Plot
Strawberry Blonde is the second, and by far the most well-regarded, of the three film versions of James Hogan's play One Sunday Afternoon. James Cagney stars as Biff Grimes, a turn-of-the-century dentist married to onetime suffragette Amy Lind (Olivia de Havilland). A former convict, Biff has great difficulty keeping his temper--and when alderman Hugo Barnstead (Jack Carson), the man responsible for Cagney's unjust prison term, shows up one Sunday afternoon to have a tooth pulled, the pugnacious dentist begins developing homicidal urges. In a lengthy flashback, we learn that Biff and Hugo, once the best of friends, were business partners in a construction firm. When one of their buildings collapsed due to shoddy materials, Biff was sent to jail for five years, while Hugo escaped scot-free. Even worse, Hugo stole Biff's girlfriend Virginia Brush (Rita Hayworth), the "strawberry blonde" of the title. The flashback over, Biff sharkishly welcomes Hugo into his office, fully intending to bump off his old enemy. But during a reunion with his "dream girl" Virginia, Biff realizes for the first time that Amy was the right girl for him all along, and that Hugo did him a favor by taking the strident, shrewish Virginia off his hands. Letting Hugo off with little more than a sore jaw, Biff takes Amy in his arms--but not before settling a few old accounts with his fists, just for old time's sake. ~ Hal Erickson, RoviReview
Raoul Walsh's excellent adaptation of James Hagan's stage fable One Sunday Afternoon features Olivia De Haviland in a rare comic part. Told in flashback, the film stars James Cagney as a turn-of-the-century dentist who contemplates doing away with his next patient (Jack Carson), a former friend who years earlier stole the girl (Rita Hayworth) he wanted, and later framed him for a crime which landed him in prison for five years. It's something of a novelty to see Cagney and former cowboy Walsh, both of whom made their name in tough-guy pictures, work so well in a different genre. Cagney goes against type as a sucker, constantly being outwitted by his fatuous con-man "friend." While it doesn't approach the satiric bite of Preston Sturges, the film recalls his work in its suggestion of the essential corruption of city life, and a sure sense of the kind of characters who usually end up on the top of the heap. But in a film where poetic justice prevails, Walsh has chosen to soften the story even more by cloaking it in nostalgia and period elements. Cagney, Carson, and De Haviland are all excellent, and, in her biggest role to date, Hayworth has rarely looked more beautiful. ~ Michael Costello, RoviCast
- James Cagney - Biff Grimes
- Olivia de Havilland - Amy Lind
- Rita Hayworth - Virginia Brush
- Jack Carson - Hugo Barnstead
- Alan Hale - Old Man Grimes
Credit
Robert M. Haas - Art Director, William Cagney - Associate Producer, Orry-Kelly - Costume Designer, Russ Saunders - First Assistant Director, Raoul Walsh - Director, William Holmes - Editor, Heinz Roemheld - Composer (Music Score), Leo F. Forbstein - Musical Direction/Supervision, Perc Westmore - Makeup, James Wong Howe - Cinematographer, Hal B. Wallis - Producer, Jack L. Warner - Producer, Willard Van Enger - Special Effects, Robert B. Lee - Sound/Sound Designer, Julius J. Epstein - Screenwriter, Philip G. Epstein - Screenwriter, James Hogan - Play Author| The Straw Man (1953 Film), The Stratton Story (1949 Film) | |
| The Strawberry Roan (1948 Film), The Strawberry Shortcake Movie: Sky's the Limit (2009 Film) |
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