Joan Blondell: The Fizz on the Soda

6/13/08 to 6/29/08

With a lush figure, bright, platter-sized eyes that missed nothing, and a mouth equally ready to dish a wisecrack, pull a sneer, or plant a kiss, Joan Blondell was a staple of Hollywood's studio heyday. This series spotlights a perennial supporting player who was also “one of the most reliably good actresses Hollywood has ever seen” (Matthew Kennedy).

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  • Blonde Crazy, June 13

  • Upcoming
    Films
  • Upcoming
    Events
  • Selected
    Objects
  • Past
    Films
  • Past
    Events

Past Films

  • Opening Night

    • Sunday, June 29 6:30 pm

    Gena Rowlands is an actress in crisis in John Cassavetes's updated, improvisational take on the backstage drama, with Blondell as a bemused playwright.

  • Lizzie

    • Friday, June 27 7 pm

    Blondell plays delightfully drunken aunt to tormented Eleanor Parker in a precursor to The Three Faces of Eve.

  • Nightmare Alley

    • Thursday, June 26 6:30 pm

    This compelling noir tracks the rise and fall of carnival sleazeball Tyrone Power. “No self-respecting film buff can afford to miss it.”-Time Out N.Y.

  • There's Always a Woman

    • Wednesday, June 25 6:30 pm

    Blondell as a self-made sleuth in “a zany, agreeable, and well-written comedy-satire of murder mysteries in the Thin Man mold.”-Matthew Kennedy

  • Three Girls About Town

    • Wednesday, June 25 8:15 pm

    Blondell copes with drunken conventioneers and an unruly corpse in this charmingly eccentric comedy. “Altogether delightful.”-Matthew Kennedy

  • A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

    • Sunday, June 22 6:30 pm

    Elia Kazan's debut feature evokes youthful dreams and family hardships in 1910 Brooklyn. Blondell is “little short of wonderful.”-N.Y. Daily News

  • Three on a Match

    • Friday, June 20 7 pm

    This swift, sordid melodrama features Blondell, Ann Dvorak, and Bette Davis as former classmates drawn into an underworld of drugs and crime.

  • The King and the Chorus Girl

    • Friday, June 20 8:30 pm

    “A monarch-in-exile falls for showgirl from Brooklyn Blondell when he ogles her in a cancan ensemble. It's understandable: she never looked better.”-Village Voice

  • Footlight Parade

    • Sunday, June 15 6:30 pm

    Introduced by Matthew Kennedy. Blondell and Cagney in a Busby Berkeley backstage saga, “fast-paced, knowing, and arguably the best of the Warner Bros. Depression musicals.”-Matthew Kennedy

  • Blonde Crazy

    • Friday, June 13 7 pm

    Introduced by Matthew Kennedy. Sparks fly between Blondell and James Cagney in a brisk, twisting comedy of cons.

  • Night Nurse

    • Friday, June 13 8:55 pm

    Barbara Stanwyck and Blondell expose Hippocratic hypocrisy-and plenty of skin-in this medical melodrama, also featuring Clark Gable.