DJ Li'l Scratch and I will be back with "Manor Music Monday" after Memorial Day, but in the meantime, I urge you to make time this week for "Blonde Ice," an underrated little film-noir from 1948 in which we're introduced to  Claire Cummings (played to perfection by Leslie Brooks), a high-society columnist with an voracious appetite for money and power and anything else she can get her paws on, like jewels, baby. jewels.  Unlike the typical femme fatale heroine who manipulates men into committing crimes, Claire is fatale in the most literal sense. Why? Because she does all the dirty work herself. A deliriously compelling  pathological predator,  she's surely one of the most ruthless female characters ever put on film. Directed with grimy film-noir assurance by Jack Leonard, it's a small miracle that this joyous, decidedly heartless B-movie programmer even got made. Enjoy! Art Credits: Film Classic Inc./Classic Flix