Leslie Brooks! Sultry, to say the least. In the 1940s this was a tough country and our dames were... sultry! Sultry and a little dangerous, just the way we like them. Today we have the 1946 winner of the International Mathematics Society's Girl With the Best Figure award! Really! Can you imagine if the International Mathematics Society gave an award for the Girl With the Best Figure here in 2025? That would be so priceless, but today, we are a nation of wimps and milquetoast men. Ms. Brooks is our Femme Fatale today and she does it so well. So what if she is pure evil, and murders at will...her figure is so good I should think any man would be willing to overlook that. Let us take a peek at 1948's "Blonde Ice," directed by Jack Bernhard.
Setting? 1948 San Francisco. A San Francisco filled with real men and real dames...none of this Harvey Milk girly man types. A dame must be tough to survive here, and Claire (Brooks) is. As the film begins, the society columnist of the San Francisco Examiner is marrying Carl (John Holland), and he's loaded. He gets smart on their honeymoon and realizes his new wife is a two-timing slut. Carl tells Claire he will divorce her and leave her penniless. Bad move, as Claire is a Femme Fatale with ambition and guile. Claire murders Carl, but does not do a great job making it look like a suicide. Now the cops are blaming her real love, Les (Robert Paige). Les is a sportswriter for the same paper and quite the stooge. In fact, everyone assumes Les murdered Carl and the cops refuse to close the case.
Claire does a pretty good job at winning back Les' affections. He was kind of put off when she dumped him and married someone with a decent visible means of support. Uh oh...Claire sees Stanley Mason (Michael Whalen), a rich lawyer who is about to be elected to congress. He also has a very visible means of support. Yep...she seduces him and has him propose. Les is bummed out again. Even worse for Les, the cops are about ready to arrest him for Carl's murder. Uh oh...a mysterious figure from Claire's past emerges and he has inconvenient knowledge of Claire's homicidal tendencies. What will Claire do to him? As a future congressman is about to wed Claire...and the cops are about to arrest Les ...and the San Francisco Examiner is about to have an awkward holiday party (we never use the term 'Christmas' in the City by the Bay)...Claire bares her fangs as a classic Femme Fatale.
Does Claire have a prayer of getting away with murder? Is the sultry Femme Fatale too beautiful for the electric chair? Will the International Mathematics Society put out a 2026 swimsuit calendar at the end of the year? Most of us see a Claire and run the other way...sultry but bad news all the way. Perhaps the stiffs in this film deserved their fate. Either way, for a great morality lesson against murder and dangerous dames, see "Blonde Ice."
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