Smart Blonde (1937)

Touches You

Good concept, poorly executed.

Fresh and Exciting

Don't listen to the negative reviews

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."

....that's Glenda Farrell!! Who would have thought, seeing her in "Little Caesar", that only a few years later she would be wise cracking with the best (hey! she was the best!!) in a series of snappy Warners comedies - even when they weren't that snappy she was out there giving her best!! When she was given the role of Torchy Blane in "Smart Blonde" she was determined to make her characterization real and not an exaggerated comedy type. So she started to observe women reporters and found them "young, intelligent and refined" and succeeded in bringing those qualities to her role.After getting the scoop about a sporting takeover by "Tiny" Torgenson, Torchy Blane, ace reporter for "The Morning Herald" is an eyewitness to his murder!!! Also at the train station is songbird Dolly Ireland (Winifred Shaw) who is trying to keep a belligerent bodyguard, Chuck, from causing a scene. They are both connected with Mularky (Addison Richards), the gentleman who is in the middle of selling his sporting interests to Torgenson. Dolly is a singer at his nightclub, who was once in love with him before he took up with a Boston society dame and Chuck is worried because he thinks that if Mularky sells his sporting interests he will be out of a job.Keeping the story snappy is the fast and quick witted banter between Torchy and the "light of her life" Lt. Steve McBride (Barton Maclaine who, as William Everson commented "why should he talk when shouting will do"). They have a great screen chemistry, Maclaine was born for these gruff comic roles. Mularky initially comes across as a man who just wants to retire with his high society bride but becomes increasingly agitated as the movie progresses - can he be protecting someone?? and who is Marcia's very protective brother, who never seems to leave her side??? Time will tell.This is a very fast paced reporter Vs detective movie (no need to say who wins) and comes in at just under an hour. An almost unrecognisable Jane Wyman appears as Dixie, the hat check girl.

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.

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.