Did anyone not love Joan Blondell? From her days as a young chorus cutie at Warner Bros. to her reign as one of Hollywood's most reliable character actresses, Blondell was always a pleasure to watch and someone audiences felt they actually knew. Her movie career lasted half a century, from 1930 to 1981. TCM's daytime of films on July 2 focuses on her work in the '30s, a decade when she was in her youthful prime and appeared in no less than 53 movies. Join us as we screen nine entertaining examples.

Rose Joan Blondell (1906-1979) was born in Manhattan to a vaudeville family who called their troupe "The Bouncing Blondells." The story goes that she made her stage debut at four months when her father, Ed Blondell, carried her on in a cradle. After competing in beauty contests as a teen, she began acting onstage in stock companies and by 1930 was starring on Broadway opposite James Cagney in Penny Arcade.

Warner Bros. brought both young stars to Hollywood, where they performed together in six films including Sinners' Holiday (1930), the screen version of Penny Arcade; Cagney's breakthrough film The Public Enemy (1931), and Footlight Parade (1933). During the early 1930s, Blondell was one of the highest paid performers in Hollywood. She worked constantly and was frequently cast as Glenda Farrell's gold-digging partner, and in musicals with the likes of Ruby Keeler and Dick Powell (who became her second husband).

Blondell said of her years at Warner Bros., "I just sailed through things, took the scripts I was given, did what I was told. I couldn't afford to go on suspension." It was a survivalist attitude with which Depression-era moviegoers could identify, and they learned to love this down-to-earth gal with the big heart, saucer eyes and open smile. Later audiences relished her salty personality and been-there-done-that attitude.

Blondell left Warner Bros. in 1939 and played leads in comedies and musicals for other studios through the mid-1940s before entering character actress territory in such films as A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1945) and The Blue Veil (1951). For the latter film she won an Oscar nomination as Best Supporting Actress.

Below are the films in our salute to Joan Blondell in the 1930s, all released through Warner Bros. The first three films are considered pre-Code, meaning that they were franker and racier than movies after mid-1934 that obeyed the restrictions of the Motion Picture Production Code.

Illicit (1931) is a Barbara Stanwyck vehicle in which the star plays a young woman who doesn't believe in marriage until she learns a few lessons about liberated love. Blondell, a good friend of Stanwyck off screen, repeats that role here. The drama, with James Rennie and Ricardo Cortez as the men in Stanwyck's life, was directed by Archie Mayo. God's Gift to Women (1931) is a comedy starring Frank Fay (then married to Stanwyck) as a French playboy who views women as playthings until he falls for an American beauty (Laura La Plante). Blondell is one of his disposable girlfriends; Louise Brooks is another. Michael Curtiz directed the film, which was shot as a musical but had its numbers deleted when it was decided that audiences had grown weary of song-and-dance routines.

Smarty (1934) stars Blondell in the title role, that of a young woman who enjoys provocatively teasing her husband (Warren William) until they are divorced. She starts the routine all over again with her second husband (Edward Everett Horton) before realizing it was more fun with husband number one. This comedy was directed by Robert Florey.

Traveling Saleslady (1935) is one of those vehicles for Blondell and Glenda Farrell in which they play a pair of foxy blonde bombshells. In this one, Blondell comes up with cocktail-flavored toothpaste and Farrell is the head of a pharmacy who is interested in the product. Ray Enright directed, and at the time of filming Blondell was married to the movie's cinematographer, George Barnes.

Broadway Gondolier (1935) is a musical teaming Blondell and Dick Powell a year before their marriage. He plays a taxi driver with dreams of becoming a musical star, and she just happens to be a secretary at a radio station where a sponsor is looking for a "singing gondolier." Lloyd Bacon directed and the songs include a specialty number, "The Pig and the Cow" performed by the two stars.

Colleen (1936) is the seventh and final costarring vehicle for Powell and Ruby Keeler, with Blondell billed fourth after Jack Oakie. Keeler has the title role as the manager of a dress shop owned by Powell and Blondell is a gold digger with a "passion for fashion." Blondell's number with Oakie, "Boulevardier from the Bronx," is a standout. Alfred Green directed.

Stage Struck (1936) is a Busby Berkeley production starring Powell as a dance director who also sings, and Blondell as a no-talent heiress who takes the lead in a Broadway musical because she is backing the show. Blondell's role was said to have been based on real-life heiress Peggy Hopkins Joyce, whose antics got lots of press back in the 1930s.

The King and the Chorus Girl (1937) are played by Belgian actor Fernand Gravet and Blondell in this forerunner of sorts to the 1957 Olivier-Monroe comedy The Prince and the Showgirl. Gravet plays an overthrown monarch living in Paris whose life of ennui is revitalized by chorine Blondell. Mervyn LeRoy directed and the script was co-written by Groucho Marx!

The Kid from Kokomo (1939) is a boxing comedy directed by Lewis Seiler, with Pat O'Brien as a manager who discovers a talented prizefighter (Wayne Morris) in Kokomo, IN. Blondell plays O'Brien's girlfriend, and up-and-comer Jane Wyman has a supporting role as a reporter.

by Roger Fristoe