Smart Blonde

Good start to the B series about the fast-talking, gutsy, and snoopy lady reporter, a forerunner to Lois Lane. It has a brisk pace and a fun cast of characters. This first entry deals with the murder of a guy who just bought a popular nightclub. Reporter Torchy Blane (Glenda Farrell) and her detective boyfriend Steve McBride (Barton MacLane) set out to solve the case, together and in spite of each other.

Farrell and MacLane are both terrific in parts well-suited to their particular talents. Jane Wyman, who would later play the role of Torchy herself, has a small part here as a gabby hatcheck girl. Good support from Addison Richards, Tom Kennedy, Wini Shaw, Robert Paige, Joseph Crehan, and Charlotte Wynters (the future Mrs. Barton MacLane). If you're a fan of B's from back in the day, or just a fan of the great Glenda Farrell, you should find a lot to like here.

This 1937 "Torchy Blane" film, "Smart Blonde" has Torchy Blane (Glenda Farrell) trying to find out who killed an entrepreneur who just purchased a night club and some gambling establishments.

Torchy is a witness to the murder. Later on, one of the suspects, the dead man's bodyguard, is also found dead. Torchy and her some time boyfriend, Lt. McBride (Barton MacLane), as usual, are at odds as far as who the killer is.

There were quite a few of these films, this being the first, starring character actress Farrell, with MacLane as McBride. The two have great chemistry.

These films were always lively and the real story always seemed to be about Torchy and McBride's relationship rather than any actual mystery, though the mysteries certainly were present.

Fast-talking, smart Torchy is an independent woman along the lines of Hildy in "His Girl Friday" and the Torchy Blane series was the first (I think) to star a woman; the Maisie series began in 1939.

Always entertaining.

A taxi races along beside a moving train. The passenger leans forward: "Driver, let me off at the next crossing, will you?" She hops out, takes a few running steps, then leaps aboard the very last car as the train rolls by. –That's our first glimpse of Torchy Blane, ace reporter.

This snappy opening is a good introduction to our heroine: fast talking, quick witted, and pretty much fearless. Boarding a moving train is typical of Torchy's style—she simply wants to snag an interview with an incoming businessman before his arrival in town, so she hops the train he's on. Sure enough, she gets the interview…and gets herself a mystery along with her scoop when the man is murdered a few hours later.

Glenda Farrell is just about perfect as Torchy—sweet smile, rapid fire delivery, irrepressible charm. Also on the case is Barton McLane as Torchy's boyfriend, Lieutenant Steve McBride. Torchy appreciates his manliness ("All he needs is a leopard skin"), but she is consistently a step or two ahead of him in the investigation—which fact he grudgingly admires but finds annoying as well.

Tom Kennedy is wonderfully goofy as an assisting cop named Gahagan who loves life and composes poetry ("I love the night!" he exclaims, more or less at random). And a young Jane Wyman is hilarious in a small role as a hat check girl who, among other adventures, comes home from a party with a St. Bernard: "I wish I knew where I got that dog," she muses.

A nice plot keeps us guessing and ties up neatly; likable characters and lively dialog add up to a very entertaining quickie.

My favorite exchange comes when Torchy is trying to talk her way into a murder scene. (She's there well ahead of Steve, naturally.) "I'm from the Herald," she argues to the cop guarding the door, "I'm Torchy Blane." His deadpan response: "I don't care if you're Flaming Youth, you can't go in there."

Tiny Torgenson had just purchased the Million Club and various gambling/sporting enterprises from Fitz Mularkey (who has decided to quit the racket due to his upcoming marriage to Marcia Friel), but Torgenson is immediately killed arriving in New York. Morning Herald reporter Torchy Blane, who was with Torgenson when he was killed, goes with her boyfriend, Lt. Steve McBride, to the Million Club to tell Mularkey of what happened. Mularkey, being very good friends with Torgenson, decides he'll catch the murderer before the police get him, but McBride advises him to do otherwise. Torchy suspects Chuck Cannon (Mularkey's bodyguard) of the murder since Mularkey won't have much use for him after the racket, but McBride suspects one of the other purchasers of the Mularkey's interests. McBride's leads end up nowhere and he goes after Cannon, as does Mularkey. Cannon is later found murdered, and evidence leads McBride to think Mularkey is the killer. Torchy has other ideas however and tries to convince McBride. Okay entry in the series, yet based on this film you wouldn't think 8 more films would follow. Much of the film does seem like its parodying the blue collar-gangster films typical of Warner Brothers in the 30s. Farrell and MacLane have great chemistry together, which shows throughout. The script did seem like it was repeating itself and aiming at clichés typical of the movie mystery/newspaper reporter/stubborn cop/racketeers. Rating, based on B mysteries, 6.

Entertaining entry in Warner Bros. "Torchy Blane" series. In fact, it's very entertaining, with all the usual trimmings of the series and with a good, solid mystery to boot. The best murder mysteries are the ones that keep you guessing right up to the end, and this one delivers.

There is the usual back story, the relationship between Torchy (Glenda Farrell), the reporter/ sleuth, and Det. Steve McBride (Barton MacLane); are they an item or not? The role of Torchy is tailor-made for Glenda Farrell, the prototypical wisecracking blonde of 30's movies, and she doesn't disappoint.

For Golden Age movie fans, there is another wisecracking blonde in the supporting cast who is tough to recognize - none other than Jane Wyman, who most of us remember as a brunette. Maltin says this is the only entry in the series taken from material from its author, Frederick Nebel, which could account for the better storyline than most of the other entries.