Blonde Ice (1948)
Blonde Ice is a 1946 crime film noir starring Leslie Brooks, Robert Paige, and Michael Whalen. Based on the 1938 novel Once Too Often by Elwyn Whitman Chambers, the B picture was directed by Jack Bernhard, with music by Irving Gertz.
Director – Jack Bernhard
Writers – Kenneth Gamet (screenplay), Whitman Chambers (novel “Once Too Often”), Dick Irving Hyland (adaptation)
Cast –
Robert Paige as Les Burns
Leslie Brooks as Claire Cummings Hanneman
Russ Vincent as Blackie Talon, the Pilot
Michael Whalen as Stanley Mason, Attorney
James Griffith as Al Herrick
Emory Parnell as Police Capt. Bill Murdock
Walter Sande as Hack Doyle
John Holland as Carl Hanneman
Mildred Coles as June Taylor
Selmer Jackson as District Attorney Ed Chalmers
David Leonard as Dr. Geoffrey Kippinger
Watch “Blonde Ice” (1948)
Plot
Claire Cummings, a society columnist for a San Francisco paper, is about to marry Carl Henneman in his opulent mansion. A small group of men – all Claire’s old co-workers from the newspaper – comment about Claire being late to her own wedding. At least two of them – Les Burns and Al Herrick – are ex-lovers of Claire’s. Claire appears at the top of the stairs as the wedding march begins, making her way down the stairs and into the ceremony. As the ceremony takes place, Les leaves to go stand on the veranda, and Claire watches him, instead of focusing on her wedding. Immediately following the ceremony, Claire slips out to join Les and tells him she still loves him and will continue to see him, despite now being married. She kisses him, which her new husband sees. When Claire re-enters the reception, Carl confronts his new bride, who tells him that Les is like her brother, and the kiss was platonic. Carl believes her.
While on their honeymoon in Los Angeles, Claire and Carl are at the racetrack, arguing about Claire’s reckless betting on random horses. Claire thinks it doesn’t matter, since Carl’s wealthy, but Carl wants her to be more frugal. The couple return to their hotel, where Claire writes a love letter to Les. When Carl enters the room, she hides the letter, but Carl quickly discovers it and tells her he’s going to divorce her. At first, she barely reacts, telling Carl that California’s a state with community property laws which entitle a spouse to half of a couple’s combined holdings. But Carl says he’s taking the letter Claire had been writing to Les as proof of adultery, so she won’t receive any recompense. Carl leaves, heading back to San Francisco to begin divorce proceedings.
Claire hatches a plan; she heads to an airfield where she finds a pilot, Blackie Talon, who is willing to fly her immediately to San Francisco and back. She pays him extra to buy his silence.
The next morning Claire phones Les and tells him Carl has flown to New York on business and she is planning to return to San Francisco where she’ll spend the rest of her honeymoon time with him. She asks Les to arrange a flight for her and to pick her up at the airport. After the pick-up Claire asks him to drive to Carl’s mansion so she can get some clothes.
Upon arriving, Les makes a gruesome discovery – Carl’s dead body in an easy chair, a gun on the carpet. It looks like suicide. Les phones the police, although Claire seems unfazed. The two are questioned at the police station. The police think Carl’s death could not have been suicide as there are no fingerprints on the gun, nor powder burns on his hands or clothes. They suspect Claire, but she has a strong alibi; she states that she was in Los Angeles at the time of the murder and has the plane ticket and Les to back her up.
Les and Claire rekindle their romance, as if her whirlwind marriage and the subsequent death of Carl Henneman had never taken place. One night while out to dinner Claire spots Stanley Mason, an attorney who is currently running for congress. She asks Les about him and brings up the idea of his handling Carl’s estate. She arranges an introduction and tells Mason that she could use a good lawyer to handle her late husband’s estate. He decides to help her and in no time the pair become lovers.
Les finds himself once again losing Claire to another man. At the same time the police are coming down hard on him, as he is their prime suspect. Les realizes there are too many holes in the scenario of Carl’s “suicide” and confronts Claire, telling her, “You’re not a normal woman. You’re not warm. You’re cold, like ice. Yeah, like ice – blonde ice.”
After Claire has thrown Les out Blackie arrives, demanding $50,000 for his silence. He takes her necklace as a first installment. The next evening, Claire and Stanley are joined at dinner by psychologist Dr. Kippinger, who openly comments on the manipulative aspect of her nature.
With the police having closed Carl’s murder case, due to insufficient evidence, Claire is able to relax somewhat. But then Blackie phones, demanding money. Claire drives to meet him but shoots him as he gets out of the car.
At the victory party where Stanley celebrates his election victory, he also announces that he is going to marry Claire. Les leaves in consternation. He is home alone, having a drink, when Claire walks in and tells him she really loves him. He calls her poison. She puts her arms around him and at that moment Stanley walks in. He has come to break off their engagement and nothing Claire can say will dissuade him.
Claire murders Stanley with a knife and when Les walks in, he picks up the knife, making it easy for her to pin the murder on him. The police come and arrest Les but Dr. Kippinger is certain the real murderer is Claire. He confronts her at her newspaper office and discovers that she has written a confession about the murders of Carl, Blackie and Stanley. Claire tries to shoot Dr. Kippinger but misses and as she and Al grapple for the gun she is fatally wounded.
In the final scene, a bunch of people come into the office and look down at the body. Les leaves last, shutting the door behind him.