I have to disagree with the majority on this one; I did not find "The Strawberry Blonde" to be charming or exceptional, it was merely mediocre entertainment in my mind. I went in with an open mind and wanted to like this film but it suffers from the protagonist (Cagney's character) being so negative and unlikeable and from the lack of chemistry between him and de Havilland's character. This is not a film that I would recommend except to those fans of these actors or time period. Olivia de Havilland was great here as usual but for a starring role she was hardly on screen and underutilized. The same could be said of Rita Hayworth perhaps as well. I don't love the title either as the strawberry blonde (Hayworth) is really tangential to the bulk of the story; she is perhaps the catalyst for the action, but has little substantive role. In the end, I mildly enjoyed the film, such as seeing them try spaghetti or de Havilland winking in the park, but not enough meat here for me to be invested and the characters never seemed very real. I rate it a 4/10 and would recommend it to Olivia de Havilland completionists, but have modest expectations.
Review of The Strawberry Blonde
