Bail bondsman George Bancroft is known all throughout New York City and encounters people from every scrape of society in this pre-code crime drama. But he's going to need every ounce of street-smarts when he strikes up an acquaintance with kleptomaniac Frances Dee, a woman with a rather animistic sexual appetite. Judith Anderson gets to display a rare glamorous side here as the nightclub hostess obviously in love with Bancroft, with her famous mole darkened into a beauty spot. Dee gives Bancroft several looks that It's nice to see her playing a softer character. This is a fast-moving programmer, made on a dime, but not showing it. Quick edits, snappy photography and dialog, nice musical interludes by Blossom Seeley (singing such standards as "Melancholy Baby"), and a side of seedy New York sung about in the same year's "42nd Street" diluted in most movies. There's hints about lesbianism in addition to Dee's whacked-out libido. Tons of familiar character actors pop in and out, most notably Etienne Girardot, Chick Chandler (as Anderson's gangster brother), Clarence Wilson and Edward Van Sloan. There's even a very young Lucille Ball in a quick appearance! An exciting dog racing sequence is one of the film's visual highlights, and the finale is downright suspenseful, like something Hitchcock might do.
Review of Blood Money
Blood Money
(1933)
Saucy gangster drama that deserves a cult status.
7 August 2012
Warning: Spoilers