The audience at Ritrovato applauded this at the end and the applause depressed me. The film is banal, clichéd, derivative. There are bits of Gone With The Wind, Rebecca, Jezebel. It’s a hodge-podge of genres — Gothic, Western, Romance, Gangster, Melodrama — brutishly blended ‘Maybe they’re applauding themselves’, a friend asked? I hope so because it’s one of those films that whilst siding with people of colour in the terms of the time now comes across as racist as well as incompetent.
The stars are the only reason to see the film. John Wayne is at his most handsome, and he’s able to get all the laughs. She is always great and this is a good example of how she could be absolutely great in absolute dreck. Blondell grew up in vaudeville and is one of those genius performers who is always aware of the audience, always performing FOR them, whilst also always being true to the character she’s playing, able to convey that truth as layered and with depth, whilst not missing a laugh if there’s one to be had. She had a rare warmth as well. She’s not well served by the production, which was tailored for her, a contradiction but one that tells us much about Republic Studios. I hope whoever dreamed up her spider-legs-eyelashes was fired.
This was Blondell’s last starring part, tellingly for Republic studios. She would be third billed in Cry-Havoc in 43 and then would return in ’45, in one of her greatest performances as Aunt Sissy in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, but now firmly ensconced as a supporting actress, a category through which she would grace us for the rest of her lifewith her unmatched warmth and talent.
A terrible film; entertaining but discomforting, and a good examples of what Joan Blondell can do and of what stars can bring to a picture,
José Arroyo
