Blondie may sell her body to the richest man but retains her soul, her fierce friendship a bond whose tensile strength is severely tested but never broken. Goulding’s film focuses squarely upon Marion Davies as the titular ingenue, as we experience her character arc from adorable precociousness to forlorn maturity, her strident personality filling nearly every frame. In a nice meta-parody, Marion Davies and Jimmy Durante mock Garbo and Barrymore from Goulding’s own GRAND HOTEL, filmed earlier in 1932!
From their first fisticuffs and hair-pulling brawl to their final crippling assault, Blondie and her best pal Lotte (Billie Dove) break-up, break bones, break hearts and break bad but always make up. This is a film about their friendship from poverty to penthouse, how they must commodify their flesh to attain financial security, and the consequences suffered. Lotte becomes the socialite Lurline, her faux French subjugating her street slang, her new persona worn like an expensive gown...and just as easily removed. The conflict begins with a Mother’s Day visit to Blondie’s family in their downtown tenement, flaunting her wealth (and accent) and bragging about her employment in the Follies. Blondie is naive and virtuous and soon follows her best friend uptown, whose paramour Larry Belmont (Robert Montgomery) then falls in love with her. Now, Larry is a cad whose objectification of women is typical of the era, his sexual exploits with the dancers revealed not as subtext but declaration! Gotta love Pre-Code films! Though Larry breaks-up with Lurline, he doesn’t “dump” her as continues his financial support. He’s also brutally honest with her but not overtly cruel in his pursuit of Blondie, who is having none of his foolishness. This eventually ends with Blondie’s being purposely “whipped” into the orchestra pit where she suffers permanent disability. But what’s a broken leg between friends?
This film also has one of the most emotionally crushing father/daughter scenes, as Blondie’s father berates her for coming home drunk then later apologizes for being an “old time Pa”. Of course, the narrative follows the rule of “Chekhov's Health”; if you mention an illness in the first act it’s damn well going to be fatal by the third! And I have to mention Zasu Pitts as Blondie’s older sister because she always makes a film better by appearing, even in a small supporting role.
Final Grade: (B)