Leslie is Icy

Reporter Claire Cummings (Leslie Brooks) has ambitions. To get what she wants, she marries wealthy Carl Hanneman (John Holland) and dumps fellow reporter Les Burns (Robert Paige). Marriage is no barrier to getting everything she wants for Claire - she continues to write love letters to Les.  It doesn't take long for the jealous Carl to discover he was married for his money; he informs his wife he'll be divorcing her immediately, and using the love letters to get out of any financial obligation.  Claire, however, is not going to let a little thing like divorce get in the way of her plans. Our film this week is Blonde Ice (1948).

To say this is a Poverty Row film is an understatement. A transparent script, actors who rarely appear in anything but very minor roles, and a budget that was apparently in the single digits make this a really cheap production. Our group had a mixed reaction to it - I personally found it painful after awhile, but several members of the group enjoyed it - they found it amusing (though that was probably not the intent of the director and screenwriter).

The film is anchored on the leading lady, Leslie Brooks, who plays the avaricious Claire. From the minute she appears on screen, you know Claire is up to no good.  She's gotten through life on her good looks. One would think that, as ambitious as she is, she'd have a brain in her head, but sadly, she doesn't.  She has no sooner said "I do" than she is trying to make time with her ex-boyfriend. While on her honeymoon, she's sending him love letters, which she carelessly drops and allows her new husband to read.  His immediate reaction - divorce - gives Claire a new task. She'll kill him before he can file any papers. However, she's not awfully good at staging a suicide.

One major problem with the plot is the ostensible suicide of  Carl Hanneman. There are no powder burns on the late Mr. Hanneman's hands or clothes, and no fingerprints on the gun, but the police dither around as they try to decide if Mr. Hanneman was murdered or not. And of course, there is the fact that Claire is stupid enough to believe that she can just toss a gun on the floor and have it ruled suicide.

There is one more female character - Mildred Coles (June Taylor). She seems smart when we first meet her, but the script doesn't capitalize on it. She's the only one who appears to have Claire's number, and she also seems to have feelings for Les, but the script just drops her quickly from view. 

Russ Vincent who plays the blackmailing pilot Blackie Talon married Leslie Brooks two years after this picture was released.  They had three daughters (and one daughter from Ms. Brooks first marriage), and were married for 51 years, until his death in 2001.

When the film was restored and released on DVD, one critic suggested it might be an "undiscovered gem".  (TCM article). I'm not sure I agree, but it does have an amusement factor.  We'll leave you with a clip from the opening of the film:

Jinx Inherits a Million

Chorus girl Gloria Carroll (Jinx Falkenburg) discovers she's been left one million dollars by Herbert J. Dinwiddie, an older man with whom she had become friends. Not surprisingly, all heck breaks loose. Her boss, Ned McLane (Don Beddoe) wants her to produce a new revue; the criminals from whom Mr. Dinwiddie stole the money want it back, and the gentleman's two sisters, Annabelle (Elizabeth Patterson) and Hettie (Adele Rowland) want a piece of the action. This week, our film is Lucky Legs (1942).

A pleasant little B movie with an adequate cast (and one outstanding performance), Lucky Legs is a short (64 minutes) film with a little bit of music, several lovely young ladies, and a plot that has been done before but still manages to be amusing. The lead role is filled by Jinx Falkenburg, an unassuming actress who is reasonably pleasant as the heiress. One rather likes her portrayal of Gloria, a common-sense kind of woman who gets swept up the mania surrounding her surprise inheritance.

Ms. Falkenburg started as a model, and was the first "Miss Rheingold" in New York (Rheingold was a local beer). While her success as an actress was fleeting (she never made it beyond B pictures, though she had a cameo appearance in Cover Girl and spent a good deal of the war doing USO shows), her career after films was impressive.  In 1945, she married journalist John "Tex" McCrary. The following year, they launched a radio show Hi Jinx, followed by The Tex and Jinx Show which is credited with being the forerunner of the radio talk show. (You can hear an episode, featuring guest  star Nancy Walker here).  They branched out into television as well, with At Home and The Tex and Jinx Show.  Though the McCrary's never divorced, they did separate in 1980; however they remained close friends. Ms. Falkenburg died in 2003 (one month after her husband's death) in the hospital that she and Tex had helped to found. This opinion piece by William Safire on Jinx's career as a talk radio pioneer was published shortly after her death.

The real star of the film is the delightful Elizabeth Patterson. She sparkles as the mystery loving, Annabelle.  She's funny and upbeat, and the viewer looks forward to her scenes.  An actress with extensive credits on Broadway (26 plays between 1913 and 1954), Ms. Patterson appeared in over 100 films, including Colonel Effingham's Raid (1946) and Remember the Night (1940). She's also remembered for her role as Mrs. Tumbull on I Love Lucy. Ms. Patterson died at the age of 91, in 1966.

It's believed that the story for Lucky Legs was based on a real incident, in which millionaire William Guggenheim  willed a million dollars to four showgirls. And though the film was shot between April and October of 1942, it's notable that not one mention of World War II is made.  (AFI catalog). Regardless, it's a cute film; it might not be first on your list, but it's good fun for a night in which you want a smile.