Don't Bet on Blondes

"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 the lesson New York City's most eccentric insurance broker learns the hard way.

Fast-moving & fun, this is another example of the comedy crime picture that Warner Brothers was so expert at producing. Casts & plots could be shuffled almost endlessly, with very predictable results. While this assembly line approach created few classics, audience enjoyment could usually be assured.

Suave and sophisticated, Warren William dominates this enjoyable little film with his debonair manner and slightly sardonic sense of humor. Playing a topnotch bookie who seamlessly switches to the more legal insurance racket, William is never less than absolutely in command of his performance. His pursuit of lovely Claire Dodd, even though she's the subject of his client's offbeat policy, illustrates his character's single-minded determination to get exactly what he wants. Whether in comedy or drama, Warren William was a most enjoyable actor to watch and it is a shame that he is almost forgotten now.

A sturdy cast of costars gives fine support to William. Cuddly Guy Kibbee plays a Kentucky colonel desperate to retain his daughter's largess. Quick-tempered William Gargan is William's numbers expert, while Spencer Charters is his wise old company doctor. Clay Clement is a somewhat larcenous lawyer who has his eyes on Miss Dodd; Walter Byron portrays a prissy hypochondriac actor. Mary Treen is William's no-nonsense secretary; Hobart Cavanaugh plays a little man anxious to ensure his pregnant wife against having twins.

Look fast for Herman Bing as a man with a dog. A young Errol Flynn, looking earnest & eager, plays a potential suitor for Miss Dodd; he would become a major movie star very shortly. Wonderful Maude Eburne steals her scenes as a champion husband caller from Iowa.

Movie mavens will recognize W. C. Fields' longtime accomplice, Tammany Young, as an uncredited betting tout in the open scene.

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.

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.

The fact that this was the last film Errol Flynn made before he became a mega-star is reason enough to watch this movie. Just after completing "Don't Bet on Blondes", he starred in "Captain Blood"-- one of the biggest hits he ever made and which led to one of the fasted rises to stardom in Hollywood history.

Apart from the Flynn angle (and he's only a relatively minor character), the film is still worth seeing--though I'll admit that the plot is incredibly weird and just plain wacky! Warren William stars as 'Odds' Owen, a professional gambler and bookmaker. However, he's tired of taking bets on horse races...especially since races can and are rigged. So he decides to try something similar but a surer thing...insurance! He plans on insuring bizarro things much like Lloyds of London was famous for at the time (such as insuring that actor Ben Turpin's eyes remain crossed)...especially since the odds of ever having to pay off are slim.

One of the crazy policies he takes is NOT one that is so easy...and Odds shouldn't take it but he did. A goofball author (Guy Kibbee) announces he wants a policy AGAINST his daughter marrying during the next three years! But to make sure that Odds doesn't have to pay off, he sets out to interfere with the young lady's love life! In one case, a poor sap (Flynn) is set-up to make it appear as if he's some sort of gangster and eventually Odds decides the best thing to do is just date her himself! What's next? See the film.

Why does this silly plot manage to work? Warren William! He was a wonderful actor and although mostly forgotten today, he was wonderful and often made ordinary films amazing films. While he's not the sleazy jerk he often played so well in earlier films due to the new Production Code, he IS enjoyable to watch...and is still a bit of a jerk...and he played jerks so very well.