Actuakers One of my all time favorites.

Lidia Draper Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

Marva-nova Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.

Stephanie There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

JohnHowardReid As The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences wisely categorized, The Strawberry Blonde is actually a musical. True, it could also be aptly described as a romantic comedy or even as a comedy-drama. But with its feast of period songs, I see it primarily as a musical in which both the period nostalgia and even the songs themselves are gently spoofed. Walsh's bright, crisp direction deftly employs a dazzling variety of camera angles and fluid camera movements. These, combined with sharp film editing, effectively disguise the screenplay's otherwise rather obvious stage origins. Walsh also had the supreme advantage of an extremely generous budget which ran to large, lavishly appointed sets that could never be duplicated even in the roomiest Broadway theater. As the volatile, rather bitter dentist, James Cagney seems perfectly cast, while George Tobias (in the Roscoe Karns role) makes an ideal stooge in the opening scenes where so much depends on instant information dialogue. Between them, Cagney and Tobias lay this essential groundwork not only with care, precision and subtlety, but with an unobtrusive professionalism that adds up to sheer entertainment. On the other hand, although Rita Hayworth plays the title role, she makes a rather late entrance. Even Jack Carson, perfectly cast as the obnoxious Hugo "whom we all know and love", precedes her. Fortunately, the ground has now been well prepared. When she finally appears, Rita certainly lives up to her reputation. She's simply great. Our only beef is that we would like to have seen her role extended even further. As the critic for the weekly trade paper, Variety astutely commented: "Rita Hayworth blossoms like a rose. Clothed in stunning period costumes and gorgeously photographed, she gives her role a vivid quality and her personality a showcasing which will enormously increase her importance." My only beef is that the first two-thirds of The Strawberry Blonde where the script's accent lies firmly in the realms of musical comedy, offers superior entertainment to the last third where the action takes a more dramatic turn. Director Raoul Walsh seems unable to decide in what mood to play the final scenes, whereas his confident approach of nostalgic caricature and farce seemed such a perfect choice for Acts One and Two.

jjnxn-1 A lovely film with perfect performances from all four leads. Cagney is at his braggart best in the early going changing and maturing in a real, believable way. Olivia saucy and a bit bold but with a tenderness underneath, one of her best early performances. They share an immensely moving scene in the later part of the film, some of the best acting either ever did. Jack Carson with his oily glad handing charm is a marvelous fit for the mercenary, boorish, contemptible and rather stupid Hugo. But the one who benefited most from this film was Rita Hayworth. She had been slowly working her way up the ladder to this point but taking over the role when Ann Sheridan got into a dispute with her Warner bosses she took it between her teeth and ran with it all the way to A list stardom. Beautiful and flighty and every mans fantasy she is sublime in her single minded pursuit of wealth and position. Witty and wry and looking sensational in the period clothing she also skillfully shows her character's gradual change from coquettish young filly to dissatisfied, hardened shrew. Walsh sets a sprightly tone to the film and moves it forward at an assured pace helped greatly by several members of the Warner stock company especially Alan Hale and George Tobias. Not as well known as it should be this is classic cinema from Hollywood's Golden age.

Steffi_P During the golden age of Hollywood, a lot of pictures, especially the romances and musicals, took us back to another golden era – the final years of the 19th century. Not only was this the time in which many of the old guard were in their youth, it happens to be a good era for nostalgia in general. An innocent age before either world war and before the motor car had made the horse obsolete, a world perhaps best summed up by the sweet yet earthy character of its music.The Strawberry Blonde is itself a picture about nostalgia, albeit tinged with regret, as a man goes into a reverie about the friend and the would-be lover who wronged him years earlier. It is no surprise that the screenplay is by the Epstein brothers, Julius and Philip, whose best-known work Casablanca, a story with a very similar mix of regret and fondness for the past. However, with the flashback making up the bulk of its runtime, The Strawberry Blonde is by far the more indulgent of the two. Casablanca lives in the present while The Strawberry Blonde dreams of the past.The director here is Raoul Walsh, who according to the blurb on the back of numerous DVDs was an "action master". A more extensive look at his pictures though reveals him to be a bit of a romantic, with a real feeling for the warmth and intensity of human relationships. Whereas Warner's top director Michael Curtiz always emphasised sets and props, all but burying the actors, Walsh does the complete opposite. Take the scene in the bar where Alan Hale is drinking at the start of the flashback – each shot is made almost entirely of people, with folks lining the edge of the frame. It gives it a real cosy effect. Walsh also places us right inside the emotions of a scene by having actors facing the camera. When James Cagney and Olivia de Havilland are reunited towards the end, the opposing shots of them are not at forty-five degree angles to the lens as convention would dictate. Instead they are virtually looking straight out at the audience.And this is a cast worth focusing on. None of the four principle players – Cagney, de Havilland, Rita Hayworth and Jack Carson – are at their very best, but what's important is that they all seem to be enjoying their roles. Despite being in his 40s at the time, Cagney gives an exuberant portrayal of the younger Biff Grimes, and there is something almost childish in the way he sneers and fidgets his way through his first meeting with de Havilland. De Havilland herself has great fun playing an assertive free-thinker, and while very much against her type she is brilliant at bringing out that saucy flirtatiousness in her character. It's also nice to see Alan Hale playing a more sympathetic variation on his usual reprobate act, far more satisfying than the slightly villainous roles which for reasons I can't fathom he often ended up in. There's also a brief but memorable appearance by the great Una O'Connor.The Strawberry Blonde is by its very nature a movie with a lot of poignancy in it, balanced nicely with its tone of gentle comedy. The only real trouble is that some of the more tender moments are blunted by the punchy pace typical of Warner Brothers pictures, with a few scenes and shots not played out quite as long as they could have been. Still, the picture recovers much of its impact because its emotions are grounded in its atmosphere and its music. While not really a Musical, it is certainly a musical picture with a small "m". Diagetic music (real music in the film's world, as opposed to a background score) plays a major part not just in the story but in the construction of a scene – the strains of a band seeming to regulate or underscore every moment. Even what little non-diagetic music there is seems to dovetail from one of the familiar songs. And in the end, it is that magnificent waltz from which the title is derived that has the final word.

joeparkson This is the kind of movie Cagney wanted to make once he got the clout; his brother William Cagney is the producer. The theme is that trying to be something you're not may not give you the life you really wanted.In "Strawberry Blonde", Cagney turns his streetwise, toughguy image on its head. His character Biff Grimes is nowhere near as streetwise or as tough as he pretends to be. He keeps saying "I don't take nothing from nobody!", but in fact he loses every fight and gets played for a sucker again and again.Cagney dominates this movie, but the rest of the cast also nails their parts. "The Strawberry Blonde" character Virginia Brush is played by Rita Hayworth just before her WWII pin-up fame. This was a hard character to make sympathetic. She toys with Biff's adoration and ultimately stands up Biff in order to marry the more successful Hugo Barnstead. She does reveal herself poignantly; "Remember how all the boys used to whistle at me? Today I'd have to do the whistling." Jack Carson plays the phony Hugo Barnstead to such perfection that he got typecast in this part. In the 1960s Carson was still doing these parts; he played a used car salesman who suddenly cannot stop telling the truth in an episode of "The Twilight Zone".A radiant Olivia DeHavilland plays Virginia's best friend Amy Lind as a would be emancipated woman. Amy and Biff begin with a mutual dislike of each other, but what they really dislike is each other's facade. It all changes in a bittersweet scene where Amy goes to tell a waiting Biff that Virginia has eloped with Hugo. The masks come off, and Amy and Biff discover that they actually like each other. She is not the girl that Biff has longed to marry all his life, but he seems to fall in love with her after he marries her.Spoiler: Years later, Biff sees how the unhappy Virginia has made life miserable for Hugo with her nagging, and realizes that while he thought he'd been getting the short end all his life, he's actually a happy man and Hugo's not.The funniest lines go to Biff's barber friend Nick Papalas (George Tobias), and his deadpan deliver is a riot."My, how dees foreigners murrder de Eengleesh language" "Eef I marry Virginia, she turn out deefferent. Woman with seventeen kids, got no time to nag!" Credit should also be given to the director Raoul Walsh who recreated a nostalgic look at a more peaceful time on the eve of WWII. This movie is almost a musical; period songs are sprinkled throughout. It begins with college students singing "Bill Bailey"; there is actually a barbershop quartet in a barbershop singing "In The Evening By The Moonlight". The melody "When You Were Sweet Sixteen" plays whenever there's a scene between Biff and Amy.The song "The Strawberry Blonde" is sung or played by different characters throughout the movie. In Cagney's autobio, he says his mother was on the set during the filming and he waltzed with her to this song before the whole cast. Cagney's mother was a strawberry blonde in her youth, and the film's title was changed from "One Sunday Afternoon" to reflect this.I do wish that Warners had sprung for technicolor film on this movie. This is a far better movie than "Captains Of The Clouds" which was done in color.