Anybody's Blonde (1931) Review: A messy, fast Pre-Code mystery

Is it worth the watch?

Honestly, if you've got an hour to kill and you like those movies that sound like a frying pan hitting a sidewalk, then yes. It is definitely for people who enjoy Pre-Code grit and don't mind a plot that feels like it was written on a napkin during lunch.

If you hate scratchy audio or movies where the mystery is solved by someone just blurting out the truth, you will probably hate this. It’s not exactly The Gold Rush in terms of quality, but it has its own weird charm. 🍸

The whole thing starts with a boxing match. The crowd looks like they’re having a moderately okay time, but then the boxer gets murdered and everything goes sideways.

Dorothy Revier plays the sister. She’s the blonde in the title, I guess, and she owns a nightclub which is where all the interesting stuff happens.

I noticed the sets are kind of thin. Like, you can almost hear the actors' shoes echoing on the plywood floor when they walk into a room.

Cinematic perspective: Exploring the visual vocabulary of Anybody's Blonde (1931) through its definitive frames.

The Reporter Problem

The main guy is a reporter, and he is just... the worst? Usually, in these old movies, the news guys are the heroes, but this guy spends half the movie trying to frame an innocent woman just for a headline.

It makes the movie feel a bit more modern than I expected. Like, we still have people doing fake news for clicks today, right? 📰

There is this one scene where a character is drinking from a glass and you can tell there is absolutely nothing in it. They don't even try to pretend it has weight. It’s little things like that that make me love these B-movies.

"I'm not looking for trouble, I'm looking for a story!"

The dialogue is super fast. Sometimes too fast. I had to rewind a bit because I missed why the reporter hated the sister so much. I think it was just because she wouldn't give him a quote?

Arthur Housman shows up too. He plays a drunk, which is basically all he ever did in movies. He’s really good at it though. His tie is always slightly crooked and he has this sleepy look that feels very authentic.

Cinematic perspective: Exploring the visual vocabulary of Anybody's Blonde (1931) through its definitive frames.

• The nightclub music is actually kind of catchy.
• The boxing scenes are... well, they aren't Rocky.
• Dorothy Revier has some great hats. Seriously, the hats in 1931 were top tier.

The movie reminds me a little bit of A Romance of the Underworld because of the whole crime-and-nightlife vibe. But this one feels cheaper. Like it was filmed in a weekend.

The writing by Betty Burbridge is okay, but it gets a bit messy toward the end. The way they find the real killer is just... they just kind of find him. There isn't much detective work involved.

I liked the scenes in the newspaper office. The desks are covered in actual paper and everyone is smoking like their lives depend on it. It’s very moody. 🚬

One thing that bugged me was the lighting in the final act. It’s so dark you can barely see who is talking. Maybe they ran out of lightbulbs that day or something.

The pacing is high-speed. It’s only about 60 minutes long. That’s the best part about these old films; they don't overstay their welcome. They get in, tell you who died, and then the credits roll.

If you're looking for something deep, keep looking. But if you want to see a guy in a trench coat act like a jerk for an hour while a blonde lady looks stressed out in a nightclub, this is your movie.

It’s not a masterpiece, but it’s fine. It’s a bit like eating a cheap burger. You know it’s not steak, but it hits the spot when you're hungry for some old-school melodrama.