ChanFamous
I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.
Mischa Redfern
I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.
Dana
An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.
Scotwon
"Blonde Ice" is a tight, taut film noir that does not waste a moment of time in telling the story of an ambitious and passionate beauty. Leslie Brooks does an excellent job of depicting an ambitious, ruthless, psychopathic character. Claire is not a sympathetic figure but we want to watch her machinations, partly because Brooks is so beautiful and glamorously decked out and partly because the script and direction build and hold suspense.The film begins and ends powerfully and sustains interest all the way through. It is hard to imagine a more startling beginning: Clare and Carl take their wedding vows. Then Claire immediately goes to the balcony to assure an old beau, "I love you and you love me." She tells him, "I'll think about you on my honeymoon." Wow! And pow!Inevitably, Claire gets caught in her own web and murder becomes her way out. It is well-acted and well-directed and more than worth a viewer's time.
Robert J. Maxwell
The psychopath is Leslie Brooks. She's young and has the pleasant, even features of a Hollywood actress. She has had several men on the hook in San Francisco but finally marries the richest of them all and then murders him, leaving a staged suicide scene. She's used her former lover, the immortal Robert Paige, as part of her alibi, although he's unwitting and believes her to be innocent of anything beyond a hasty marriage.Brooks takes up with the devoted but slightly dumb Paige again but quickly discovers the possibility of another conquest -- Michael Whalen as a newly elected Congressman, soon to depart the city for Washington. Whalen is even dumber than Paige. He falls for her in a jiffy and announces their marriage. But when Whalen finds out what she's really like, thanks to a presumably perceptive shrink in an underwritten part, he tries to back out of the nuptials. She kills him and frames Paige.So far -- well, if not "so good", at least "so adequate for the purposes". But the movie implodes at the end. Brooks is in her newspaper office, typing one of her last society columns. She has a Niagara of money coming her way once her first husband's estate is out of probate, or whatever it's called. Paige has been successfully framed for Whalen's murder. She has nothing to fear and has shown no sign of guilt or remorse.Yet, it's at this point that the police and the shrink enter her office, she stands up with a big smile, and spills all the beans, including her murder of a third man whose unimportance to the plot justifies his not having been mentioned until now. Hearing her confession, Paige slumps a little and makes a disillusioned remark. "I'll KILL you!", shouts Brooks for no particular reason, grabs a pistol, and is wrestled to the floor as the gun goes off and she's accidentally killed. The scene is just as bad as it sounds here.Brooks is pretty enough but her acting is obvious. Paige isn't called on to do very much except be friendly, trusting, understanding, and a little dense. Walter Sande is a mutual friend and employer of both at the newspaper and he's sympathetic. Most interesting character award goes to James Griffith as a fellow reporter and one of Brook's discarded boy friends. You'll know him when you see him. He's tall, narrow-shouldered, and has the longest neck of anyone in the movie. It has a sizable laryngeal prominence that can actually be seen bobbing up and down when he speaks. He has the best lines too. They're not worth quoting here, nor are any of the other lines, because the screenplay is functional but no more than that. The direction by Jack Bernhard has one or two imaginative moments.The problem is that B features like this were ground out by the hundreds during the 30s and 40s, doomed to second billing, and the budgets were very low. You don't get the production values that might rescue the film. Every scene here seems to be indoors because shooting on a set is cheap and fast. And you don't get the talent. Leslie Brooks is okay, but if you want to see a woman who exploits men the way Brooks does, and who gives a fine performance to boot, watch Barbara Stanwyck in "Double Indemnity."
Prof-Hieronymos-Grost
Society girl Claire Cummings (Leslie Brooks) on her wedding day to multi millionaire Carl Hanneman is caught after the ceremony in the arms of an old flame Les Burns,by her new husband. Hanneman immediately says the marriage is over and leaves Claire to lick her wounds. However she has bigger plans and is not about to let her new wealth walk out the door, so she plans a foolproof plan to murder her husband while retaining her alibi on the other side of the country. All is going according to plan, until Les Burns a man Claire still loves is picked up as murder suspect No1. Claire soon after professing her love to Les, puts another rich man under her spell, a famous lawyer running for congress and when their engagement is announced Les is disgusted at her money grabbing skills and confronts her again, and again she is caught in his arms by her new suitor, this is where Claire loses the plot altogether and her world comes tumbling down along with her aspirations. Blonde Ice despite its C movie status is a good little Noir, Brooks is excellent as the ubiquitous Femme Fatale, the DVD had pretty poor sound though, very wooly which affected my total enjoyment, but still not bad.6/10
Dale Houstman
"Blonde Ice" (which I just viewed in a nice DVD version with the restorer's commentary, and some nifty extras) is not a classic, nor even a particularly good movie by most standards: it is strictly poverty row rather than Scarlet Street, BUT... I found it easy to watch, and (at times) quite good. The male lead (although obviously a dashing actor on his way down the ladder) brings off his part with some real style, especially in a scene in which he eschews the usual macho man poise expected and almost breaks down in bewilderment over the Woman's actions and seeming imperturbability. And there are a few satisfying (if never quite resplendent) turns by a handful of character actors well-versed in what is expected of them. Although - as commented upon already - there is not quite enough "shadow and darkness" to make it a solid noir presentation, there are - in fact - some rather well-drawn night scenes, and the requisite "venetian blind shadows aslant" scattered here and there. And there is a (limp) stab at analysis of Claire's "problem" by a weakly-sketched German shrink, who also concocts a rather vapid (and seemingly pointless) plan to upend her schemes. The ending is perhaps a bit perfunctory, although the very last line is snappy.The main positives however are the terribly efficient story-telling (often a lost art in B-movies: hell, in ALL movies!) and some truly terrific compositions. These two elements make it worth at least a single viewing, especially if you can see it on the DVD with the commentary, which also delves into the important work of the film restorer. Seen in such a fashion, the movie is rewarding enough, considering its brevity and quick pace.
