A few nights ago, in a most elegant venue, secret rendezvous of San Francisco film buffs, I saw a British Film Noir, BAD BLONDE, a so-so picture few people in America have seen. And yet, the BAD BLONDE intrigued me, partly because of my surroundings, partly because of what I knew about the stars. 

In Great Britain, the Carnival or "Fun Fair," as the English like to call it, was a symbol of degradation, evil, and cruel, enticing, mindless fun from Victorian times until well after World War II. [I suppose Rock and Roll or the TV "reality show" has been its replacement.] Not surprising then that a first Hammer Films' attempt to break into the American market before their famous horror picture remakes, was an American-style B-Noir Movie, nor that it should begin and end (spoiler!) at the Fun Fair. Made cheaply in black and white, in conjunction with the multitudinous schlock productions of American Robert L. Lippert, BAD BLONDE (1953) is a tawdry little tragedy along the lines of THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE, but the picture also masks a pathetic real life story which would hint at what's become common fodder for TMZ and the other Hollywood TV gossip shows.

 *****

 In front of rolling dark and flashing roundabout rides, to the jumpy sound of barrel organs, Sharkey (Sid James), a generally unsentimental, tough Carny, is running a public participation sideshow. Step right up. Whoever can stay a round with the champ here will get a cupie d -- you get the idea. Who should step up but handsome, blond Johnny Flanagan (Tony Wright). In a short time, to the delight of the crowd, Sharkey has a new champ, to be billed as "The Flanagan Boy" (which was the film's British title).

By chance, Sharkey's old pal, Charlie Sullivan (John Slater) is in the audience, and he comes back to the dressing room. He has a patron on the hook, a rich, old Italian businessman, Giuseppi Vecchi (Fredrick Volk), who is a boxing fan. Perhaps, a deal can be made for the services of young Flanagan; a contract might be signed with Vecchi. Sharkey and Sullivan, experienced fight trainers, would get the boy in shape, manage him, bring him along in the provinces, draw down some handsome commissions from Vecchi and, eventually, from the London promoters.

 And so, it is done, and things go very well. Johnny takes instruction easily, and the two old managers are pleased with his progress. He is an innocent in need of a father (or fathers), unfortunately, perhaps a mother, too, you see. The wealthy Giuseppi, a man who likes to eat, drink and show his generosity to excess, takes to the boy as if he were the son he has never had. They go to the old man's estate in the south of England to train for a string of bouts.

 BUT! 

There is . . . a woman. There always has to be a woman, right? Giuseppi has a young American wife, Lorna (Barbara Payton), whose blonde overripeness, peculiar tartar eyes, and aching figure suggest unfullfilment. She is lonely, often by herself in her luxurious home. The first time Johnny sees her, he is literally transfixed. When she observes him in his boxing trunks, we can see where BAD BLONDE is going. With Giuseppi, Sharkey and Sullivan away in London, making business arrangements, the pair are thrown together by themselves.

 I'll leave you to find the rest by yourself, if you cannot guess. Based on a novel by the popular Max Cato (THE DEVIL AT FOUR O'CLOCK, MURPHYS WAR, etc), directed by Veteran Reginald Le Borg (JOE PALOOKA, CHAMP, and a score of others in that series), BAD BLONDE has some very decent documentary-style fight sequences, and the picture is available as part of a DVD package [Hammer Film Noir Double Feature, Vol. 1: Bad Blonde / Man Bait]. 

[MAN BAIT (Terence Fisher, 1952) stars George Brent and Marguerite Chapman, about a bookstore owner who becomes enmeshed in blackmail by a blonde bombshell, Barbara Payton's British counterpart, Diana Dors). I have not seen MANBAIT, but according to most accounts, BAD BLONDE is the better of the two films. I regret having to use the Hammer Film Noir designation, not having seen the other film.]


*****

 Let me then briefly end with a footnote, for you may already know the story behind the film. 

Though Sid James became well-known in America through the 1960's "Carry On Gang" series, most of the cast is unfamiliar. Tony Wright's young Flanagan, though blondely handsome enough,  does not strike one as one with the fire in the belly to be a champ, and so, attention falls, as it should do, on Barbara Payton, who properly a little hard looking, moves gracefully in the film, holds the screen well, and delivers her lines with bite.

 But, good as she was in most of the parts she ever played, why she is in BIG BLONDE is a real Hollywood Noir tale.

 Born in Cloquet, Minnesota, in 1927, Barbara Payton (aka Barbara Lee Redfield) had a marriage at fifteen with a school sweetheart which her parents had annulled. Three years later, in 1945, she married again and ran off to Hollywood. That marriage didn't last either, but her aggressive blonde good looks made her a starlet, and she was soon receiving favorable notices with Jimmy Cagney in KISS TOMORROW GOOD BYE (1950). The Cagney Brothers ceded a contract for her acting services to Jack Warner, and she went on to star with Gary Cooper in DALLAS (same year) and Gregory Peck in ONLY THE VALIANT (1951). Perhaps because of experiences as a teenager in the midwest, or simply because of her stunning seductive beauty and ambition, she gravitated to having affairs with her star leading men, and older men in general. At age 23, she was soon linked to producer Howard Hughes, actor John Ireland, gangster Mickey Cohen, actor George Raft, entertainment attorney Greg Bautzer, actors Gregory Peck, Tom Conway, Woody Strode, Guy Madison, Gary Cooper, and Steve Cochran. In other words, the bad boys and men about town of Hollywood. Bob Hope was said to have paid for a love nest with her for six months.

 She became engaged to 46 year-old Franchot Tone, at the time an A-List actor (MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY, 1935; THE PHANTOM LADY, 1942), but took up also with the younger, brutish-looking Tom Neal, who had shown great promise in Edgar G. Ulmer's classic Noir, DETOUR (1945), but whose later career had languished in B and C films. Strangely enough, both Tone and Neal came of wealthy families, both were college grads. Neal had a law degree from Harvard and was a champion college boxer (44-3 -- 41 knockouts). When he had a fisticuff confrontation with the slight Tone in 1951, Neal almost killed him. 

The scandal just about finished Neal's career in Movies, such as it was, and ended Payton's chances of being a top star. She married Tone, but within a few weeks, returned to Neal. The same year, she starred as BRIDE OF THE GORILLA, opposite a skinny Raymond Burr and Lon Chaney, Jr. With no further prospects, she took Neal to England, where she made BAD BLONDE, which if you think about the plot, has similarities to her own life. She made a couple of other movies in England, and another one back in America with Neal.

 From there [for both of them, really], it was down hill. Already addicted to sleeping pills and methamphetamines, she became a wino, throwing expensive fur coats on the bar to cover her tabs; there followed bad checks, shoplifting, heroin, drug possession and sale, vagrancy, and prostitution. In 1967, she died at 39 of heart and liver failure. 

[Neal left acting, too, but after his landscaping business collapsed, he was convicted in 1965 of shooting his third wife in the back of the head with a .45 calibre automatic (involuntary manslaughter). He served seven years of a ten year sentence, and died of a heart attack at 58, in North Hollywood, a few months following his release.] 
  [I might add that Tony Wright, Ms Payton's co-star in BAD BLONDE, had a longer career, on both screen, stage and television in mostly undistinguished properties.  In fact, "Mr. Beefcake," as he was known at one point, might have followed a similar career path to that of another body builder, Sean Connery.  In reality, he never really impressed, married the troubled Disney star, Janet Munro, for a time, and died at 61.]     

When Jessica Lange was studying her part opposite Jack Nicholson in Bob Rafelson's 1981 remake of THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE, she read Barbara Payton's autobiography, I'm Not Ashamed, and imagined that her character, Cora, might well have gravitated from Minnesota to California, hoping to become a star, then settled for being a roadhouse waitress, and found herself trapped in a marriage to an older man. 

Ironically, Jessica Lange, one of the most successful of Hollywood actresses, was also born in Cloquet, Minnesota, a few years before Barbara Payton left there to come to Hollywood.

 ******

 I couldn't help imagine, myself,  how much Barbara Peyton, wrapped in furs, would have enjoyed exquisite cocktails, watching BIG BLONDE in the gorgeous art deco room I saw it in. 

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 A Black and White Noir Minnesota Special (dedicated to Stephen Murray).

Recommended:
No

Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older