Blonde Ice (1948)

Director:

Jack Bernhard

Writers:

Kenneth Gamet (screenplay)
Whitman Chambers (novel)
(more)

Release Date:

24 July 1948 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Film-Noir | Romance

Tagline:

Blonde Criminal. Ice in her veins. Icicles in her heart.

Plot:

A society reporter keeps herself in the headlines by marrying a series of wealthy men, all of whom die under mysterious circumstances. |

Plot Keywords:

Reporter | Low Budget Film | Airplane | District Attorney | Wedding

Cast

Robert Paige	...	Les Burns
Leslie Brooks	...	Claire Cummings Hanneman
Russ Vincent	...	Blackie Talon, the Pilot
Michael Whalen	...	Stanley Mason, Attorney
James Griffith	...	Al Herrick
Emory Parnell	...	Police Capt. Bill Murdock
Walter Sande	...	Hack Doyle
John Holland	...	Carl Hanneman
Mildred Coles	...	June Taylor
Selmer Jackson	...	District Attorney Ed Chalmers
David Leonard	...	Dr. Geoffrey Kippinger
Jack Del Rio	...	Roberts, the Butler
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Julie Gibson	...	Mimi Doyle (uncredited)
Rory Mallinson	...	Police Sgt. Benson (uncredited)
William H. O'Brien	...	Victor, Room Service Waiter (uncredited)

Directed by
Jack Bernhard

Writing credits
Kenneth Gamet		(screenplay)
Whitman Chambers		(novel "Once Too Often")
Dick Irving Hyland		adaptation (uncredited)
Raymond L. Schrock		uncredited

Produced by
Robert E. Callahan	....	associate producer
Martin Mooney	....	producer

Original Music by
Irving Gertz		(music composed by)

Cinematography by
George Robinson		(director of photography)

Film Editing by
W.L. Bagier		(as Douglas W. Bagier)
Jason H. Bernie

Makeup Department
Ted Larsen	....	makeup artist (as Teo Larsen)
Loretta Bickel	....	hair stylist (uncredited)

Production Management
George Moskov	....	production manager

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Frank Fox	....	assistant director

Art Department
George Bahr	....	props master
Joseph Kish	....	set director (as Joe Kirsch)
George Van Marter	....	set designer

Sound Department
Ferrol Redd	....	sound engineer (as Ferol Redo)

Special Effects by
Ray Mercer	....	special effects

Camera and Electrical Department
James Doolittle	....	still photographer (uncredited)
Harvey Gould	....	camera operator (uncredited)
Fred Russell	....	grip (uncredited)

Music Department
Irving Gertz	....	music arranger

Other crew
William Stirling	....	assistant to producer
Jack Daly	....	dialogue director (uncredited)
Eleanor H. Donahoe	....	script supervisor (uncredited)

Production Companies

• Martin Mooney Productions

Distributors

• Film Classics (1948) (USA) (theatrical)
• Alpha Video Distributors (2005) (USA) (DVD)
• Better Television Distribution (2006) (worldwide) (TV)
• Nothing's New Video (2005) (USA) (VHS)

Also Known As:

Runtime:

73 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound System)

Certification:

USA:Approved (certificate #13060)

Filming Locations:

Chaplin Studios - 1416 N. La Brea Avenue, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Martin Mooney Productions

Quotes:

Les Burns:What day is it?
June Taylor:Tuesday.
Les Burns:What happened to Sunday and Monday?
June Taylor:I took care of them for you.

BLONDE ICE (Jack Bernhard, 1948) **1/2

From the director of DECOY (1946) comes another obscure noir revolving around a femme fatale; however, it emerges to be less interesting stylistically and also proves quite predictable as drama! Mind you, one is sufficiently entertained throughout by the unscrupulous machinations of its ambitious but unbalanced heroine/villainess – ensuring ample hard-boiled dialogue and melodramatic situations; still, it all feels rather stilted this time around – perhaps because the casting here doesn’t work nearly as well as in DECOY.

The title aptly describes Leslie Brooks’s conniving protagonist (incidentally, I ended up watching this film on the actress’ birthday by pure coincidence!): still, she commits a surprising amount of gaffes during the course of the picture which is incongruous to her genre prototype – for instance, she plans to have her husband’s murder passed off as a suicide, yet never thinks of getting his fingerprints on the weapon!; to do so she asks a pilot to take her from L.A. to Frisco and back again – but doesn’t figure on his wanting to cash in on the fortune she’d inherit once the husband’s death becomes public!; to say nothing of the number of times she’s caught in the company of, or writing to, her true love (sports columnist Robert Paige – best-known for playing the hero in the Universal minor horror classic SON OF Dracula [1943], with which this film shares also cinematographer George Robinson) soon after having committed herself to someone else i.e. a wealthy big shot of some kind!; but my favorite is the climax – finally exposed for what she truly is by an elderly psychiatrist, Brooks impulsively still attempts to violently shut him up despite the fact that there are at least three other people in the room!

Incidentally, the latter constitute some of the most important men in Brooks’ life; apart from Paige (justly bewildered at the sight of his loved one blowing her cool), they are James Griffith (making a good impression as a smarmy colleague of Paige’s and who also carries a torch for Brooks – by the way, the latter had her own spot on the paper…which is then amusingly but cruelly put down by none other than Paige himself in the film’s closing line!) and Walter Sande (as their long-suffering editor, who’s often reduced to acting as referee between Paige and Griffith over their common affection for Brooks!). Also making a significant contribution is Michael Whalen as an ageing politician – having already married into money, Brooks had next intended to acquire standing in the U.S. capital!

Quality-wise, the VCI “Special Edition” DVD leaves a lot to be desired – but, I guess, it was to be expected from a film which had long been considered lost! There’s a surprising amount of bonus features to be found here – I by-passed Jay Fenton’s Audio Commentary but did get to watch his fairly interesting interview which, rather than focus specifically on BLONDE ICE, drew also on other subjects (particularly on Film Restoration techniques and closer to home, being itself a VCI release, his own involvement in the ‘rediscovery’ of Mario Bava’s THE WHIP AND THE BODY [1963]). Two more supplements in the form of a musical short subject and an episode from a virtually unheard of made-for-TV detective series are treated on their own elsewhere.

RAY BARBER SINGS "SATAN WEARS A SATIN GOWN" (N/A, 19??; **): Included as a supplement on VCI’s BLONDE ICE (1948), this was the kind of short made specifically to showcase a new song: in this case, it’s a number advising men to be wary of femme fatales – which is how it ties up with that noir picture. It’s nothing special as both record and film but, I guess, it served its purpose at the time (incidentally, I couldn’t determine when the short came out or who directed it).

INTO THE NIGHT (TV) (N/A, 19??; **1/2): As with the short about the “Satan Wears A Satin Gown” number (see above), this also accompanied the main feature on the VCI DVD of BLONDE ICE (1948), an above-average film noir; likewise, too, I found little to no information on the INTO THE NIGHT TV series on the Internet – not even the title of this this particular episode! Thanks to the DVD medium, I’ve watched a handful of 1950s TV programs; all of them were fairly crude technically but also reasonably entertaining in themselves. This one, then, was no exception – being a mildly engaging detective story featuring veteran Hollywood character actor Wallace Ford: the plot, again, revolves around a femme fatale as she schemes to come out on top at all costs. She’s involved in a diamond robbery, contrives to kill her two partners, and even tries to make a dupe out of Ford – but he’s too experienced to fall for her type! While the proceedings are entirely predictable, what makes the show palatable is its constant flurry of hard-boiled dialogue; though this was an intrinsic element of the genre, the overall easy-going approach here results in an agreeable mix of thrills and chuckles throughout.