Film review: (The) Strawberry Blonde (1941)

More confirmation that Jimmy Cagney can do light comedy (although this film also has dramatic moments).  This was supposedly one of Rita Hayworth's breakthrough roles: she is the titular "strawberry blonde"

(because she famously had red hair, even though her real hair color was black, just like her Spanish father) with whom Cagney's Biff Grimes is in love, before he realizes that her friend (played by the, to my eyes much prettier, Olivia DeHavilland

(who, believe it or not, is STILL ALIVE at the age of 103)) is the one for him.  It's a bit of a picaresque number, set in the gay 1890s, with the main body of the film a flashback to ten years before.  At the beginning, Biff is married to DeHavilland and is a dentist, playing horseshoes in his back yard with his old friend, Greek English-mangler Nick Pappalas.  A nearby band playing "And the Band Played On" (which is what the film should have been called, given its recurring role, although "Strawberry Blonde" is actually taken from one of its lyrics) reminds him of Hayworth's Virginia Brush, and in turn he is reminded of his former friend Hugo Barnstead who stole her from him.  He discusses with Nick what he'd like to do to him, when his wife calls him to wash up to go for a Sunday stroll, and when he's in the house, the phone rings.

It's someone calling to set up an emergency dental appointment for... Hugo Barnstead!  Nick plots gassing him with nitrous oxide and slitting his throat (!) and... cue flashback.
Biff, it turns out, was the son (no sign of a mother) of the neighborhood Irish charming ne'er-do-well (played wonderfully by Alan Hale), and Biff is bouncing (that's a pun, given one of the jobs) around various odd jobs while taking a dentistry course by correspondence (one letter a month).  He hangs around with a gang of similarly-aged neighborhood youths, of which Hugo is the spivviest, most scheming and most go-getting.  They like to hang out in the barbershop (where Greek Nick works) and whistle at attractive girls, although the one that Biff is too polite to whistle at is Virginia.  Hugo is bold enough to talk to her, though, and arranges a double date.  He comes to pick Biff up that evening as he is experimenting on his father with Nitrous Oxide

(this film has some genuinely laugh-out-loud moments and lines, that tend to creep up on you, and this scene is great.  One line I remember is later in the film when Biff is still studying to be a dentist while also working as a milkman.  He's getting near the end and his wife says he can give up the milkround, and he says he doesn't mind it because he likes the horse - "he has interesting teeth".)  Biff only agrees to come if he gets Virginia, and Hugo agrees, but of course reneges (a running theme).  Biff is not impressed with Virginia's friend Amy, who is (a) in a nurse's uniform, (b) spouting suffragette slogans (Virginia warns her to sound less like a pamphlet before the men show up), (c) claims her mother was a "Bloomer girl" and her aunt was an actress, and worst of all, (d) asks for a cigarette (which causes Biff to call her a "nicotine fiend"). 

That is not Biff's cup of tea AT ALL.  (And in reality, it's not really Amy's, as we find out later.) From here we see a series of events - Hugo moves up in the world and gets his own office

and one day, on another double date, Biff and Virginia get separated from the other two (contrary to Hugo's plans) and he spends a lovely (if expensive) day wooing Virginia.  He even gets a repeat date for "a week on Wednesday" (Virginia has a LOT of suitors).  But when the week on Wednesday comes around, it's Amy who meets him and (although she tries not to break it to him) it emerges that Virginia has married Hugo that afternoon.  Biff settles for (the obviously superior) Amy and pursues his dentistry degree (cue the line I mentioned earlier) until Virginia visits the old neighborhood and invites Biff and Amy to dinner.  There they are fed the faddish newfangled meal of "spaghetti" (which none of them knows how to eat) while sitting under electric lights, and Hugo and Virginia boast of their wealth and exploits, while Biff touts the virtues of good old American craftsmenship in the face of the Euro-touting, until Hugo (on Virginia's prompting) offers Biff a vice-president position in his construction company.  This is another one of Hugo's poisoned chalices, though, as the construction company cuts all kind of corners, which ends up killing Grimes senior and getting Biff holding the bag and getting sent to prison.  While in prison he pines for Amy and finishes his dentistry studies (although not without some bridgework misadventures involving the warden) and we get to the other half of the bookend.  Will Biff kill Hugo?  Will he fall for Virginia all over again? 

What's with "And the Band Played On" (which is a sing-a-long for the audience at the end)?  Watch it and see - it's great!