Joan Blondell Q&A Pt.3: A Tree Grows In Brooklyn, Condoms and Censorship Though I know that Joan Blondell and Ann Sothern were quite different as performers, they often played no-nonsense, wisecracking dames in lots of programmers — Blondell at WB, Sothern at Rko and then MGM. Now, Sothern became an A-list player at MGM in the late 1940s, after having been around for more than 15 years. Why didn't Blondell keep her leading lady status after the early 1940s? Did she refuse to sign any long-term contracts with the studios? There was a critical point in Joan's career in the late '30s and early '40s — after she left Warners and began freelancing — where opportunities were lost. The quality of roles offered at Columbia, MGM, and Universal, was no better than what she had at Warners. As she describes it, she wasn't a fighter for decent scripts the way Bette Davis was.
- 8/25/2011
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Joan Blondell, Dick Powell, Dames Joan Blondell has always been a favorite of mine, much like fellow wisecracking 1930s Warner Bros. players Aline MacMahon and Glenda Farrell. The fact that Blondell never became a top star says more about audiences — who preferred, say, Shirley Temple and Mickey Rooney — than about Blondell's screen presence and acting abilities. As part of its "Summer Under the Stars" film series, Turner Classic Movies is currently showing no less than 16 Joan Blondell movies today, including the TCM premiere of the 1968 crime drama Kona Coast. Directed by Lamont Johnson, Kona Coast stars Richard Boone and the capable Vera Miles. Blondell has a supporting role — one of two dozen from 1950 (For Heaven's Sake) to 1981 (The Woman Inside, released two years after Blondell's death from leukemia). [Joan Blondell Movie Schedule.] Unfortunately, TCM isn't showing the super-rare (apparently due to rights issues) The Blue Veil, Curtis Bernhardt's 1951 melodrama that earned Blondell her...
- 8/24/2011
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
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