Let's be realistic.

Absolutely Fantastic

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

"Blonde Ice" is a tight, taut film noir that does not waste a moment of time in telling the story of an ambitious and passionate beauty. Leslie Brooks does an excellent job of depicting an ambitious, ruthless, psychopathic character. Claire is not a sympathetic figure but we want to watch her machinations, partly because Brooks is so beautiful and glamorously decked out and partly because the script and direction build and hold suspense.The film begins and ends powerfully and sustains interest all the way through. It is hard to imagine a more startling beginning: Clare and Carl take their wedding vows. Then Claire immediately goes to the balcony to assure an old beau, "I love you and you love me." She tells him, "I'll think about you on my honeymoon." Wow! And pow!Inevitably, Claire gets caught in her own web and murder becomes her way out. It is well-acted and well-directed and more than worth a viewer's time.

On the whole, this cheap little production is better than it ought to be. Sexy Claire (Brooks) is a spider woman, par excellance. She seduces up-scale men, marries them, then kills them. Not exactly the motherly type. Yet the relatively unknown Brooks plays the part in interesting fashion. You can almost see her brain calculating behind an icy exterior. Too bad her career was so brief, confined for whatever reason to the 40's. Paige does well enough as her sometime 'true love'. I'm just wondering if this heart tug was to soften her image for censorship purposes, without it, she's a pretty ruthless case. Also, thin-faced, big-eyed James Griffith excelled at eccentric parts. Here, he sort of mugs it up in semi-humorous fashion, as though he's not taking any of this too seriously. Worse, by implying that he (Al) was ever a romantic interest of Claire's produces a real stretch. The direction by Jack Bernhard is smooth enough, if uninspired. Too bad the production didn't reach for noir lighting since the material is perfect for creepy shadows. Instead, staging and lighting remain conventional, perhaps because of budget constraints. However, I do wish the script had dispensed with the omniscient psychiatrist (Leonard). A lot of films of that period included 'head doctors' and I'm not sure why. I guess he's supposed to bring Claire's behavior within science's grasp. To me, however, it's more intriguing to place some behaviors beyond science.Anyhow, this cheapo remains an interesting little feature. Too bad that with a little more daring and imagination, it could have produced memorable results.

Unfortunately for the movie going public "Blonde Ice" was almost Leslie Brooks' last film (she was second female lead to Joan Bennett in "The Scar" (1949)). "Blonde Ice" was one of her leading roles and she was fantastic - a pity she didn't get more of these roles that she could sink her teeth into. Before I saw this film I remembered her most in "Cover Girl" (1945) - She played Rusty's catty rival (the one who gave her tips on how to impress the editors).Claire Cummings, (Leslie Brooks) a gossip reporter, has just married wealthy businessman Carl Hanneman (John Holland) but that doesn't stop her from pigeon-holing Les (Robert Paige), a former flame, and pledging her undying love for him - he, of course, is flabbergasted!!! Later at the race track Carl is astonished at the amount she is betting ($500) even though she wins!! A letter reveals that she is tired of Carl and her marriage. Carl accidentally sees the letter and announces the marriage is over. She concocts a plot that involves Les, a sports reporter -he is suspicious and wonders why Carl has taken a business trip on their honeymoon. When Claire decides to pop into her apartment to freshen up, they find Carl dead - Les assumes it is suicide and Claire agrees. The police believe it is murder but Claire gets off through lack of evidence. The next day she asks for her old job back - she feels she must carry on!!!She soon sets her cap at Stanley Mason (Michael Whalen) a high powered attorney, who, she wants to represent her late husband's estate. Like Carl, he is completely under her spell and he is also able to get the police to close her late husband's file. A blackmailer, who has helped give Claire an alibi but now wants payment, is shot in the back - by Claire!! Mason starts to have second thoughts about Claire and after talking to a doctor tries to convince Claire that she needs counseling to help her deal with issues she has about wealth, power and ambition. Unfortunately Claire doesn't like that idea. At the end she has made her own headlines and her true colours shine forth - even to a dope like Les.The only films I have seen Robert Paige in are "Can't Help Singing" (1944) where he co-starred opposite Deanna Durbin in a Technicolored musical western and "Split Second" (1953) a rather good thriller directed by Dick Powell - he has been in dozens of films but to me he is just not that memorable. Which made him perfect for the role of Les. Michael Whalen, who played Stanley Mason, started out as a leading man in a couple of Shirley Temple movies ("Poor Little Rich Girl" (1936) and "Wee Willie Winkie" (1938)) and later developed into a character actor.Recommended.

From the director of DECOY (1946) comes another obscure noir revolving around a femme fatale; however, it emerges to be less interesting stylistically and also proves quite predictable as drama! Mind you, one is sufficiently entertained throughout by the unscrupulous machinations of its ambitious but unbalanced heroine/villainess – ensuring ample hard-boiled dialogue and melodramatic situations; still, it all feels rather stilted this time around – perhaps because the casting here doesn’t work nearly as well as in DECOY.The title aptly describes Leslie Brooks’s conniving protagonist (incidentally, I ended up watching this film on the actress’ birthday by pure coincidence!): still, she commits a surprising amount of gaffes during the course of the picture which is incongruous to her genre prototype – for instance, she plans to have her husband’s murder passed off as a suicide, yet never thinks of getting his fingerprints on the weapon!; to do so she asks a pilot to take her from L.A. to Frisco and back again – but doesn’t figure on his wanting to cash in on the fortune she’d inherit once the husband’s death becomes public!; to say nothing of the number of times she’s caught in the company of, or writing to, her true love (sports columnist Robert Paige – best-known for playing the hero in the Universal minor horror classic SON OF Dracula [1943], with which this film shares also cinematographer George Robinson) soon after having committed herself to someone else i.e. a wealthy big shot of some kind!; but my favorite is the climax – finally exposed for what she truly is by an elderly psychiatrist, Brooks impulsively still attempts to violently shut him up despite the fact that there are at least three other people in the room! Incidentally, the latter constitute some of the most important men in Brooks’ life; apart from Paige (justly bewildered at the sight of his loved one blowing her cool), they are James Griffith (making a good impression as a smarmy colleague of Paige’s and who also carries a torch for Brooks – by the way, the latter had her own spot on the paper…which is then amusingly but cruelly put down by none other than Paige himself in the film’s closing line!) and Walter Sande (as their long-suffering editor, who’s often reduced to acting as referee between Paige and Griffith over their common affection for Brooks!). Also making a significant contribution is Michael Whalen as an ageing politician – having already married into money, Brooks had next intended to acquire standing in the U.S. capital! Quality-wise, the VCI “Special Edition” DVD leaves a lot to be desired – but, I guess, it was to be expected from a film which had long been considered lost! There’s a surprising amount of bonus features to be found here – I by-passed Jay Fenton’s Audio Commentary but did get to watch his fairly interesting interview which, rather than focus specifically on BLONDE ICE, drew also on other subjects (particularly on Film Restoration techniques and closer to home, being itself a VCI release, his own involvement in the ‘rediscovery’ of Mario Bava’s THE WHIP AND THE BODY [1963]). Two more supplements in the form of a musical short subject and an episode from a virtually unheard of made-for-TV detective series are treated on their own elsewhere.RAY BARBER SINGS "SATAN WEARS A SATIN GOWN" (N/A, 19??; **): Included as a supplement on VCI’s BLONDE ICE (1948), this was the kind of short made specifically to showcase a new song: in this case, it’s a number advising men to be wary of femme fatales – which is how it ties up with that noir picture. It’s nothing special as both record and film but, I guess, it served its purpose at the time (incidentally, I couldn’t determine when the short came out or who directed it).INTO THE NIGHT (TV) (N/A, 19??; **1/2): As with the short about the “Satan Wears A Satin Gown” number (see above), this also accompanied the main feature on the VCI DVD of BLONDE ICE (1948), an above-average film noir; likewise, too, I found little to no information on the INTO THE NIGHT TV series on the Internet – not even the title of this this particular episode! Thanks to the DVD medium, I’ve watched a handful of 1950s TV programs; all of them were fairly crude technically but also reasonably entertaining in themselves. This one, then, was no exception – being a mildly engaging detective story featuring veteran Hollywood character actor Wallace Ford: the plot, again, revolves around a femme fatale as she schemes to come out on top at all costs. She’s involved in a diamond robbery, contrives to kill her two partners, and even tries to make a dupe out of Ford – but he’s too experienced to fall for her type! While the proceedings are entirely predictable, what makes the show palatable is its constant flurry of hard-boiled dialogue; though this was an intrinsic element of the genre, the overall easy-going approach here results in an agreeable mix of thrills and chuckles throughout.