Oscar Profile #48: Joan Blondell

Born August 30, 1906 in New York City, Joan Blondell was the daughter of vaudevillians with whom she toured beginning at the age of four. Having joined a stock company at the age of 17 she was back living with parents in Dallas when she won the title of Miss Texas in 1926 and came in fourth in the Miss America pageant in Atlantic City later that same year.

On Broadway opposite James Cagney in 1929’s Penny Arcade, she and Cagney were cast in the 1930 film version retitled Sinners Holiday, after which Cagney became a major star while Blondell became Warner Bros. quintessential blonde, appearing in more than 100 films by the end of the decade.

Equally at home in musicals, comedies and dramas, the effervescent actress was usually cast as a gold-digger or friend of the heroine. Among her early successes were The Public Enemy; Night Nurse; Gold Diggers of 1933; Flirtation Walk and Dames.

Her first husband, from 1932 to 1936, was cinematographer George Barnes. Her second, from 1936 to 1944, was actor/singer Dick Powell with whom she appeared in numerous films. Although it was Ruby Keeler who usually got him in the movies, it was Blondell who got him in real life.

Having left Warner Bros. in 1939 to become an independent player, Blondell was still getting star billing in the early to mid-1940s in such well-received films as Topper Returns; Cry Havoc and A Tree Grows in Brooklyn She received rave notices for the latter as well as 1947’s Nightmare Alley, in which she supported Tyrone Power. Married to showman Mike Todd in 1947, their troubled marriage ended in 1950 after which Blondell remained single for the rest of her life.

Nominated for an Oscar for 1951’s The Blue Veil in support of Jane Wyman, Blondell maintained a career on TV and sage as well as on screen. She reprised her role of Aunt Sissy in the touring stage version of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn replacing Shirley Booth. She had three memorable roles on screen in the mid-1950s in The Opposite Sex in support of former husband Dick Powell’s current wife, June Allyson; as Katharine Hepburn’s friend in Desk Set and as Jayne Mansfield’s friend in Will Success Spoil rock Hunter?

She had her greatest late career triumph as card dealing Lady Fingers in 1965’s The Cincinnati Kid for which she received the National Board of Review Award for Best Supporting Actress and a Golden Globe in the same category. Oddly enough, she was not nominated for an Oscar though she certainly should have been.

On TV for much of the 1970s, She was back on the big screen in her last years as a playwright in Opening Night; a waitress in Grease and a kindly matron in The Champ.

Joan Blondell died on Christmas Day 1979.

ESSENTIAL FILMS

GOLD DIGGERS OF 1933 (1933), directed by Mervyn LeRoy

One of many musicals and comedies of the day about young women on the prowl for rich husbands, this one stands out in every respect from beginning to end with its smart acting, snappy dialogue and cascade of great show tunes marvelously choreographed by the inimitable Busby Berkeley. The film opens with Ginger Rogers singing and dancing to “We’re in the Money” and closes with Blondell singing her heart out to “My Forgotten Man” as images of World War I soldiers march across the screen while older versions of the same men look haunted and lost standing on breadlines. In between we get the rags to riches story of the three main characters (Blondell, Aline MacMahon and Ruby Keeler) and the men they hook (Warren William, Guy Kibbee, Dick Powell). Only Ginger Rogers has little to do.

A TREE GROWS IN BROOKLYN (1945), directed by Elia Kazan

This was Blondell’s favorite of all her films with good reason. Betty Smith’s novel was a classic and Kazan’s first film was an unqualified success.

Blondell identified with the happy-go-lucky Aunt Sissy who was always there to offer wise counsel to her younger sister (Dorothy McGuire) and her children (Peggy Ann Garner, Ted Donaldson) while never quite seeming to get her own house in order. Blondell wistfully regretted that her favorite scene from the novel couldn’t be filmed in the 1940s – the one where her character who worked in a condom factory brings home samples for the kids to use as balloons. She later starred in the touring version of the musical version in which her character is the show’s star.

THE BLUE VEIL (1951), directed by Curtis Bernhardt

Jane Wyman was well showcased as the star of this tearjerker about a woman who having lost her husband to World War I and her baby to an early death, spends her life caring for other people’s children. One of those people is Blondell, a stage star who is so wrapped up in her own life that she doesn’t realize she’s losing her daughter, Natalie Wood, who introduces nanny Wyman as her mother at her graduation. Blondell’s stage number was choreographed by Busby Berkeley who choreographed her old musicals at Warner Bros. It helped bring her the only Oscar nomination of her long career.

THE CINCINNATI KID (1965), directed by Norman Jewison

Blondell is a total delight as Lady Fingers, the fast-talking, fast-dealing lady card dealer of the big game between Steve McQueen and Edward G. Robinson. Robinson was one of the many stars she played opposite in her 1930s heyday and the two work well together in their reunion flick. She won the National Board of Review Award for Best Supporting Actress and was nominated for a Golden Globe, but Oscar, despite a weak year for supporting actresses, failed to look her way, one of the most blatant injustices in Oscar history.

OPENING NIGHT (1977), directed by John Cassavetes

Some regard John Cassavetes’ improvisational films as nirvana. Others would rather be dragged through the mud by wild horses than sit through one of his long, indulgent talk-fests. Even the latter group, though, found something to like in this barely released film that has become a cult favorite and that was Joan Blondell, who is a standout once again as the dying playwright who writes the play Gena Rowlands stars in under Cassavetes’ direction in the play within the film. The public was unaware that Blondell herself would be dead of cancer in a mere two years leaving behind a treasure trove of films that audiences are still discovering today.