Don't Bet on Blondes

has bookie William going legit and becoming a high-risk insurer a la Lloyds of London. He and his gang insure all sorts of hair-brained things, such as whether a man (Hobart Cavanaugh) will have twins, whether a husband-caller (Maude Eburne) will lose her voice, etc. But William gets involved in another scheme involving the marriage of a showgirl (Claire Dodd) and the nutty book her father (Guy Kibbee) wants to write. Warners comedy has the usual snappy dialog and the underrated and sadly forgotten Warren William takes great advantage of every line. He had a wonderful, leering kind of comic delivery that made him one of a kind. Mary Treen, Vince Barnet, Herman Bing and, Erool Flynn, in his first substantial part in an American movie, help make this one fun.

... 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.

Bookmaker Warren William refuses to pay off when Clay Clement's doped horse wins; he has the doctor's report. Tired of the rackets, William turns legit, recasting himself as an insurance agent. When his new-found respectability gets leading actress Claire Dodd interested in him, Clement sees an opportunity for revenge: he has Miss Dodd's father, Guy Kibbee, a phoney-baloney scholar who's supposed to be writing a southern-fried history of the Civil War take out a $50,000 policy against her getting married... with William carrying the risk.

Will true love -- or as true as it gets in faux-Damon Runyon territory conquer, or will the fifty grand carry the day? There are lots of fine character actors with monikers like "Brains" and "Numbers" and Errol Flynn gets a promotion from appearing as a corpse on a slab.

"Don't Bet on Blondes" is a short Warners comedy from 1935 starring Warren William, Claire Dodd, Guy Kibbee, William Gargan, and Errol Flynn in an early appearance.

William is a bookie who decides to go legitimate and become an insurance man, but a special kind of one. He's going to take high risk cases, and some of them are real doozies: whether a man will have twins, whether someone will lose her voice, etc.

One case concerns a southern man (Kibbee) who is supported by his daughter. He's writing a book proving that the south won the Civil War and he doesn't want his daughter to marry before he finishes it. It's a high risk because she's a gorgeous showgirl (Dodd) and she's practically engaged already.

William steps in as a distraction. You can guess the rest.

Warren William was all but forgotten before TCM; now he's very familiar to viewers and there's a new appreciation for his work. In silents, he played dark, villainous characters; in sound he could be a con man, a detective, or Perry Mason.

William had a wheezing laugh and his line readings often indicated wonderful humor. It's interesting that this type of leading man -- the Barrymore-type profile, the mustache -- went out of style.

This is a fast film, briskly directed, and enjoyable.

"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."