Mildred's Fatburgers
  • Home
  • The Blog
  • Clips & Quotes
  • Blogathon Archive
  • Contact

The Uneven Adventures of Torchy Blane

3/17/2014

11 Comments

 
Glenda Farrell
Glenda Farrell and Her Right Thumb

How to Not Get Married in an Entire Series

In the Warner Bros. series The Adventures of Torchy Blane, the heroine is a fast-talking, fearless, ambitious, often unethical ace reporter for the New York Star. Her boyfriend is detective Steven McBride, a big gorilla who is usually one or two steps behind in solving whatever murder Torchy is pursuing. The franchise is based on a very popular detective pulp series of the 1920s and '30s by Frederick Nebel called Kennedy of the Free Press, in which the ace reporter is male, a massive drunk, and not in love with Steve McBride.

There are nine Torchy Blane pictures in all, seven of them starring Warner character slugger, Glenda Farrell, with an odd, mid-series switch to Lola Lane, then back to Farrell, then finishing up with a blonde, bangs-free Jane Wyman in the final installment. Like many hour-ish long Warner Bros. fare of the time, the pictures are minimally produced, comfortably formulaic, and zippy in the dialog department.

The ingredients of this particular formula are:
  • Torchy is at or near the business end of a murder.
  • Her boyfriend, Detective Steve McBride (mostly Barton MacLane), is both impressed and annoyed by her sleuthing, telling her it's man's work, etc.; she ignores him.
  • Torchy conducts a more effective investigation using dubious or otherwise inadmissible evidence-gathering methods.
  • Dopey Detective Gahagan (Tom Kennedy) does or says something adorably stupid to tell Torchy something she's not supposed to know.
  • Desk Sergeant Graves (George Guhl) forgets something.
  • We're treated to a gratuitous racist sight or language gag.
  • Torchy has a steak.
  • Torchy solves the case.
  • Torchy or Steve stall their wedding plans.

The mysteries themselves aren't much, but I don't think suspense was a particularly high production priority for these dialog-driven character showcases. So attractive was Glenda Farrell's newspaperhound, that Superman co-creator Jerry Siegel was inspired to model Lois Lane on her Torchy Blane. You can see bits of Farrell in the Lois of the early comics, the few times Lois gets to say anything in the excellent 1940s Fleischer cartoons, and in Margot Kidder's Lois of the first (and my favorite) Superman (1978).

Some of these movies are better than others and most are fun and engaging with only one real clunker in the set (I'm talking to you, Torchy Blane in Panama). For my money, you can't go wrong with the first four and the last two.

Smart Blonde, Torchy Blane
The nerve of this woman.

Smart Blonde (1937)

As a series opener, you can't beat Smart Blonde for establishing its heroine as a driven, get-the-story-at-all-costs newshound. The first moments show Torchy in the back of a cab in hot pursuit alongside a speeding train telling the driver to pull over to the next crossing so she can jump out and swing onto the caboose with nothing but a business suit and carnation as luggage. Stopping only to straighten her skirt, she pauses to ask the conductor where to find Mr. Torgensen's compartment (she has no ticket, incidentally, just a whole lot of moxie) and plants herself across from this Mr. Torgensen, millionaire sports promoter, and charmingly interviews him about some upcoming deal. At their destination, Mr. Torgensen offers to drop Torchy at her newspaper and is promptly shot and killed right in front of her. Unfazed, Torchy runs into a phone booth (remember those?) and proceeds to dictate the whole story. And not a hair out of place.

Now THAT'S a REPORTER.

In this episode, Steve proposes to Torchy, but don't hold your breath.
  • Star Sighting: Very young, very funny Jane Wyman as Dixie, the hatcheck girl.
  • Favorite Lines:
    Dixie [watching McBride walk away]: "Ain't he masterful?"
    Torchy: "Yeah, all he needs is a leopard skin."

Fly Away Baby, Torchy Blane
Around the world in 60 minutes

Fly Away Baby (1937)

In this second installment, newly-engaged Torchy embarks on a race around the world with two other reporters, exposes a smuggling operation, and solves a murder. It's a patchwork of implausibilities that is mostly fun to watch, with a dose of creepiness in the last half hour when everyone shows up on the Hindenburg, which exploded a month before the picture was released.
  • Star Sighting:  The opening credits state that Fly Away Baby came "from an idea by Dorothy Kilgallen." According to Wikipedia, the film and possibly Torchy herself were based on Kilgallen and her book Girl Around the World, which describes a very similar race. Without the smuggling and the murder, of course.
  • Favorite Line:
    Torchy [trying to sell her publisher on the race story]: "A woman doing anything is the copy."

Adventurous Blonde, Torchy Blane
Everyone just does what she says to do.

The Adventurous Blonde (1937)

In The Adventurous Blonde, all the city reporters are jealous of Torchy constantly scooping them, so they concoct a story about a famous actor being murdered to send her on a wild goose chase. Naturally, the actor is a two-timing womanizer who turns up dead for real and Torchy winds up solving the murder, getting the story, and managing to not marry Lieutenant McBride.
  • Star Sighting: A very young, very handsome William Hopper.
  • Favorite Line:
    Torchy [to Steve]: "You're the one who swapped fireside for homicide."

Blondes at Work, Torchy Blane
Fast-forward through the laundry scene.

Blondes at Work (1938)

This time the police department is annoyed that Torchy uses her connection to McBride to get hot stories. Nothing comes of it, of course, but Torchy shows a certain callousness in this one that's a little unpleasant. Still, Blondes at Work is probably my favorite because there are lots of girls in it (and not just blondes) talking to each other, to the cops, to Torchy, saying things girls are likely to say.

Torchy does some really questionable stuff in this one.
  • Star Sighting: Betty Compson, heroine of the astonishingly great 1928 Josef von Sternberg film, The Docks of New York. I was not happy to learn that her voice is a bit reedy for talkies.
  • Favorite Lines:
    Torchy [trying to get out of a ticket]: "I'm Torchy Blane of the Star."
    Beat Cop: "I don't care if you're an eclipse of the sun."

Torchy Blane in Panama
Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Torchy Blane in Panama (1938)

Just as the series hit its stride, Warner Bros. went ahead and changed up both stars with Lola Lane as Torchy and Paul Kelly as McBride. The result is a tepid treatment of the trusty formula, with very little chemistry between the new stars. This time the gang goes to Panama to investigate a New York bank robbery that involves a member of the Leopard Lodge. It's not important what happens, really, but Torchy does jump out of a plane to catch up with the ship carrying all the cops who are trying to give her the slip.

It's a game effort, but this combination of talent fails to hold up the shortcomings of the story.
  • Star Sighting: Betty Compson again, for some reason, like in the last picture, but this time as a gun moll.
  • Favorite Line: "Why, Steve McBride, sometimes I wonder why I'm crazy enough to think of you and me and a cottage in New Jersey all in the same day."

Torchy Gets Her Man, Torchy Blane
Gahagan does math.

Torchy Gets Her Man (1938)

So this is NOT the movie where Torchy and McBride finally get married, but is instead about how Torchy exposes a con artist counterfeiter pretending to be a secret service agent who Steve thinks is on the level.

The pacing on this one is pretty slow, but there are some nice moments between Torchy and Gahagan and a German-speaking German Shepherd.
  • Star Sighting: Uh, nobody.
  • Favorite Lines:
    Torchy: "I'll be very secretive (accent on the second syllable)."
    Gahagan: "I don't care about that, but you gotta keep it mum."

Torchy Blane in Chinatown
Ethics, shmethics.

Torchy Blane in Chinatown (1939)

There's very little actual Chinatown in Torchy Blane in Chinatown, and even less of the zing of previous installments. Based on the horrible Chinese pidgin Torchy used with a laundryman in Blondes at Work, this is probably just as well.

Some jade tablets are taken from a Chinese burial site and suddenly a bunch of folks are extorted and threatened with murder. Torchy figures it all out eventually, but is especially bumbling and callous in the process.
  • Star Sighting: Patric Knowles, reliable second leading man for a number of high-profile pictures, including Will Scarlett in The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938).
  • Favorite Lines:
    McBride: "Whaddya doing on that balcony?
    "
    Torchy [caught snooping]: "Every time I see a balcony, the Juliet comes out in me."

Torchy Runs for Mayor, Torchy Blane
Is it just me, or did she get that guy killed?

Torchy Runs for Mayor (1939)

Torchy exposes rampant city corruption after Boss Dolan takes over but is blocked from printing anything about it because, well, there's corruption. Also the Boss threatens the paper with a massive exodus of advertisers. When the candidate Torchy manipulates into running on a reform platform is murdered, McBride writes her in as the recall candidate for a joke.

But Torchy loves the idea and runs for mayor, promising to "make the city safe for your babies." Steve, in the meantime, foils the Boss's plot to murder Torchy, and Torchy wins the election. At her victory press conference, however, she is given a baby to hold and decides she wants to get married instead and quits.

Dames.
  • Star Sighting: Directed by Ray McCarey whose other credits include Our Gang and Laurel & Hardy shorts; he is also the younger brother of feature film director, Leo McCarey.
  • Favorite Lines:
    McBride: "I've got to consider which side our bread is buttered on; yours as well as mine."

    Torchy: "Oh no you don't, not our bread, not until the rice begins to fly. Until then I have my own slice to butter."

Torchy Plays with Dynamite
Eleven false fire alarms. Eleven.

Torchy Blane...Playing with Dynamite (1939)

In this last installment, Torchy is played ably by Jane Wyman and Lt. Bride is taken over by the wonderful Allen Jenkins, who many of us of a certain age will recognize as the voice of Officer Dibble in Top Cat. While this pairing has much better chemistry than the last series switcheroo, the age difference between the two actors is a little too wide for serious sparks. And as spunky and fast-talking as Wyman's Torchy is, she comes across more Nancy Drew than Nellie Bly.

But I like Nancy Drew.

The dynamite in question is Torchy's getting herself thrown in jail so she can get close to gangster's girl, Jackie McGuire (Sheila Bromley), which she does. But not for long. They break out and run off to San Francisco to meet Jackie's crooked guy, with McBride and Gahagan on the trail. There's a prison fight, a wrestling match, a kidnapping, a guy named Bugsy, and a daring escape involving a speeding car.

Which is where we came in on Torchy Blane. And if you're going to end a series, you may as well go out on a good one.
  • Star Sighting: Jane Wyman, again.
  • Favorite Lines:
    Gahagan [reminiscing about a wrestling match]: "I was wearing purple tights, and the old Crusher was wearing..."
    McBride: "...a strait-jacket."

Picture
This post is part of Sleuthathon, The Great Classic Detective Blogathon, hosted by the excellent Movies Silently; please check out the other reviews about great film detectives, mysteries, and talented amateurs.

11 Comments

    About Mildred

    I'll do just about anything a movie tells me to do. Unless it tells me wrong...

    Then I get cranky.

    But go ahead, like me on Facebook.

    RSS Feed

    Visit Mildred's profile on Pinterest.

    Proud Member Of

    Picture
    Classic Movie Blog Hub Member

    Archives

    May 2019
    December 2017
    October 2017
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013

    Categories

    All
    Agnes Moorehead
    Akira Kurosawa
    Alan Mowbray
    Albert Salmi
    Alice Terry
    Aline MacMahon
    Allen Jenkins
    Alloy Orchestra
    Anna Massey
    Ann Dvorak
    Anne Bancroft
    Anne Baxter
    Anne Revere
    Anne Shirley
    Ann Miller
    Ann Sothern
    Anthony Quinn
    Anton Walbrook
    Arthur Penn
    Art Linkletter
    Arturo De Cordova
    Audrey Hepburn
    Baby Peggy
    Barbara Bel Geddes
    Barbara Stanwyck
    Barton MacLane
    Basil Rathbone
    Bea Benadaret
    Beatrice Straight
    Bette Davis
    Beulah Bondi
    Billie Burke
    Bill Scott
    Billy Wilder
    Birthday Of The Week
    Bob Newhart
    Bonita Granville
    Boris Karloff
    Brian Aherne
    Bugs Bunny
    Burt Lancaster
    Busby Berkeley
    Butterfly Mcqueen
    Carl Boehm
    Carl Theodor Dreyer
    Carol Haney
    Cary Grant
    Charles Boyer
    Charlton Heston
    Chester Morris
    Christopher Morley
    Claire Bloom
    Claire Trevor
    Clark Gable
    Claude Rains
    Claudette Colbert
    Cliff Robertson
    Cloris Leachman
    Connie Gilchrist
    Conrad Veidt
    Constance Bennett
    Cybill Shepherd
    Dana Andrews
    Dana Delany
    Dan Duryea
    David Niven
    Dean Stockwell
    Deborah Kerr
    Dennis Morgan
    Diana Lynn
    Diana Wynyard
    Dick Moore
    Dick Powell
    Donald Sutherland
    Donna Reed
    Doris Day
    Dustin Hoffman
    D.W. Griffith
    Eddie Albert
    Edie Adams
    Edith Fellows
    Edward Arnold
    Edward Everett Horton
    Elaine May
    Elissa Landi
    Elizabeth Taylor
    Ella Raines
    Ellen Burstyn
    Elvis Presley
    Emilio Fernandez
    Ernest Borgnine
    Ernst Lubitsch
    Errol-flynn
    Ethel Barrymore
    Eugene-pallette
    Eve-arden
    Evelyn Varden
    Fay-bainter
    Fay-bainter
    Firesign-theater
    Frank Hurley
    Frank McHugh
    Frank Morgan
    Frank Sinatra
    Freddie Bartholomew
    Frederic March
    Fredi Washington
    Fred MacMurray
    Fritz Lang
    Friz Freleng
    Gabriel Figueroa
    Gary Cooper
    Gary Merrill
    George Brent
    George Murphy
    Geraldine-fitzgerald
    Ginger Rogers
    Gladys Cooper
    Glenda Farrell
    Gloria Jean
    Government Cheese
    G.W. Billy Bitzer
    Hal E. Chester
    Hal Roach
    Harold Lloyd
    Hedda Hopper
    Henry Fonda
    Herbert Marshall
    Howard DaSilva
    Howard Hawks
    Howard Hughes
    Howard Keel
    Hume Cronyn
    Humphrey Bogart
    Inga Swenson
    Ingrid Bergman
    Irene Dunne
    Jackie Butch Jenkins
    Jackie-coogan
    Jackie Cooper
    Jack Lemmon
    Jacques Tourneur
    James Craig
    James-garner
    James Gleason
    James Mason
    James-stewart
    James Whitmore
    Jane Darwell
    Jane-powell
    Jane-withers
    Jane-wyman
    Jay Ward
    Jean Dixon
    Jeanette-macdonald
    Jean Harlow
    Jean Simmons
    Joan Blondell
    Joan Crawford
    Joan-fontaine
    John Carradine
    John Ford
    John Hurt
    Joseph Cotten
    Juano Hernandez
    June Foray
    Karin-swanstrom
    Karl-malden
    Katharine Hepburn
    Kathleen Byron
    Kathryn Grayson
    Keenan Wynn
    Kevin Mccarthy
    Kirk Douglas
    Lauren Bacall
    Lee J. Cobb
    Leif Erickson
    Leila Hyams
    Leonard Nimoy
    Letitia-palma
    Lew Ayres
    Lewis Stone
    Lillian Gish
    Lillian-roth
    Lizabeth-scott
    Loretta Young
    Louise-beavers
    Lucille Ball
    Lurene-tuttle
    Lyle Talbot
    Maggie-smith
    Marcia Mae Jones
    Margaret Sullavan
    Maria Schell
    Marie-dressler
    Marjorie-main
    Marni-nixon
    Marsha Hunt
    Marx-brothers
    Mary-boland
    Maxine-audley
    Max-linder
    Max Ophuls
    Mel Blanc
    Mercedes McCambridge
    Mia Farrow
    Michael Powell
    Mickey Rooney
    Mike-mazurki
    Mike Nichols
    Miles-mander
    Miriam Hopkins
    Moira Shearer
    Montgomery Clift
    Movie-theatres
    Ned Sparks
    Niall Macginnis
    Nicholas Ray
    Nigel Hawthoren
    Ninon Sevilla
    Norma-shearer
    Orson Welles
    Pamela Franklin
    Patsy Kelly
    Patty Duke
    Patty McCormack
    Paulette Goddard
    Paul Henreid
    Paul Lynde
    Peggy Cummins
    Percy Kilbride
    Peter Bogdanovich
    Peter Breck
    Peter Falk
    Peter Lorre
    Peter Ustinov
    Preston Foster
    Ralph Bellamy
    Ramon Novarro
    Renee Falconetti
    Rex Ingram
    Ricardo Montalban
    Richard Barthelmess
    Richard Basehart
    Richard Briers
    Richard Mulligan
    Rita Hayworth
    Robert Benchley
    Robert Ryan
    Robert Wagner
    Rock Hudson
    Rodolfo Acosta
    Roger Livesey
    Roland Young
    Rosalind Russell
    Royal Dano
    Rudolf Valentino
    Sabu
    Sam Fuller
    Sandra Dee
    Shelley Winters
    Shirley MacLaine
    Shirley Temple
    Skippy/Asta
    Soyuzmultfilm
    Spencer Tracy
    Spring Byington
    Sterling Hayden
    Susan Hayward
    Sydney Greenstreet
    Takashi Shimura
    Teri Garr
    Tim Holt
    Tod Browning
    Tommy Kirk
    Tony Randall
    Toshiro Mifune
    Una Merkel
    Van Johnson
    Veronica Cartwright
    Victor Buono
    Victor McLaglen
    Virginia Weidler
    Walter Huston
    Walter Matthau
    Walter Tetley
    Warren William
    Wednesdays Child
    Wendy Hiller
    William Demarest
    William Powell
    William Shatner
    William Wyler
    W.S. Van Dyke
    Yasujiro Ozu
    Zero Mostel

    More

    Upcoming Blogathons

    Picture
    Rhoda Penmark flaunts some norms in THE BAD SEED (1956)

    Blogathons Gone By

    Great Breening Blogathon
    NIGHT NURSE (1931)
    Picture
    THE LAST PICTURE SHOW
    Nature's Fury Blogathon
    THE GRAPES OF WRATH
    Reel Infatuation Blogathon
    Sugarpuss O'Shea changes my life in BALL OF FIRE (1941)
    Great Villain Blogathon 2016
    Charlotte Vale's Mean Mom in NOW VOYAGER (1942)
Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.