Blonde Crazy (1931)

Blonde Crazy
Directed by Roy Del Ruth
Written by Kubec Glasmon and John Bright
1931/US
Warner Bros.
IMDb page
Repeat viewing/Forbidden Hollywood Vol. 8

Peggy: And let me tell you something about this place. I’ve been here six months and I know! For the love of Mike, stay away from those bellhops. They can’t do a girlie any good. And the worst monkey of them all is that guy, Bert Harris. He’s dynamite. Everybody in this joint owes him money from those crooked dice of his.
Ann Roberts: He can’t do me any harm. I haven’t any money and I don’t shoot craps.
Peggy: Oh, yeah? Well, maybe you have something else he can use.

Joan Blondell and Jimmy Cagney make a perfect couple of grifters.

Cocky bellhop Bert Harris (Cagney) is famous for dirty tricks at the hotel he works for in a small midwest town.  When Anne Roberts (Joan Blondell) comes looking for a job he lands her one even though the position had already been filler.  He keeps being fresh and she keeps slapping him.  But he talks her into working a swindle on one of the guests and they become partners in crime, she more reluctantly than he.

They use their ill-gotten gains to move on to bigger fish in Chicago.  But Bert is not quite so smart as he thinks. With Louis Calhern as another con artist and Ray Milland as Anne’s suitor.

This is a very pre-Code and extremely fun movie.  Cagney and Blondell have enough energy to light up a big city.  Everything is kept moving along well.  Despite the crime theme the tone is nice and light.