(1933)
1
Hans J. Wollstein
George Bancroft's tough bails bondsman has no qualms cheating little old ladies out of their life savings in Blood Money, a surprisingly violent pre-code gangster thriller. "I make all my money from losers," Bancroft snarls at one point. Accompanied by legendary chanteuse Blossom Seeley's version of "Melancholy Baby," this Fox production veers dangerously into Warner Bros. territory and you half expect James Cagney and Joan Blondell to turn up. They don't of course, but instead you do get Frances Dee and Chick Chandler, not to mention a dangerous-looking Judith Anderson, and that in itself packs quite a punch. Dee, especially, is a revelation, proposing to Bancroft that she needs "someone to give me a good thrashing." Bancroft, meanwhile, enjoys his best role since Underworld (1927) and the climax is as exciting as anything the brothers Warner could have conjured up.
Blood Money on AllMovie
Blood Money (1933)
