Blondie Johnson (Warner Bros.) (1933)

“Blondie Johnson” Offers Powerful Entertainment Joan Blondell in Title Role Gives the Finest Performance in Brilliant, Fast Moving Drama OR months we’ve watched Joan Blondell blossom out as a star of the first rank. With each picture she showed signs of greater promise. But when we saw her in “‘Blondie Johnson” at the _. +. Theatre last night we realized that in this thrilling First National screen mixture of romance and rackets Joan Blondell has realized her former signs of greatness. The picture has a background of gangs and con games . . . not strong arm stuff, but clever rackets where brains triumph over brawn and turn out to be decidedly more profitable. This underworld atmosphere, however, merely lends a glamorous color to Joan Blondell’s tempestuous love affair with Chester Morris, rival underworld lieutenant. The romance far overshadows the rackets. Joan Blondell in her part is the brains behind the smartest organization of crooks that ever fleeced a city. And she lives this life because early poverty and misery warped her ideals so that when confronted with the problem of earning a living by either the hard or easy way, she unhesitatingly chooses the former. Joan starts out by playing a sidewalk “taxi-racket,” but she’s much too clever to stay in this small-time class for long. Soon she works herself to a position challenging the underworld chief. Then she overthrows him and rules the most powerful gang known to law. Chester Morris, another of her ilk, comes into her life, wins her love, and then attempts to cast her aside for a Broadway beauty. Then the girl shows the true temper of her steel and puts her lover “on the spot.” JOHNSON ”’ AT REXY Thrilling Picture “Blondie Johnson” is a_ thrilling picture with the most unusual angle. We've had a cycle of gangster pictures and this presentation could easily be mistaken for another. Such, however, is not the case. This is a story of stirring love and tender passions. The scenes pack emotional punches that gripped last night’s audience and held it tense throughout the picture. But there’s plenty of uproarious comedy as well as dramatic pathos. Allen Jenkins, with his dead-pan, contributes largely to this, and his fine performance explains why he is so rapidly rising as a screen comic. Chester Morris does a very good job with his part of the Romeo racketeer who lets success go to his head. The role calls for many qualifications and this popular star rings the bell. The supporting cast is exceptionally strong and gives the picture a flawless finish. Director Ray Enright deserves a great deal of credit for the strong tempo he sustains throughout. All in all, “Blondie Johnson” is a mighty interesting drama, plentifully sprinkled with comedy, and worthwhile going to see. L.. Day of Run Joan Blondell Plays Strong Scene Well in "Blondie Johnson" In “Blondie Johnson,” a First National picture now on the screen of the . . . . Theatre, Joan Blondell, playing a rather startling character, proves that she is a master of emotional acting as well as of the lighter and more flippant character portrayals. Playing the part of a cold, hard, ruthless leader of a band of lawbreakers, Blondell is called upon in several sequences for the expression of tremendous feeling and a genuine outburst of emotions. One very dramatic scene takes place when, as an innocent girl, she finds her mother dead from poverty and neglect. Another powerful scene requiring splendid emotion occurs when she goes to the side of the man she loves, whom she had had riddled with bullets. These two scenes call for emotional acting that would even tax a Ruth Chatterton. It is an inspired Blondell that carries out the sequences with so much feeling that she wins the utmost sympathy of every spectator. Chester Morris plays the role of the man Joan sends to his presumable death, in a picture that is filled with thrilling incidents, dramatic — situations and also humorous episodes. Others in the cast include Allen Jenkins, Claire Dodd and Earle Foxe. Earl Baldwin wrote the screen play which Ray Enright directed. Chester Morris, Allen Jenkins and Joan Blondell as they appear in one of the many dramatic scenes in “Blondie Johnson,” on current view at the Rexy. It’s a mighty interesting movie, with plenty of action, pathos, comedy and everything else that makes for good film fare. "Blondie Johnson," New Joan Blondell Film, Opens Teday An ever fascinating and refreshing Joan Blondell will make her bow in a new role on the screen of the.... Theatre today in the First National picture, “Blondie Johnson,” in which she is co-featured with Chester Morris. Joan has the role of a beautiful, but eold, hard and ruthless leader of a band of crooks whom she rules with an iron hand. In this picture she dominates the male of the species even as the male has dominated her in recent productions. An innocent girl hardened by the death of her mother through poverty and neglect, she sets out deliberately Page Four OPENING DAY STORY Cut No. 5 Cut 45c¢ to get riches by hook or crook. She has a grudge against men, and being brilliant and dominating, she bends them to her will. It is a new Joan in the matter of clothes also, for the former indifferent dresser now makes her appearance in sixteen different gorgeous frocks, and Joan, even if she dves care nothing about dressing up in private life, wears °em with stunning effect. “Blondie Johnson” is a new type of picture character, a type which actually exists but has not heretofore been shown to screen fans. Those in the cast include Allen Jenkins, Claire Dodd, Earle Foxe, Mae Busch, Joe Cawthorne, Sterling Holloway, Olin Howland and Toshia Mori. — Smart dialogue and many humorous situations add to the entertainment value of the picture, which on the whole is said to be a highly dramatic thriller. ye Day of Run Court Room Scene in “Blondie Johnson" a Spectacular Affair A spectacular courtroom scene forms one of the thrilling and dramatic moments in the First National picture, “Blondie Johnson,” now on the screen at the.... Theatre. It is a murder trial at which Earle Foxe, as a spellbinding lawyer makes an impassioned plea to a jury for the slayer’s freedom. Joan Blondell, who has the leading feminine role in the picture, pretending to be the sweetheart of the criminal, turns on the crocodile tears thus helping the prisoner win his freedom from a sympathizing jury. This is but one of the many intensely emotional scenes in a picture that deals with a powerful band of crooks ruled over by a woman of Jenkins, Claire Dodd and Earle Foxe. Se, Day of Run When Chester Morris Almost Quit Movies Chester Morris, who is co-featured with Joan Blondell in the First National picture, “Blondie Johnson,” now showing at the... . Theatre, and who has had a remarkably successful screen career, at one time came very near quitting pictures entirely, because he considered himself a failure at a time when all Hollywood was acclaiming him as a great new star. After severa years of stage work, in which lar roles, he was taken to Hollywood to play the leading role in “Alibi.” He attended the preview of the picture, and suddenly got up in the middle of § the showing and | walked out. Cut 15¢ Cut No. 2 Mat 5c Roland West, his producer, sensed that something was wrong and followed him to his room where he found Morris packing. “I was a flop,” he told West. “I’m going back to Broadway.” West persuaded him to wait until. he could at least read the reviews which came out next morning with glowing tributes to his work. So Chester Morris unpacked and stayed on, continuing his screen work, a recognized topnotcher in Hollywood. As in “Alibi,” his first picture, Morris plays the role of a crook in “Blondie Johnson,” his latest production. He is something of a likeable, easy-going chap, who is lifted to power through the magnetic qualities and dominance of a woman leader, played by Joan Blondell. Others in the cast include Allen Bi Chester Morris Born ef Theatrical Folks Chester Morris, who has the leading masculine role opposite Joan Blondell in the First National picture, “Blondie Johnson,” now showing at the . .. Theatre, is a firm believer in heredity. At least he gives the credit to his ancestors for what talent he has for stage and screen work. All his people have been stage folk since time immemorial, or as far back, he says, as there is any record. In his immediate family his father is the famous William Morris who starred for years in Charles Frohman and David Belasco productions, and _ his mother, Etta Hawkins, the popular Broadway comedienne. His brothers and sister, as well as he, felt the lure of the footlights at an early age. Willy, the sister, is a well known Broadway players as is also his brother Adrian. Another brother, Gordon, is both an actor and a playwright. “There must be something in heredity to make us all turn to the stage,” he declared. “Of course, the environment in which we grew up had something to do with it, but it must also have been in the blood.” Morris plays the role of a crook of likeable personality whose rise to power is due to his love for a woman of magnetic qualities who stimulates him into big undertakings. Joan Blondell plays the role of the gangland leader who inspires Morris to try for big game. Others in the cast include Allen Jenkins, Claire Dodd, Earle Foxe, Mae Busch, Joe Cawthorne, Sterling Holloway and Olin Howland. The screen play is by Earl Baldwin and the direction by Ray Enright. magnetic personality, the character played by Miss Blondell. She is seen in a new characterization of a bold, brilliant and ruthless beauty, who rules with a hand of iron, even putting the man she loves on the “spot” when she believes him faithless to the code of the band. Chester Morris plays the leading masculine role opposite Miss Blondell while others in the cast include Allen Jenkins and Mae Busch.