Blonde Ice

When I tell my friends the title of this movie, most of them say "Oh,

is that with Sonia What's-Her-Name?" No, it's not an ice skating

movie. The blonde in the title is one of the most chilling Femme

Fatales you'll ever see on screen. Leslie Brooks is excellent as a

woman with a strong hatred of men, based on her fatherÕs

desertion, which made her mother a Òhard workingÓ lady. There

are times in the film when I wanted to feel sorry for her, but that

emotion quickly turned to fear & dislike. Good all-around

performances from a group of familiar faces whose names are

just on the other side of familiar. Russ Vincent could be mistaken

for Lash LaRue, & in a moment of darkness might have been

Bogie himself. Fast paced, interesting, & plenty of ice make this a

winning suspense film. I believe Blonde Ice has some elements

of Film Noir, but not enough emphasis on darkness & shadows &

a lack of snappy dialog (except for about three spots where it gets

pretty vicious) make it more of a suspense melodrama than a true

Film Noir. DoesnÕt matter though, try to find it. I rate it 8/10.

Director Jack Bernhard was on a roll when he made this low-budget crime drama for the interesting "Film Classics" company (all of whose releases that I've seen have been fascinating on some level)--he had made VIOLENCE (about a crypto-fascist secret society preying on returning veterans) and DECOY (a noir classic with the ultimate femme fetale, as played by Jean Gillie) at Monogram in 46-47, and after BLONDE ICE he went on to direct two of the three John Calvert "Falcon" films which I found entertaining in a quirky way. BLONDE ICE teams Leslie Brooks (who played a similar "deadlier than the male" female two years earlier in SECRET OF THE WHISTLER), here playing a upwardly-mobile woman who uses marriage and murder as a way of improving her social status, with actor-singer-gameshow host Robert Paige, a reliable performer best known to me for the serial FLYING G-MEN and the horror classic SON OF Dracula. The film will not make anyone forget DETOUR or DECOY because to me it doesn't really aspire to the dark world of noir--it's not a corrupt world here, just an empty one for Claire Cummings. Les, her friend and the man she keeps coming back to whenever she conquers a new financially successful man (played by Robert Paige), is an interesting character because he is a devoted friend who knows that something is wrong but doesn't want to know about it. Claire states many a time that she loves him, but he seems to have gone beyond any romantic feelings for her before the film starts--his feelings for her are more like those of an ex-spouse who has moved on but who still wants to help his former partner who is having a run of bad luck. I disagree with those who don't care for Brooks' performance--she has a number of wonderfully feline poses and it's easy to see how men who ought to know better (such as the congressional candidate) fall for her. I also like the fact that no real explanation is ever provided for her actions other than social climbing, and she always seems unsatisfied with each new level she reaches. The supporting cast does a good job also--my favorite being Russ Vincent as the sleazy flyer/blackmailer, in a performance straight from the Jack LaRue school of acting. I'm glad to see this film available in a crisp-looking DVD. It has the flavor of a paperback-original crime novel with a lurid cover (the film's poster and title card have that flavor too)and it pulled me into its world for 70 minutes.

For most if its runtime, Blonde Ice is a very entertaining b-noir. Leslie Brooks is about as evil a woman as you'll see in one of these movies. She's beautiful, ambitious, and completely ruthless - it's a deadly combination. She's perfectly capable of chewing-up and spitting-out anyone who gets in her way. And, she's not above committing a little murder if the need should arise. Brooks gives a dynamite performance as far as I'm concerned. The rest of the cast is adequate, but nothing spectacular. The weakest point in the film, unfortunately, comes in the final scene. It's almost as if the screenwriters had no idea how to end Blond Ice. What they came up with is so ridiculous and out of character that it really hurts the overall film.

A word on the DVD - from what I've read, the VCI disc is the only way to go. The price is not much more than what you would pay for the Alpha DVD and the VCI disc has a much better transfer and a plethora of features.

A cheesy programmer with a cast of nobodies and has-beens, sporting production values suited to Charlie Chan, Blonde Ice remains curiously compelling. Most of its interest flows from the lead performance of Leslie Brooks as Claire, a newspaper gossip/society columnist who marries first a millionaire then an aspiring congressman only to dispatch them abruptly; all the while she keeps stringing along a paycheck-to-paycheck reporter whom she uses as a backup/patsy. Brooks performance is modelled, distantly, on Bette Davis (though the vertiginous arches of her eyebrows are a preview of Divine's). One apparent deficiency in the script -- and there are plenty -- may prove a blessing in disguise: no attempt is made to "analyze" Claire's motives, or pathology. What we see is what we get. The version I saw was shorn of 10 to 15 minutes of the reported running time; it's hard to say whether the condensed version detracts from or actually improves the original release. Though nobody should set out on a desperate quest to acquire a copy, Blonde Ice is somehow better than it has any right to be.

Much as I love the film noir genre, a lot of so called noir do turn out to be little more than 'B' movie filler. Every now and again though one turns up to surprise you. This is nothing incredible but is very watchable indeed with a fantastic ice cool blonde central performance from Leslie Brooks. She seems to have had a decent career but I don't recall her taking the lead in anything else I've seen - gangster's moll more like. Based on the book by Whitman Chambers ('Once Too Often', although interestingly, 'Manhandled' on my own copy, which is a bit misleading because this lady doesn't get manhandled by anyone). The film lacks those deep dark shadows and night time location shooting, it even lacks any real baddies, unless you count the aspiring politician, but it does have a femme fatale. And what a performance Leslie Brooks gives as the most convincing ruthless ice maiden who does all the killing herself. Bit slow to start and seems to be slipping into screwball territory at one point but once on track this smokes.