Blonde Ice

Society girl Claire Cummings (Leslie Brooks) on her wedding day to multi millionaire Carl Hanneman is caught after the ceremony in the arms of an old flame Les Burns,by her new husband. Hanneman immediately says the marriage is over and leaves Claire to lick her wounds. However she has bigger plans and is not about to let her new wealth walk out the door, so she plans a foolproof plan to murder her husband while retaining her alibi on the other side of the country. All is going according to plan, until Les Burns a man Claire still loves is picked up as murder suspect No1. Claire soon after professing her love to Les, puts another rich man under her spell, a famous lawyer running for congress and when their engagement is announced Les is disgusted at her money grabbing skills and confronts her again, and again she is caught in his arms by her new suitor, this is where Claire loses the plot altogether and her world comes tumbling down along with her aspirations. Blonde Ice despite its C movie status is a good little Noir, Brooks is excellent as the ubiquitous Femme Fatale, the DVD had pretty poor sound though, very wooly which affected my total enjoyment, but still not bad.6/10

Much as I love the film noir genre, a lot of so called noir do turn out to be little more than 'B' movie filler. Every now and again though one turns up to surprise you. This is nothing incredible but is very watchable indeed with a fantastic ice cool blonde central performance from Leslie Brooks. She seems to have had a decent career but I don't recall her taking the lead in anything else I've seen - gangster's moll more like. Based on the book by Whitman Chambers ('Once Too Often', although interestingly, 'Manhandled' on my own copy, which is a bit misleading because this lady doesn't get manhandled by anyone). The film lacks those deep dark shadows and night time location shooting, it even lacks any real baddies, unless you count the aspiring politician, but it does have a femme fatale. And what a performance Leslie Brooks gives as the most convincing ruthless ice maiden who does all the killing herself. Bit slow to start and seems to be slipping into screwball territory at one point but once on track this smokes.

Blonde Ice has a DVD that is almost too good for its own movie - the menu has a special ice-crackling design with dialog from the movie placed over and some of that chilling noir-ish music we all know and admire from the period. The DVD menu hints at it being a smashingly good B-movie, but as it turns out the film itself is just OK. Blonde Ice, one of those stories with the conniving and murderous sexy femme fatale who gets whoever she wants and in this case rich men who get suckered into her grasp, is a picture made for cheap, of course, but also with a cheap script: not much imagination goes into the dialog or the construction of the plot. Even the one possibly fascinating character, the one man, Les Burns (Paige) who has held a torch without shame for Claire (Leslie Brooks) for years and stands by and defends her against murder claims even if he suspects deep down she might have done it, is brushed aside into the conventional column.

Brooks is a honey, that much has to be given to her, and she can act in some scenes- in others she just goes through the motions like the rest of the capable cast of character players (most of whom you wont know unless you are some kind of film-noir scholar like Alain Silver or other)- and she does give a decent anchor for some of the emotional scenes, such as at the end when she gives a confession that is as icey as everything else she does in the movie. The direction and writing are on par with her: not spectacular, not ever really a downer. Blonde Ice probably has an amazing poster, one of those you might see in an art-museum installation celebrating pulp fiction advertising. The content itself is just there to pay a couple of small bills and fill some seats for a double feature. It's recommended only to those who sniff out whatever 40s noir might have promise. Like me.

When I tell my friends the title of this movie, most of them say "Oh,

is that with Sonia What's-Her-Name?" No, it's not an ice skating

movie. The blonde in the title is one of the most chilling Femme

Fatales you'll ever see on screen. Leslie Brooks is excellent as a

woman with a strong hatred of men, based on her fatherÕs

desertion, which made her mother a Òhard workingÓ lady. There

are times in the film when I wanted to feel sorry for her, but that

emotion quickly turned to fear & dislike. Good all-around

performances from a group of familiar faces whose names are

just on the other side of familiar. Russ Vincent could be mistaken

for Lash LaRue, & in a moment of darkness might have been

Bogie himself. Fast paced, interesting, & plenty of ice make this a

winning suspense film. I believe Blonde Ice has some elements

of Film Noir, but not enough emphasis on darkness & shadows &

a lack of snappy dialog (except for about three spots where it gets

pretty vicious) make it more of a suspense melodrama than a true

Film Noir. DoesnÕt matter though, try to find it. I rate it 8/10.

Other than Jennifer Jones in Ruby Gentry have I ever seen a film which had more members of the male species in heat than in Blonde Ice where Leslie Brooks has every member of the cast with testosterone panting after her with the possible exception of police captain Emory Parnell. The cops are very interested in Brooks, she's killing men all over the place who threaten her position on the social scale and her efforts to improve same.

There's a body count of three, a rich society guy, a wealthy attorney who gets elected to Congress but doesn't live long enough to even claim victory and a blackmailing pilot played by John Holland, Michael Whalen and Russ Vincent. Brooks started as a Suzy Knickerbocker type society columnist who wants to do more than write about the rich and privileged.

David Leonard a criminal psychologist has her pegged from the beginning and does she hate him. Another reporter James Griffith has the hots for her, but she's rejected him and fashioned on to Robert Paige. He's the one that rings her chimes, but he's not rich and privileged.

Blonde Ice was an interesting film though it got way too melodramatic toward the end. Noir fans should give it a look.