BLOOD MONEY (1933) was made by Darryl Zanuck's fledgling company 20th Century Pictures and released through United Artists. (20th Century Pictures merged with Fox in 1936.) It marked the feature film debut of Judith Anderson. This would be her only film in the 30s. She was quite busy on Broadway and on the London stage from 1934 to 1939, before returning to films in her most famous role as the housekeeper in REBECCA (1940).
Anderson's character in BLOOD MONEY, ironically named Ruby Darling, is a vamp as well as a powerful underworld figure. In some ways, this role seemed like something Mae West would have played, except without the cutesy innuendo. Ruby operates her shady business out in the open, as much of it as she wants to be seen, running a nightclub while keeping her criminal brother out of trouble with the law.
When her brother (Chick Chandler) robs another bank and faces life in prison, she enlists the aid of her on again-off again lover, a corrupt bail bondsman named Bill Bailey (George Bancroft, the star of the picture). This relationship is complicated by the fact that Bill has become smitten with a society girl (Frances Dee) who is anything but wholesome. The girl ends up jilting Bill and marrying Ruby's brother, which adds another layer of complex emotions to the proceedings.
What I like about this film is how deceptively simple it starts, then we become more and more engrossed in the deeper layers of corruption in which these people exist. We root for Ruby and Bill to get back together at the end, even though neither one is probably worth rooting for individually. But they do make a dynamic couple, with Ruby calling the shots.
Frances Dee's character Elaine Talbart really goes to the dark side and has an unhealthy fixation with crime. A story like this could not have been filmed a year later after the production code was firmly in place!
There's a great line of dialogue where Bill says, 'The only difference between a liberal and a conservative is that a liberal recognizes the existence of vice and controls it, while a conservative turns their back like it doesn't exist.' In this regard, Ruby is the ultimate liberal because she has all the bad boys under her control. Elaine, who comes from a proper upper class family, is rebelling because men treat her as if she is unimportant.
Anderson's character in BLOOD MONEY, ironically named Ruby Darling, is a vamp as well as a powerful underworld figure. In some ways, this role seemed like something Mae West would have played, except without the cutesy innuendo. Ruby operates her shady business out in the open, as much of it as she wants to be seen, running a nightclub while keeping her criminal brother out of trouble with the law.
When her brother (Chick Chandler) robs another bank and faces life in prison, she enlists the aid of her on again-off again lover, a corrupt bail bondsman named Bill Bailey (George Bancroft, the star of the picture). This relationship is complicated by the fact that Bill has become smitten with a society girl (Frances Dee) who is anything but wholesome. The girl ends up jilting Bill and marrying Ruby's brother, which adds another layer of complex emotions to the proceedings.
What I like about this film is how deceptively simple it starts, then we become more and more engrossed in the deeper layers of corruption in which these people exist. We root for Ruby and Bill to get back together at the end, even though neither one is probably worth rooting for individually. But they do make a dynamic couple, with Ruby calling the shots.
Frances Dee's character Elaine Talbart really goes to the dark side and has an unhealthy fixation with crime. A story like this could not have been filmed a year later after the production code was firmly in place!
There's a great line of dialogue where Bill says, 'The only difference between a liberal and a conservative is that a liberal recognizes the existence of vice and controls it, while a conservative turns their back like it doesn't exist.' In this regard, Ruby is the ultimate liberal because she has all the bad boys under her control. Elaine, who comes from a proper upper class family, is rebelling because men treat her as if she is unimportant.