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Always a super-trouper, rarely a stand-alone star, Joan Blondell is an unexpected choice to be the focus of a full-dress Barbara Stanwyck/Greta Garbo-style UCLA Film & Television Archive career retrospective.
But here she is front and center in "Blonde Crazy: Joan Blondell," a five-week, 14-film tribute beginning Friday at the Hammer Museum's Billy Wilder Theater in Westwood, big as life, twice as sassy and something of a revelation.
Even in the pre-Code roles that made her famous (she did an astounding 40 features for Warner Bros. between 1930 and 1935), Blondell brought unexpected emotional genuineness to what could have been standard-issue parts.
And because she had such an extraordinarily long stage and film career -- from her 1909 vaudeville debut at age 3 to her death in 1979 -- Blondell had the chance to collaborate with filmmakers such as Elia Kazan and John Cassavettes, whose approaches differed radically from the directors she worked with in those heady pre-Code years.
Even if you can't immediately place the actress' name, you'll recognize Blondell the moment she appears on screen. No one did been-around better than she did, no one made wised-up and level-headed look more richly attractive.
But though her characters could convincingly proclaim, as one does in "Blondie Johnson," "I know all the answers, and I know what it's all about," there was more to the Blondell persona than that.
Because somehow, against formidable odds, having seen it all did not sour her on life. Yes, her characters couldn't be fooled or taken advantage of, but more...