La blonde framboise

Julius Epstein (the man who gave us Arsenic and Old Lace) excels with his adaptation of James Hagan's play One Sunday Afternoon. (For those who think the credit belongs with the playwright not the scriptwriter, I refer you to the 1948 remake One Sunday Afternoon.) The script is crisp and witty, one liners abound, and I found myself laughing out loud often.

The film gains its strength from the morals of a bygone era, as men and women struggle to find love without overstepping the bounds of decency. Yet it holds up well more than 60 years after it was made. The themes of love and happiness are timeless.

Cagney is excellent as jailbird-turned-dentist Biff Grimes. His famed tough guy persona bubbles not very far below the surface but we are reminded that this actor is much more multi-faceted than history sometimes remembers him.

The female cast members are outstanding. The beautiful Susan Hayworth plays the title character Virginia Brush superbly, showing every nuance of the shallow yet ultimately dissatisfied wannabe socialite. Her best friend, Ann Lind, provides a great showcase for Olivia de Havilland's talent, moving from the brash, forward suffragette to the devoted wife, showing her vulnerability as well as her strength along the way.

Some of Hollwood's fine character actors get a chance to impress too. The hard-working Jack Carson impresses as Hugo Barnstead, the charming womanizer turned sleazy tycoon. George Tobias has plenty of scene-stealing moments as Grimes' good friend, Nick the barber. (Look closely and you may recognize him as Bewitched's Abner Kravitz.) Alan Hale is at his best as Grimes' irrepressible Irish father. Keep your eye out for TV's Superman George Reeves as Harold, the Yale student neighbour.

This film provides an amusing reminder that beauty and wealth do not always bring happiness.

Enjoy Strawberry Blonde. I did.

I remember the first time I watched this film, was on my father's VHS copy. The title did not really take me at first because it wasn't one of those recognizable blockbuster films from the early 40's. However, when I saw Cagney and DeHavilland's names on the cover, I KNEW this movie HAD to be good. My father already owned most of the Cagney film collection anyway. The first thing that struck me about this film was the opening fanfare, "And the Band Played On...". Wow, talk about taking you back into an era we not fortunate enough to have been born in, Turn of the Century (1900). For the most part, the cinematography is awesome. This film was not produced in Technicolor, but it really didn't need to be, for the brilliant photography really brings out the authenticity of the whole setting, especially the costumes. The vibrancy of the camera photography focused on Rita Hayworth's costuming is almost breathtaking. At times you almost feel like you are watching parts of Gone With The Wind, that's how vibrant and masterful the cinematography is. And older audiences who appreciated Cagneys' later works will most certainly appreciate this movie well. Here's a still-cocky, arrogant angle of the Cagney we remember and loved---however, this film allowed the actor to bring out his vulnerable, charming, romantic side as well. And he does it so smoothly and brilliantly, being well cast opposite the loveliness of legendary Olivia DeHavilland (remember, MISS MELANIE "Gone With The Wind"). DeHavilland shines brightly in one of her better, finer roles, not too soon after GWTW wrapped up, allowing her to really expand not only the soft sweetness we remembered from her Miss Melanie of GWTW, but also take a sharp turn with front boldness as well. So we get a little bit of Scarlett O'Hara in the mix. The best of both world's with DeHavilland's character.

I never even heard of Jack Carson before this film. But I must say, I was widely impressed how he handled his character against Cagney's screen presence. Carson was beautifully convincing as the crude, conniving-yet-vulnerable, conning Hugo Barnstead. And his character ability alongside Hayworth's 'strawberry blonde' is Killer at best. The way their character's are allowed full march to play off each other is the big comic-relief in this movie -- almost stealing the comical cuteness from Cagney's character. This film was also Rita Hayworth's big screen debut. When she originally auditioned for the role, she was ecstatic about the possibility of playing alongside Cagney, for he was her favorite screen villain. She considered Cagney a genius, almost more talented than counterpart Humphrey Bogart. When she was ultimately (and convincingly) cast as Virginia Brush, she about went through the floor (information, courtesy of Warner Bros.). Being in her very first major screen film, and alongside Cagney was a dream come true for Hayworth. She didn't think she would be good enough, however, the rest of the cast (most especially Cagney), worked diligently with her to perfect her character performance, alongside Carson. Overall, the film critics rated her performance as "exceptional". I absolutely LOVED Hayworth in this film. I have always liked Rita Hayworth. But outside this movie, and a few other juicy roles she had, I did not know that she lived in constant insecurity throughout much of her Hollywood career that she didn't feel she 'measured up' to the star-status of the other actresses (poor girl!). Well, she did beautifully in this role of the 'Strawberry Blonde'.

I fell so much in love with this movie classic, that I also modified a personal copy of the script.

PEANUT

Music, Music music.....costumes...what a delightful old movie... Go back in time to an easier period. When you could take your best girl out on the town for $2.50. This movie just makes you long for the old, old days..when life was so much easier. Very little serious matter in the movie. Lot's of lessons to learn to. The beautiful package, the elusive girl, the importance of life. By todays standards this would be an extremely low budget film, yet it captures you and you leave the movie feeling better for watching it. Great cast with James Cagney, Olivia DeHavilland, Rita Haywood, Jack Carter who bring the movie to life. Not a great movie, but one worth seeing just to look back in time and enjoy.

Cagney departs from his tough, street smart persona to play the gullible, not so tough Biff Grimes. Notice how he loses fight after fight; in one scene he's a barroom bouncer tossing his drunken father out asking his father not to put up too much of a fight "I'm supposed to be a tough guy".

He gets suckered time after time by Hugo and Virginia. That wouldn't have happened to other Cagney characters! His best scenes are with Olivia DeHavilland. What chemistry. Sometimes no dialog, just glances.

The main characters play off each other phenomenally. Even the minor characters are superb. Who was that fat German who blew beer foam into Cagney's face? He was great! The period music is so woven into the story that the movie almost becomes a musical. The lovely theme that's played whenever Olivia DeHavilland come into the scene is "When You Were Sweet Sixteen". Unlike the title song "Strawberry Blonde", it's never sung in the movie but it was popular at the turn of the century. Perry Como made it one of his hits in the early 1940's.

The movie is such a nostalgic, funny, (sad at times) look back at the turn of the century that you wish you could go back there with them.

It's amazing that director Raoul Walsh also made the brilliant, violent, cynical "White Heat" with nary a sentimental, lovable character.

I have a soft spot for this movie, it makes me cry and it challenges me. It hovers eagle-like over other pieces of quaint, nostalgic Americana in its brilliant mise-en-scène by overlooked film-maker Raoul Walsh, its crisp and very acute script, and its wonderful acting.

James Cagney is the small-town dentist, just out of jail, having been framed by his business partner and boyhood best friend, Jack Carson. Carson married the local beauty, Rita Hayworth of the film's title, and left Cagney with Hayworth's best friend, the free-thinking, no-nonsense Olivia De Havilland. And now, after all these years, Cagney learns that Carson is on his way to his dentist's practice with a bad tooth-ache. What to do ...?

There is such pain underlying all the ebullient humor of 'The Strawberry Blonde', and as usual Walsh gets away with superlative results from mixing genres. From the first frames of the bulldog chasing the cat and the two different social environments on each side of the garden wall, on one side throwing horse-shoes, on the other playing cricket, Walsh wastes no time and is always to the point, telling his story.

Everybody in this movie is perfect. Hayworth waltzes through it all by way of her radiant looks, but Cagney surpasses himself as this charming bigot, always with a black eye to show for the numerous scrapes he gets into.

Olivia De Havilland deserves a whole chapter to herself. I doubt if she was ever better than as the tough kooky, Amy, who never tires of preaching women's lib to Hayworth's Virginia ("I refuse to listen to advanced ideas!"). "What did we come for if not to be trifled with?", she asks, indignantly, of Virginia, seated as they are on the bench in the park, waiting for their beaus. She calls marriage "an institution started by the cavemen and endorsed by florists and jewelers" and insists on her right to pick up men by winking at them. De Havilland is hilarious, and you also notice the vulnerability beneath the feminist swagger.

Not everybody will care for 'The Strawberry Blonde'. If you only give it a superficial look, you will find it dated and cutesy, whereas it is everything but.