This is another case of a film that turned out to be different than I had expected: in fact, I thought it would be a gangster picture – which is why I watched it following 2 Josef von Sternberg genre entries that happened to feature the same star, George Bancroft! Still, it does concern a racket of some kind – since the protagonist is a leading bail-bondsman with an ability to pull strings where and when required (if anything, this was an area of work which was hardly ever touched by cinema and certainly not at this point!).The film came at the tail-end of the "Pre-Code" era, but it offers plenty of salacious elements – notably a gratuitous semi-nude Hawaiian dance and the uninhibited character of Frances Dee (which she herself described as "a masochistic nymphomaniacal kleptomaniac"!). Ironically, the lovely actress – soon to marry Joel McCrea and perhaps best-known for the Val Lewton/Jacques Tourneur horror classic I WALKED WITH A ZOMBIE (1943) – had just come off something from the opposite end of the spectrum, the David O. Selznick/George Cukor adaptation of the literary classic LITTLE WOMEN (1933)! Anyway, as had been the case with all 3 Bancroft vehicles I watched prior to this (there was also yet another Sternberg title, albeit not genre-related), he is played up to be something of a ladies' man (whereas a review of THUNDERBOLT [1929] had described his physical appearance as "repellent"!) but, at least, here he eventually settles down with someone closer to his type and age i.e. Judith Anderson in an early – and atypically glamorous – role (she is the owner of a speak-easy which comes equipped with a chanteuse whose vocal range takes in both Mae West and Al Jolson!).Another important character is Anderson's younger brother, an unrepentant criminal whom Bancroft is often required to bail-out for the woman's sake. However, the situation is complicated when Dee (another of the hero's clients) enters the picture – Bancroft neglects Anderson for her but, after she meets the "exciting" young man herself, begins an affair with him behind her 'protector''s back! In a complex turn-of-events, the protagonist himself becomes a pariah and is marked for death (via an exploding billiard-ball a' la Buster Keaton's SHERLOCK JR. [1924]!) by the city's gangland factions – with Anderson's consent! – but, ultimately, she sees the error of her ways and races against time to stop the attempt (suspense is admirably built here through cross-cutting, with her car even getting involved in a wreck!). The finale sees the two getting back together…while Dee bumps into a girl who had been practically ravaged by her proposed employer when answering an ad and, ever a glutton for punishment, she takes up the call herself! Finally, this is the first of 3 pictures by Rowland Brown (who seems to favor shooting from odd angles!) I will be watching over the course of succeeding days – the others are the thrillers QUICK MILLIONS (1931) and HELL'S HIGHWAY (1932); incidentally, he would make another film with Bancroft i.e. the gangster milestone ANGELS WITH DIRTY FACES (1938) – by which time, however, both had been demoted: the director to co-scriptwriter status and the star to a supporting role!

This is an excellent gritty thriller - just the sort of film you associate with George Bancroft. He plays Bill Bailey, a larger than life bail bondsman and a celebrity among high society and the criminal element. "I make my money off losers" - he makes his money extortingassets off his clients. In one of the first scenes an elderly woman comes to him about helping her young son, once he realises she owns her own house he gets her to leave the deeds with his receptionist. He is that kind of a guy!!!His lady love, Ruby Darling, is played, extraordinarily, by Judith Anderson - she owns a speak-easy, but they have known each other for a long time and are more like husband and wife. She helped him get to his present position of power. She also has a criminal brother, Drury (Chick Chandler), who has just been caught for a bank robbery - if he is found guilty he will go to jail for life on the 3 strikes you're out plan.The big reason to see this film is Frances Dee. She is just a sensation as the "drop dead gorgeous" socialite, Elaine Talbert, who first comes to Bill's attention when she is caught shop-lifting at a big department store. Bill falls for her but it is quite clear something is wrong - she gets a crazy gleam in her eye when she hears about all the crooked things he has had to do in his line of business. You just know when she meets Drury that she is going to fall for him in a big way - after all he has just masterminded a daring bank robbery. Her views about how she likes to be treated by men raise a few eyebrows as well. Nymphomaniac, sado masochist, there is nothing that Elaine won't do - and Frances Dee pulls it off with aplomb. She had already given a superb performance in "The Silver Cord" as a young girl tottering on the brink of madness. It is a pity she was soon to wind down her career in favour of marriage to handsome Joel McCrea but she definitely left some wonderful performances. Because Elaine double crosses Bill (keeping the $50,000 bail money and giving him worthless bonds in exchange) it looks like he has left Drury high and dry so Ruby organises some of the mob to destroy him. She realises her mistake at the end and madly hurries down to the pool hall to save his life (the eight ball has been filled with enough explosive to kill him). Being a pre-code you don't really know what to expect. The real ending is a scream. Elaine, hurrying to Bill after being thrown over by Drury, meets a girl who has been enticed to a man's room with the promise of modelling work. "He threw me around, he bruised my arms and really roughed me up" - Elaine's response "What's the man's name and what room is he in". The gleam in her eye leave you in no doubt that she definitely does not want to report him!!!By the way the girl who is socked at the beginning - "Red's" girl - is the beautiful Noel Francis who played sultry vixens to perfection!! Blossom Seeley, a legendary singer of the time, sings "Frankie and Johnny", "On San Francisco Bay" and "My Melancholy Baby".Highly Recommended.

"Blood Money" is a fascinating precode - what else can you say about a film that has Judith Anderson in a glamor role? And an ingénue who longs for S&M to boot.This 1933 film concerns a bail bondsman named Bill Bailey (George Bancroft) who's been helping out the mob for years. He falls for a pretty shoplifter named Elaine (Frances Dee) - she's actually slumming, as she's from a wealthy family. This leaves Bailey's girlfriend, club owner Ruby (Anderson) in the lurch. She's the woman responsible for his success, helping him out when he was thrown off of the police force. However, Elaine (who would follow any man who thrashed her around like a dog, says she) steals some bonds instead of delivering them to the appropriate place, thereby setting up Bailey as a mob target and getting his brother-in-law in deep trouble with the law. Ruby believes he's responsible for her brother's problems, and has a hit put out on him.The acting is over the top, the dialogue is rough and filled with sexual innuendos, the atmosphere is sleazy - it's pre-code all right. I read a transcript of an interview with Joel McCrea (intended to be for a biography that wasn't written) and he kept referring to "Mother" - I finally realized that he didn't call his wife, Frances Dee, "mother" - he was referring to her that way while talking to one of his sons, who was conducting the interview. As the promiscuous, dying to be hit ingénue, she wasn't very motherly in this.This is a no-miss if only to see Judith Anderson in a gown and jewels hanging out with mobsters and Frances Dee as something other than a pretty goody-two-shoes.

Pre-Code Hollywood was a "fascinating period in American motion picture history from 1930 to 1934 when the commandments of the Production Code Administration were violated with impunity in a series of wildly unconventional films -a time when censorship was lax and Hollywood made the most of it..."The underworld-set BLOOD MONEY(Fox 1933), typical of its time, tweaks convention by making no apologies for its morally compromised characters or their criminal actions and risqué situations. Burly George Bancroft plays high-profile L.A. bail bondsman Bill Bailey, a man who makes a very comfortable living off society's less fortunate. Vice queen Ruby Darling (a languid, bejeweled Judith Anderson swathed in fur) put him on top after he was thrown off the police force for theft and he repays her by falling for kleptomaniac Elaine Talbart, a Beverly Hills society girl with an "underworld mania". When Bailey introduces Elaine to Ruby's bank-robber brother, Drury (Chick Chandler), sparks fly but a double-cross by Elaine forces Ruby to put an underworld contract out on Bailey. In this film's universe, criminal careers, shady politics, high society hypocrisy, prostitution, and sexual ambiguity are all alluded to in breezy fashion and even unrequited love resolves itself in an upbeat ending. Frances Dee steals the show as the over-heated Elaine, a gal who's eyes light up at the very thought of crime. She's last seen chatting up a stranger who was just manhandled and near-raped by a photographer she interviewed for; Elaine, growing visibly excited, asks the girl what floor his offices are located on and rushes off to meet him! Buxom songstress Blossom Seely, done up as "Diamond Lil", torches it up in a speakeasy and look quickly for a platinum blonde Lucille Ball playing a five dollar hooker at the dog track.