These Pre-Code movies bring the hard-working actress of the Great Depression to our current one.Victoria Wilson’s biography of Barbara Stanwyck is titled Steel-True; if Stanwyck was all steely integrity, her friend and occasional co-star, Joan Blondell (1906-79), might have been likened to gleaming brass. As a comedian, entertainer, and dramatic actor, Blondell mirrored Stanwyck’s independence, especially during the Pre-Code cinema era of the early 1930s. The Criterion Channel offers a baker’s dozen of Blondell’s films, released from 1931-34. These are brief, fast flicks — Big City Blues (1931), for example, is just over an hour long. They can be consumed...