User Reviews

Delightfully witty, deceptive, clever and tricky, this murder mystery comedy farce gets going from the start. Detectives Frank Craven and William Demarest gave their hands full from the beginning with the sudden murder of a well known society matron, family scandal and more murders to follow. With Craven and Demarest close on their trails, the wacky team of Evelyn Keyes and Allyn Joslyn stay one step ahead of them, crushing every theory and breaking down every suspect as they outwit both the guilty and the law. It's pretty much Joslyn's show all the way, his street smarts mixing with his sophistication, although Nick Charles he ain't. Anita Louise, Ann Savage and Lynn Merrick are the other blondes, and there ain't a lady among them. Edmund Lowe, John Hubbard and Michael Duane are the more masculine of the supporting cast, and as it's determined who the guilty party is, you'll be both laughing and glued to your seat. It's one of the more well written B murder mystery comedies, lavishly filmed like an A picture, but giving character actors and second leads the chance to show what they can do in a supporting role.

This B picture from Columbia features Allyn Joselyn trying to start a comedy mystery series of films. Thanks to William Demerest there are some funny moments. Evelyn Keyes provides the female part of this B picture which tries to be The Thin Man. Problem is they just don't have the script writing of the other series.

Still the film has some decent moments with a writer trying to be a detective. The blondes are not as dangerous as they are in danger. The film fills the bill and catches the bad guys. The longest comedy bit is the elevator operator who seems to keep trying to rewind every trip to his experiences in the Spanish American war. He then keeps missing the floor he is supposed to be stopping at, to the disdain of his passengers.

It fit the under bill of this type of film for the double features of the 1940's in theaters well. Good enough to keep people waiting for the A feature.

A young woman tells her friend how something dreadful happened to her : while she was visiting a photographer's dark room, a stranger tried to grab and to chloroform her. The assailant only fled after realizing that he had attacked the wrong victim. The friend, who is half of a husband-and-wife duo of amateur sleuths, flies to the rescue and urges hubby to do the same...

"Dangerous blondes" is an agreeable blend of mystery and comedy, with an emphasis on the comedy. Not all of the lines, gags and jokes work, but those that do are great : there's a gag about two heavies guarding a fur cloak, for instance, that deserves comedic immortality. Some of the characters are pretty funny too, such as an old elevator boy who likes to tell everybody his curriculum vitae, beginning somewhere around the rise of the dinosaurs. Imagine being trapped in the same elevator as this ancient bore...

While charming, the husband-and-wife team of amateur detectives did not strike me as particularly good at crimefighting. Indeed, I'd go so far as to say that any two random passersby plucked from the street could have done equally well. Near the end, of course, our sleuths solved the case and identified the culprit ; thanks to the conventions of the genre, Canadian Mounties and comedic husband-and-wife teams always get their man. (Many thanks, by the way, to the person who thought up that final "Angel Rest mattress" joke.)

A question remains. If you're a law-abiding citizen and if an assailant had tried to attack you, wouldn't you go straight to the police ? It might help save innocent lives, including your own.