As The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences wisely categorized, The Strawberry Blonde is actually a musical. True, it could also be aptly described as a romantic comedy or even as a comedy-drama. But with its feast of period songs, I see it primarily as a musical in which both the period nostalgia and even the songs themselves are gently spoofed. Walsh's bright, crisp direction deftly employs a dazzling variety of camera angles and fluid camera movements. These, combined with sharp film editing, effectively disguise the screenplay's otherwise rather obvious stage origins. Walsh also had the supreme advantage of an extremely generous budget which ran to large, lavishly appointed sets that could never be duplicated even in the roomiest Broadway theater. As the volatile, rather bitter dentist, James Cagney seems perfectly cast, while George Tobias (in the Roscoe Karns role) makes an ideal stooge in the opening scenes where so much depends on instant information dialogue. Between them, Cagney and Tobias lay this essential groundwork not only with care, precision and subtlety, but with an unobtrusive professionalism that adds up to sheer entertainment. On the other hand, although Rita Hayworth plays the title role, she makes a rather late entrance. Even Jack Carson, perfectly cast as the obnoxious Hugo "whom we all know and love", precedes her. Fortunately, the ground has now been well prepared. When she finally appears, Rita certainly lives up to her reputation. She's simply great. Our only beef is that we would like to have seen her role extended even further. As the critic for the weekly trade paper, Variety astutely commented: "Rita Hayworth blossoms like a rose. Clothed in stunning period costumes and gorgeously photographed, she gives her role a vivid quality and her personality a showcasing which will enormously increase her importance." My only beef is that the first two-thirds of The Strawberry Blonde where the script's accent lies firmly in the realms of musical comedy, offers superior entertainment to the last third where the action takes a more dramatic turn. Director Raoul Walsh seems unable to decide in what mood to play the final scenes, whereas his confident approach of nostalgic caricature and farce seemed such a perfect choice for Acts One and Two.

This is the second film version of the same story I watched back-to-back. The first one was called One Sunday Afternoon starring Gary Cooper. Here, it's James Cagney as Biff Grimes as the aspiring dentist who is rivals with Jack Carson for Rita Hayworth's hand with Olivia de Havilland as her friend. There's also the addition of Alan Hale Sr. as Cagney's father and George Tobias as Cagney's more loyal friend. In comparison to Gary Cooper's version which I thought was pretty slow and not all that funny, this version was livelier through and through and got me smiling and laughing heartily during all that time. In summary, The Strawberry Blonde was quite a fun movie to watch compared to One Sunday Afternoon.

. . . in this Warner Bros. spoof of GONE WITH THE WIND. Rita Hayworth is STRAWBERRY BLONDE's incarnation of Scarlett O'Hara, though her title character is called "Virginia Brush" here to avoid infringing upon MGM's copyrights. No GWTW parody would be complete without a Rhett Butler, so Jack Carson's "Hugo F. Barnstead" stands in for that caddish scoundrel. James Cagney is spot on as feisty milquetoast oxymoron Mr. Wilkes, otherwise known as mail-ordered dentist "Biff Grimes." In a stunning lack of casting imagination, Olivia De Havilland reprises her own Melanie role under the guise of "Amy Lind" here. As in GWTW, the Ashley\Biff character gets separated from his wife for a five-year ordeal. Just as in GWTW, the Melanie\Amy lady gets pregnant before the Scarlett\Virginia hussy. As in GWTW, the former is a plain homebody with simple tastes, while the latter lives life large to extravagant excess. Both movies contain racist song lyrics, and an Irish dad accidentally dying at an inopportune juncture. But STRAWBERRY BLONDE wins the better picture award hands down, since you can view it in one sitting and it concludes with audience karaoke rather than with a lot of swearing.

Strawberry Blonde, The (1941) ** (out of 4) James Cagney falls head over hills for a woman (Rita Hayworth) but she won't have anything to do with him so he marries another woman (Olivia de Havilland) instead. I haven't seen the original film or the future remake and while I know this version gets pretty good reviews it just didn't work for me. I thought the screenplay was rather weak and most of the comedy is rather forced and in the end unfunny. Cagney gives it his all trying to bring laughs but the screenplay doesn't do him any justice. Hayworth is cute in her role but sadly she's not in too much of the film. The real problem for me was de Havilland who really comes off bad. She's playing a bland character but her performance doesn't come off very well. She sleepwalks through the role and I just didn't want to see her on screen at anytime. Walsh's direction is nice but in the end this is a bland comedy all around. Alan Hale, Jack Carson, George Tobias, Una O'Connor and George Reeves co-star.