1948/USA
Director: Jack Bernhard
Screenplay: Kenneth Garnet from the novel “Once Too Often” by Whitman Chambers. Uncredited co-workers on adaptation: Dick Irving Hyland, Raymond L. Shrock, and Edgar G. Ulmer
Cinematography: George Robinson
Lead actors: Leslie Brooks, Robert Paige, John Holland
Supporting actors: Russ Vincent, Michael Whalen, Walter Sande, Selmer Jackson, Emory Parnell
Blonde Ice is a decidedly low rent film noir that highlights the criminal exploits of a femme fatale played by Leslie Brooks. Claire Cummings is a ruthlessly ambitious social climber who uses and discards men in order to secure wealth, security and social position.
When the picture opens, Cummings is late for her own wedding to Carl Hanneman, a furnace manufacturer. Among the wedding guests are several of Cumming’s colleagues from “The San Francisco Tribune” where Claire worked as a society reporter. In addition to the newspaper’s editor, Hack Doyle (Walter Sande), sportswriter Les Burns (Robert Paige) and reporter Al Herrick (James Griffith) are also in attendance. Burns and Herrick are two of Claire’s former suitors. Herrick discovered Claire working as a stenographer and helped her secure a position on the newspaper before losing her to Burns.
No sooner than the brief wedding ceremony is completed, Claire asks her husband to excuse her so that she can say goodbye to members of "the old gang" and she joins Burns on the terrace where she suggests that her newly acquired marital status should not be an impediment to their continued extramarital relationship. Burns accuses Claire of deriving a "sadistic kick" out of inviting him to attend the ceremony. After exchanging a kiss and an embrace with Les, which arouses the jealous suspicions of Hanneman, Claire assures Carl that she thinks of Burns as "a brother" and she is simply grateful to him for helping her during her journalistic career. As the Hannemans depart for their honeymoon, Burns tosses his engraved cigarette case, a gift from Claire onto the lawn at the Hanneman mansion.
While in Los Angeles, the newlyweds begin quarreling when Hanneman objects to his wife’s expensive habits. When Claire wins a wager at the race track, Carl is shocked to learn that she risked $100.00 on a single race and questions the wisdom of her placing such large bets. Back at their hotel suite, Carl discovers that his wife has been secretly corresponding with Les. He seizes one of the incriminating letters, packs a suitcase and leaves for San Francisco to institute immediate divorce proceedings. He announces his intention to cut off Claire without so much as a single cent in alimony.
One day later, Claire calls Les at the newspaper office and asks him to make plane reservations for her and to pick her up from the airport that same night. She informs him that her husband has been called away on business. When they drive to the Hanneman residence, Les discovers Carl’s dead body in a neatly constructed tableaux which indicates that the man may have committed suicide.
Police Captain Bill Murdock (Emory Parnell) and District Attorney Ed Chalmers (Selmer Jackson) are not so certain: the gun found near Hanneman’s body bears no fingerprints and his coat does not have any powder burns. Claire insists that she and her dearly departed husband were "supremely happy" throughout their marriage. Murdock reminds her that the entire duration of her marriage was "one week."
While the investigation is pending and her late husband’s sizable estate is tied up in probate, Claire fixes her attentions upon a prominent attorney, Stanley Mason (Michael Whalen), who is also favored to win a seat in Congress. Initially, Claire claims to be interested solely in protecting her legal rights in the probate case, but, of course, she has other designs as well.
Soon Claire is actively romancing Mason, but she begins to receive threatening calls from a blackmailer. She buys off a charter pilot named Blackie Talon (Russ Vincent) temporarily by giving him some of her jewelry. Blackie has a gambling problem of his own, so he has no intention of going away without securing a larger payment at a later date.
In short order, Claire dumps Les for a second time and becomes engaged to Mason the lawyer/politician. Unfortunately, Claire did not anticipate that one of Mason’s closest friends is Dr. Geoffrey Kippinger, a psychiatrist who takes a special interest in studying Claire’s manners and morals. Kippinger is convinced that Claire is mentally unstable and that her problems relate back to her impoverished childhood which occurred as the result of her father abandoning his wife and daughter.
Blonde Ice is an over the top delight that allowed Leslie Brooks a rare chance to showcase her viciousness after a Hollywood career spent in largely supporting roles. For example, Brooks played one of the women who was a romantic interest of Paul Henreid in Hollow Triumph but Joan Bennett had the more important role of the female lead. She makes the most of her opportunity despite a somewhat trite and clichéd script.
One of the amusing features of Blonde Ice is how all of the male cast members seem to be completely smitten with Claire and totally oblivious to her cunning and manipulative nature while many of the female cast members seem to recognize her for exactly what she is and drop casual comments about her that go unheeded by the clueless men. June Taylor, played by Mildred Coles, is Burns' loyal and devoted secretary. Although she is privately in love with him, Burns completely ignores the brunette "Girl Friday" while chasing after the selfish blonde with an ice cold heart.
This is one of those enjoyable movies in which the dialogue is pleasingly overripe and the audience is always several steps ahead of the dim witted on screen actors. The climactic scene which rapidly ties up all of the loose ends has to be seen in order to be believed.
A persistent rumor about the film suggested that Edgar Ulmer had a hand in creating the scenario for Blonde Ice or at the very least he gave the script its shooting title. Ulmer made a passing reference to the film in an interview with Peter Bogdanovich, but also seemed to confuse the plot of Blonde Ice with that of another Producers Releasing Corporation knock off production Apology for Murder. While film scholars have argued as to whether or not Ulmer was mistaken about the origins of Blonde Ice, I am inclined to believe that he may have seen the scenario at some point in time. The prodicer was Martin Mooney, who worked with Ulmer at Producers Releasing Corporation, most notably on Detour and Club Havana. A few years later, both men worked for the short lived Film Classics Studios, which ultimately released Blonde Ice.
Blonde Ice was thought to have been a lost film until its rediscovery several years ago. The last known prints had been televised in the Seventies. The best currently available print of the film was restored by Jay Fenton, who was able to replace missing footage and recreate a most serviceable print of the movie.
