Blondie Johnson

When the story begins, Blondie Johnson (Joan Blondell) is broke and destitute. However, instead of waiting and hoping things will get better, she decides to take life into her own hands and devote herself to a life of crime. However, she's not looking at any petty crimes but wants to be a crime boss....something pretty much impossible back in 1933. And, after connecting up with Danny (Chester Morris), she begins her rapid ascent to the top. But there's one problem in her future....no matter how she tries to become tough and hard-bitten, she's still a lady.

This is generally a very good film. However, the ending portion disappointed me because up until then, Blondie was a good character...but at the end she inexplicably grows a heart. Inconsistent....but despite this it's still worth your time if you like classic films.

... to quote James Cagney from Blonde Crazy as he tries to talk Joan Blondell into joining him in his con artistry. In this film though, Joan is the one who has the big ideas.

The film opens with Blondie Johnson (Joan Blondell) pleading with a relief agency for help. She is jobless - she actually quit her job because the boss kept trying to get physical - and she hasn't been able to find another job in months. She and her mother were kicked out of their apartment and into the rain, mom got sick as a result, and the both of them are living in a spare room in a store, but the department of health may kick them out at any time. The relief agency can't help, and Blondie returns to the store she calls home just in time to see a sheet pulled over mom's face. She gets sappy happy lips service from a priest about her situation, and all of this just makes her decide that from this point forward she is going for money the easy way.

A toughened Blondie pulls a series of cons, each getting successively bigger with bigger payouts. Along the way she meets Danny Jones (Chester Morris) actually somebody she conned who tracks her down. In spite of the initial mutual distrust, they hit it off. Danny works for big time gangster Max Wagner, and she and Danny pull some cons as part of his gang. Max doesn't like Danny's newfound independence - funny that he never realizes Blondie is the real brains and the real threat - and it becomes necessary to eliminate Max if Danny is to continue having a pulse. Blondie is now the actual head of the operation, but makes Danny the titular one, probably because she is a woman and figures nobody will accept that. But the success goes to Danny's head, he takes up with a gold-digging musical comedy actress (Claire Dodd), and thinks he doesn't need the rest of the gang who put him where he is. Complications ensue.

This thing has a totally downbeat ending that it really didn't need to have because the production code is a year away. I'd say don't watch this if you are into Joan Blondell's lighter entries, although it is well done and I always thought that Joan Blondell's best combination of films and performances was during the precode era at Warner Brothers.

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.