Don't Bet on Blondes

This is chapter 2 in my journey through Errol Flynn's career. Since 'In the Wake of the Bounty' (1933), he'd spent a year and a half in England, some of it with the Northampton Repertory Company, where he really learned to act, and seeking employment in London West End and in the film studios. He made a now lost film, 'Murder at Monte Carlo' (1935) and got the call to come to Warner Brothers in America. His first role there was as a corpse in a morgue in a Perry Mason movie, (there were several in the 30's, many of them starring Warren William as Mason, as this one does), 'The Case of the Curious Bride' (1935). Errol appears in flashbacks as a long-thought-dead first husband who wants to be paid to go away and does - the hard way with his wife being blamed for it. Flynn would get revenge of a sort by running Raymond Burr through in a swordfight in 'The Adventures of Don Juan' (1949). I haven't bene able to find a complete version of this film, just a trailer and one scene on You-Tube. Flynn appears in neither.

This was another Warren William vehicle in which Flynn appeared for 5 minutes as a suitor for a woman William has fallen in love with. William manages by a ploy to take him out of the running as a potential husband. William a mostly forgotten but deft actor with great presence, is a gambler who decided that setting up an insurance agency for things nobody else would ever insure is about the same thing. He's asked to ensure that a pretty and successful young actress will not marry until her father, who is dependent on the allowance she gives him until he finishes a book he is writing. William signs him up for a $50,000 policy and arranges through his Runyonesque associates to eliminate potential suitors in semi-comic fashion. Flynn is one of them and sheepishly looks on as William's henchmen come up to a table where he's sitting with the young lady and express their friendship with him, also handing him an envelope full of money and a gun wrapped in a newspaper. Unfortunately, Errol isn't given any lines of note and his appearance in this film lasts about 5 minutes.

But the picture, which only lasts 58 minutes but has a fast pace, is reasonably entertaining. But it's very minor thing compared to what was to come. The bit parts were over.

... especially with Warren William, since this really played well off of his playful slickness. Too many times after the production code came in, WB substituted unfunny inanity, fast talking, and motion for the sake of action to replace the bawdy comedy of the production code years, and their movies suffered for that.

"Odds" Owen (Warren William) is a bookie running a very large bookmaking establishment. One day some anonymous fellow comes in and places a 2500 dollar bet on a horse that never wins. The odds are 20 to 1. Numbers (William Gargan) is immediately suspicious, informs Owen, and they put a tail on the guy who made the bet. It turns out the money that made the bet is actually owned by Wall Street banker Everett Markham (Clay Clement). The horse does win. Immediately after the race an Owens associate - the woods are full of Owens associates, it's part of what makes the film - gets a sample of saliva from the horse and he turns out to have been doped. Owens presents Markham with the evidence and refuses to pay off the bet.

Owens says that the bookmaking game isn't fun anymore with fraudsters like Markham involved and decides to leave that profession and go into the insurance game since the two professions are similar, or at least operate on similar principles. So, Owens founds a company that insures the oddball kinds of things that Lloyds of London does. Meanwhile Markham has vowed revenge on Owens for exposing him as a fraud. Funny and odd complications ensue.

This follows the tried-and-true WB formula of having William be the urbane and distinguished leader of a ragtag band of Runyonesque associates trying to be on the level for a change. The unique insurance niche this group is trying to fill is an opportunity for all kinds of odd clients and situations including a champion husband caller who needs her voice insured, a man who wants to be insured against twins, and the case that is at the center of the plot - a crackpot author (Guy Kibbee) who wants to insure his actress daughter (Claire Dodd) against marriage for three years so that he has time to finish his book on how the South really won the Civil War. This is because his daughter gives him an allowance to live off of that would end if she married and left the stage.

Unlike most WB second feature comedies of the time, this does not have a wild finish, but it is satisfying. Running at just under an hour it does not outstay its welcome. If you like Warren William you'll like this one, and perhaps if WB had put Warren William in more high caliber comedies such as this he would have not wandered over to MGM in 1937.

Don't Bet on Blondes (1935)

** (out of 4)

Robert Florey (Murders in the Rue Morgue) directed this comedy about a bookie (Warren William) who decides to go straight by becoming an insurance man who sells claims to freaks. William is good as usual and there's a young Errol Flynn in his second role but director Florey does very little with the material and things get really dry before we even hit the 30-minute mark. There are very few laughs to be found and all the romantic side story are pretty boring and don't lead to any real excitement.

Not quite a Damon Runyon type jest, there is that element among the colorful characters. "Odds" Owen (William) morphs from ordinary bookie into insurance adventurer who'll underwrite any thing if the odds are right. So he insures Col. Youngblood for fifty-g's that his daughter (Dodd) and sole support won't marry for at least three years. Good thing Owen's got a crew of roughnecks to discourage potential suitors. Trouble is he sort of likes the fetching daughter himself.

William handles the central role in a compellingly good-natured fashion. Perhaps the programmer's most engaging part is the premise. That Owen will insure most anything if the odds are favorable leads him to insure things like a father not having twins, and a weary woman having a hog-calling voice for contests. The latter is a real room wrecking hoot. I don't suppose Owens' underwriting is illegal even though standard insurers won't take up the novel risks. Still, I doubt that using thuggish "persuaders" appears in the underwriter's handbook.

Overall, it's typical WB 30's fare— fast moving with colorful characters and well-upholstered women. Otherwise, it's an early Errol Flynn walk-on as a luckless suitor, but little more than an entertaining 60- minute time-passer. Still that's usually enough.

"Don't Bet on Blondes" is first-rate entertainment all the way. Warren William is in command as the odds-on favorite book-maker of New York, Oscar 'Odds' Owen. He goes by "Odds," and the audience never learns his true name until Claire Dodd's Marilyn Youngblood coaxes it out of him. Even then he has to whisper it in her ear, but she's not about to let it stay a secret for all those who paid good money to see this film. She then comments to him out loud and calls him Oscar.

That's just one of the dozens of little gem scenes and tidbits that this film has. But the leads aren't the only ones to tickle the funny bone. A supporting cast is first-rate and perfectly matched for their respective roles. In Odds Owen's booking joint and then insurance offices, William Gargan is tops as Numbers. He can cite statistics from memory and whip out odds faster than a computer - which, of course, they didn't have in those days. Vince Barnett is very funny as Brains, and Spencer Charters is perfect as Doc. Others also contribute, especially well-known and recognized Guy Kibbee as Col. Jefferson Davis Youngblood.

The plot may be easy to analyze, though there is a twinge of mystery with a distasteful character named Everett Markham, played very well by Clay Clement. But it's a different and quite unusual plot that is a great deal of fun.

And one nice insert is a supporting role for Errol Flynn as David Van Dusen. For this fifth of his films, Flynn still is without his later trademark mustache. He had been in films for four years, but had only one leading role until late in this same year. When he plays Peter Blood in "Captain Blood," that hits theaters in December 1935, Flynn skyrockets to stardom which ends only with his death 24 years later at the age of 50. He suffered a heart attack in 1959.

This film was made smack dab in the middle of the Great Depression. Like so many other films of the time that were set among the wealthy in New York City, it's drenched in high society living. But the humor and light-hearted nature of William's Odds Owen undoubtedly helped lift spirits and create some smiles among audiences during those tough years. Tough years or not, now, this film is still an uplifter and very entertaining. It has a wonderful ending that most viewers will find a winner at any odds.

Here are some favorite lines.

Doc, "To lay down with dogs is to get up with fleas." Odds Owen, "Then the thing to do is stay away from dogs. And, Doc, I think Maybe I will."

Marilyn Youngblood, "I'm marrying Everett because... well, because I want to." Col. Jefferson Davis Youngblood, "I know that, my dear. But sometimes retreat is the better point of valor."

Col. Youngblood, "Your charm excuses your accidental Northern birth."

Odds Owen, "Numbers, the only thing that isn't fixed is fishing."