Blondie Johnson

Joan Blondell plays a down-on-her-luck lady who turns to crime. Specifically being a con artist. She hooks up with gangster Chester Morris and before too long she's leading the gang herself. Joan's really the whole show here. She's a big-eyed curvy beauty but she's also smart and tough as nails. She's impossible to dislike and gives an effortless performance. It's a good role for the period, playing a woman who uses her brains instead of her body to get ahead. Chester Morris is good but his part here isn't exactly Boston Blackie. His chemistry with Joan is lacking, as well. Allen Jenkins is fun, which should come as no surprise. Arthur Vinton, who plays a big shot gangster here, sounds just like Ralph Bellamy. I thought maybe my eyes were playing tricks on me. It's a good little gangster picture. Fans of the terribly underrated Joan Blondell will like it a lot.

Here is a Pre-Code Gangster Movie with, wait for it, a Female Mob Boss. There is an Interracial Couple (Japanese/White), a Low-Cut Peek at Joan Blondell, and some Bullet Blood. That's about it for the Pre-Code Highlights although there is some Bedroom Banter that would Later become Taboo. A Friend asks "Blondie, why don't you give him a tumble?" for Example.

It's got typical Warner Bros. Snappy Patter and Chester Morris' forever present Dangling Cigarette is Stereotypically "charming". The Script Employs a Clever Con on a Jewelry Store, some Hard-Boiled Inner-Gang Violence and Always has Blondie with the Upper Hand.

Another Highlight in this Atypical Depression Era Movie is when Blondie gets Frisked by a Cop "Woman", She finds a small caliber pistol Tucked Away very close to a Forbidden Location, that even in a Pre-Coder is Rarely Referenced or given any Attention, and the Scene does not Shy away from the Search as the Dyke like Cop has Her Hands right where they don't Belong.

Worth a Watch for its Decisively Differentness and the Always Pleasing to the Eye Joan Blondell, where She, not Only Her Character, more than Holds Her Own with Her Tough Guy Companions.

Almost a typical Warner Brothers gangster film but with an interesting twist. Someone at Warners realised two things: gangster movies made money and 'women's films made money - why not combine these two genres! Essentially this was conceived as a female version of Little Caesar which sounds like a terrible idea. It is however surprisingly not terrible - indeed, it's really quite good.

Although there's no innovative direction, spectacular sets or memorable moments, there's never a dull moment, you can empathise immediately with characters and it's totally engaging and immerses you completely into the depression-soaked urban America of the early thirties. What almost makes this a classic is Joan Blondell. Unlike with most of her films, there's no lingering shots of her rolling up her stockings or slipping into a negligee. Here she is totally believable as the woman who has climbed from absolute poverty to be the strong , respected leader of her organisation. She achieves this not through her sexuality but like Cagney and Robinson did, by her strong will and her brain. She manages to convey virtually every emotion known to man without defaulting into sentimental melodrama. Maybe this is not one of her more well known performances but it's definitely one of her best.

"Blondie Johnson" is a marvelous piece of film fun, made just before the era of the speakeasy was to conclude. As recounted in other reviews, the story is engaging and is a so-called "gangster movie" with a difference. The fun dialog goes on relentlessly with generous helpings of stellar interactions. This movie contains, additionally, an eye-boggling march across the screen of sparkling Art-Deco interiors and Depression-era fashions. The cast is comfortably familiar to movie buffs, with Joan Blondell demonstrating that she could do plenty more than just look beckoningly doe-eyed with those expressive eyes of hers. In the early 1930's she was often merely just a bubbly presence, but in this film she skillfully hypnotizes the willing viewer with plenty of varied emotion and determination, demanding recognition as a fine actress. In sum, this film is a treat for us movie fans of early WB and First National pictures, just as the studio began to create films containing confident fluidity of exposition. Highly enjoyable!

Joan Blondell is poverty stricken, but determined to survive, in "Blondie Johnson," a 1933 Warner Brothers film also starring Chester Morris, Allen Jenkins, and Sterling Holloway.

Blondie (Blondell) and her sick mother are not considered hardship cases. They live in the back of a store, Blondie can't find a job, and her mother is in need of care. After being denied funds, she returns home to find that her mother has died in her absence.

She decides she's waited long enough for something good to happen. She's going to make things happen, but she's going to use her brains, not her body, to do it. The next time we see Blondie, she's all decked out after working in a dance hall. She takes a cab ride and she and the driver (Holloway) work a scam that nets them a tidy sum at the end of the night.

Unfortunately one of the people they worked it on is Danny Jones (Morris), a racketeer, and he catches her in a Chinese restaurant, which is not exactly the hospital she claimed she was headed to for work. They team up, with Blondie having ambitions toward being a crime boss.

Good movie with the always delightful Blondell and likable Chester Morris. The end of the film is jarring; it's abrupt and different in tone from the rest of the movie. Still, it's a quick-paced, well acted film.