Blondie of the Follies

I have to confess some great surprise that William Randolph Hearst had Marion Davies appear in a film so close to the truth of her own life. Because before she was a film star Marion Davies did appear in the Ziegfeld Follies. Not a star to be sure, but was noticed enough by more than William Randolph Hearst.

Blondie McClune comes from the same background as Davies did from the lower middle class Irish and I wouldn't be surprised if Davies had a father in real life like James Gleason. He's a strict dad who takes a dim view of his daughter's new life and the fast crowd she's hanging around with.

Which includes playboy Robert Montgomery and millionaire Douglass Dumbrille whose character is eerily close to Hearst. A friend who was already in the Follies when Marion arrives is Billie Dawn, but that doesn't last long as the women start quarreling about everything including the men they both seem to zero in on.

Dawn and Davies have some scenes with a real vicious bite to them. You can see the anger just build and build in Dawn throughout the film, her's is a performance to watch. Another to watch is Sidney Toler who plays Marion's loafing brother-in-law. Purportedly Davies had a family of dependents who all struck a gold mine when William Randolph Hearst took an interest in her.

Back in the day Ziegfeld's Follies dancers were the tabloid fodder of the day. Their romantic exploits and the rich men they collected around them were big news. That is also shown here.

Blondie Of The Follies also is a great opportunity to see Marion Davies as a dancer. She moves pretty good on the stage, at least as good as Ruby Keeler and Marion could have and should have done more films to show that part of her talent off.

Blondie Of The Follies is a nice backstage story with a good cast with Marion Davies getting to strut her dancing stuff.