Incendiary Blonde

Incendiary Blonde is a 1945 American musical drama film biography of 1920s nightclub star Texas Guinan. Filmed in Technicolor by director George Marshall and loosely based on a true story, the picture stars actress Betty Hutton as Guinan. The film's title is a play on incendiary bombs being used in World War II.

Incendiary Blonde
theatrical release poster
Directed by	George Marshall
Written by	Contract writer: Ken Englund James Edward Grant
Screenplay by	Claude Binyon Frank Butler
Produced by	Joseph Sistrom
Starring	Betty Hutton Arturo de Córdova Charles Ruggles Barry Fitzgerald Albert Dekker
Cinematography	Ray Rennahan
Edited by	Archie Marshek
Music by	Robert Emmett Dolan John Leipold
Production company	Paramount Pictures
Distributed by	Paramount Pictures
Release dates	July 25, 1945 (1945-07-25) (NYC) August 31, 1945 (1945-08-31) (US) [1] ([1])
Running time	113 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English

The score was written by Robert Emmett Dolan, and was nominated for an Academy Award for "Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture."

Plot

A tomboy named Mary Louise "Texas" Guinan lands a job with a Wild West show after proving she can ride a bucking bronco. The rodeo's new owner is Romero "Bill" Kilgannon, who doubles Texas's pay after the attention she gets from saving a toddler's life from a runaway wagon at a show.

Tim Callahan comes along, looking for a job as the show's press agent by promising not to tell what he has found out, that Texas's "heroism" was a staged act, with a midget pretending to be the endangered child.

Texas sends money home to her impoverished family. Tim falls in love with her, but she prefers Bill, unaware that he is legally bound to an institutionalized wife. Tim ends up marrying Texas and promoting her new career on stage in New York.

Bill tries making movies in Hollywood, but things go badly. A gangster acquaintance, Joe Cadden, takes control of Nick the Greek's nightclub in New York and ends up making Texas his headliner there. Her fame grows, but a feud develops between Cadden and two other racketeers, the Vettori brothers, that leads to bloodshed and threats against Texas and Tim.

Bill saves her life, but is arrested and sentenced to jail. His own wife passes away, making him free to marry again, but Texas has discovered that she has an inoperable condition, and that she will die before Bill can get out of prison.

Cast

• Betty Hutton as Texas Guinan
• Arturo de Córdova as Bill Romero Kilgannon
• Charlie Ruggles as Cherokee Jim
• Barry Fitzgerald as Michael "Mike" Guinan
• Albert Dekker as Joe Cadden
• Eduardo Ciannelli as Nick the Greek
• Bill Goodwin as Tim Callahan
• Mary Philips as Bessie Guinan
• Ray Walker as Gus – Stage Manager
• Maurice Rocco as himself (waiter/pianist)

Cast notes

• This was the final film for character actor Bud Jamison. Jamison, best known for his work with slapstick comedy team The Three Stooges (Disorder in the Court), died suddenly in September 1944. Jamison played the Head bartender, however, he did not receive credit for his work.

Production

The film was announced in 1942 and was originally to have co-starred Hutton and Alan Ladd.^[2]

Songs

• "Ragtime Cowboy Joe" – music by Lewis F. Muir and Maurice Abrahams, lyrics by Grant Clarke
• "What Do You Want to Make Those Eyes at Me For?" – music and lyrics by Joseph McCarthy, Howard Johnson and James V. Monaco
• "It Had to Be You" – music by Isham Jones, lyrics by Gus Kahn
• "Oh By Jingo!" – music by Albert Von Tilzer, lyrics by Lew Brown
• "Row, Row, Row" – music by James V. Monaco, lyrics by William Jerome
• "Darktown Strutters' Ball" – music and lyrics by Shelton Brooks, performed by Maurice Rocco
• "Ida" – music and lyrics by Eddie Leonard
• Source:^[1]

References

1. Incendiary Blonde at the AFI Catalog of Feature Films
2. "SCREEN: Hedda Hopper's HOLLYWOOD". Los Angeles Times. Nov 23, 1942. p. 14.

External links

• Incendiary Blonde at IMDb
• Incendiary Blonde at the AFI Catalog of Feature Films
• Incendiary Blonde at the TCM Movie Database