joan Blondell was the best love interest Cagney ever had. More than able to stand up to him, she brings out an unexpectedly tender and sexy side of his cocky, wound-up persona. Off-screen they adored each other, though they were never romantically involved, and their mutual fondness is abundantly evident in Blonde Crazy; indeed it's the best reason to watch the film. Blondell, with her appetizing chorus-girl looks, has a warm, open front but an inner reserve and caution. She's a girl who knows how to take care of herself: watch how she handles a lecherous Guy Kibbee, who tries to tempt her with a string of pearls. She breaks the necklace, and when he bends over to pick up the pieces she stuffs a handful of pearls down his pants, wallops him on the backside and scrams! Blondell, Cagney and everyone else involved seem to be having the time of their lives in this movie. Cagney is Bert Harris, a bell-hop who keeps a scrapbook of successful confidence tricks and dreams of making his fortune as a con artist. Anne Roberts (Blondell) just wants a job as a chambermaid in his hotel, but Bert, who helps her get the job after getting an eyeful of her, talks her into joining forces with him and they set out for the big time. A number of confidence tricks are depicted with loving care, but despite the cleverness of the schemes these scenes are a little tedious. We just want to see more of Anne and Bert bickering. He keeps making passes at her and she keeps turning him down, but neither seems to hold it against the other. I tried to keep count of how many times Blondell slaps Cagney, but I lost track somewhere; in one scene Anne slaps Bert, then Bert's jealous girlfriend Peggy slaps Anne, Anne slaps her back, and finally Peggy slaps Bert for laughing. At another point, Anne gives Bert her brightest smile and says, "I can't go without letting you know how I care for you"—SMACK. But their relationship deepens gradually, and by the time Anne announces that she's going to marry another man, your heart bleeds for Bert, the chiseler with the wandering eye. The final scene of Blonde Crazy is one of the few genuinely romantic moments of Cagney's career, as he gazes up at Blondell with shining, worshipful eyes. Anne explains that she is marrying her Wall Street fiancé (Ray Milland) because he and his family are "a different kind of people. They care for music and art and that kind of thing." As soon as she says that, we know Milland is bad news; he turns out to be the louse of all time, not only embezzling money from his firm but setting Bert up to take the rap. Bert and Anne's criminal activities are practically virtuous by contrast, since the people they cheat are invariably despicable. Everyone in this movie, as Bert says, "has larceny in his heart." This is a typical Depression-era attitude: the rich and cultured are crooks, and hypocrites too. We're invited to admire the cleverness of "honest" swindlers and to revel in their ill-gotten gains. But ultimately this isn't a movie about grifters so much as about two people whose hard-boiled, wised-up outlook almost prevents them from admitting their love for each other. They have good reason to be this way; they can't trust anybody. Con artists con fellow con artists, and the respectable turn out to be completely without decency. Life is a continuous game of one-upmanship, a contest to see who can laugh last. Anne and Bert turn out to be the only remotely worthy people in the movie, since at least they care about each other, though they don't understands their real feelings until they're in danger of losing the other. In the end, chivalry makes an unexpected comeback.

(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.

How would you like to go to a hotel and find out James Cagney is the #1 bell-hop, and Joan Blondell is your blond chamber-maid? That's where we start in "Blonde Crazy", and things get wild in a hurry. Cagney plays con-man Bert Harris, and he falls hard for the new chamber-maid, Ann Roberts, played by Joan Blondell. Peggy, another cute chambermaid, warns Ann to stay away from Bert. Ann says, "He can't be interested in me, I'm not important and I have no money." Peggy shoots back, "Oh yeah ... maybe you've got something else he wants." Bert makes a pass at Ann, and get his face slapped hard. When he next sees her he says, "I'm so stuck on you, I wouldn't mind getting slugged by you every day." Ann says, "Oh yeah," smiles, and hauls off and hits him again. Hold on, she's just warming up. Middle aged Guy Kibbee falls hard for Ann, and asks Bert, "What do you know about the blond chambermaid?" Bert smiles and sells the chump a bottle of booze at triple the price, knowing Kibbee will pay because he's been told, "It's the only stuff the blond chamber-maid drinks." After Ann and Bert rip off Kibbee big time, they head for the city and tangle with super chisler "Dapper Dan Barker", played to the hilt by Louis Calhern. Things get rough, with the con-artists ripping off one another, and thumbing their noses at the sap whose been taken at clean-out time. The dialogue is outrageous, and Ann wallops Bert a few more times along the way. Blondell slaps Cagney when he's bad, and slaps him when he's good, only a little softer then and with a big smile, just to let him know she still loves him. At one point Bert starts to walk in on Ann when she's in the tub. She shrieks and yells, "Hey, what's the big idea? I'm taking a bath." To which he cracks, "Oh yeah ... move over!" This is a great film. The only problem is that the ending is way to somber and dark in comparison to the breezy, good-natured tempo of the rest of the film. But this is one you've got to see. Blondell and Cagney are wonderful together.