1939 - The End of Torchy

In the year 1939 we find Torchy Blane in Chinatown, Torchy Runs for Mayor, and Torchy Blane, Playing with Dynamite.  The first two with Glenda Farrell, the last with Jane Wyman.

Torchy Blane in Chinatown has another cast of wonderful Bit Actors.  Henry O'Neill (1891 - 1961) has 177 roles listed on IMDB.  He was in two with Laurel and Hardy in their later years, Air Raid Wardens (1943) and Nothing But Trouble (1944).  He also made nine films with Bette Davis. 

Patric Knowles (1911 - 1995) has 124 roles including The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938) with Errol Flynn where he played Will Scarlett.  He is in Another Thin Man (1939) and A Bill of Divorcement (1940), and also shows up in 1941 with Lon Chaney, Jr. (1906 - 1973) in The Wolf Man. 

Torchy Runs for Mayor is the last time we see Glenda Farrell and Barton MacLane in the Torchy series.  I haven't seen the film, so I don't know if she won the election.  In this one we see John Miljan (1892 - 1960) who has a first class filmography of 206 roles, including quite a few silent films.  He is in everything from Hell Divers (1931) with Wallace Beery and Clark Gable to the C. B. DeMille classic The Ten Commandments in 1956.

Frank Shannon (1874 - 1959) and Joe Cunningham (1890 - 1943) are both in this one and have been in other Torchy films.  Cunningham was in seven of them. 

Torchy Blane, Playing with Dynamite is the final Torchy movie.  This one stars Jane Wyman (1917 - 1907) as Torchy.  She was also in the very first Torchy film, Smart Blonde, as a hat check girl.  That's quite a promotion!

We also see a different Steve McBride, now played by Allen Jenkins (1900 - 1974).  Once again, no one seems to know why the two leads were changed.  In reading the reader reviews on IMDb, it appears that Tom Kennedy stole the show this time. 

The supporting cast is again made up of very experienced actors and actresses, but not many well known names.  My favorite here is Madame Sul-Te-Wan (1873 - 1959) who has 49 titles on IMDb, starting in 1915.  Her second release was Birth of a Nation (1915) and she is also seen in Uncle Tom's Cabin in 1927.  She was a native in King Kong (1933) and was also in Mighty Joe Young (1949), made a few Zombie movies in the 1940s, and her final film was The Buccaneer (1958) with Yul Brynner (1920 - 1985). 

So there you have my take on the entire Torchy Blane series, and a quick look at some important Bit Actors and Actresses who made motion pictures interesting.

Torchy in 1938

The next year we see Torchy Blane in three more movies.  The 1938 offerings were Blondes at Work, Torchy Blane in Panama, and Torchy Gets Her Man.

Blondes at Work again starred Glenda Farrell and Barton MacLane.  In the advertisements it carried this wonderful tagline:  BEWARE! SNAPPY SNOOPY BLONDE AT WORK!

Once again the film is filled with a great cast of people who's names are relatively forgotten these days.  Tom Kennedy is here again.  Donald Briggs (1911 - 1986) has 72 roles on film and TV.  John Ridgley (1909 - 1968) appears in the rest of the Torchy series, but unlike Kennedy, he plays different parts instead of always being the same character.  He also has 176 roles to his credit, starting in 1935 up to 1954.

Betty Compson (1897 - 1974) was in this film and also in the next.  She played in 208 movies going back to 1917.  Thomas E. Jackson (1886 - 1967) has 177 titles from 1929 to 1966.  Jackson played alongside many great stars such as Humphrey Bogart, E. G. Robinson, William Powell and Clark Gable.  It must have been great to work in the movies in the 1930s.

Torchy Blane in Panama stars Lola Lane (1906 - 1981) as Torchy and Paul Kelly (1899 - 1956) as Det. McBride.  My research has failed to find any theories as to why they switched to different leads, but don't worry, Glenda and Barton will be back.

Kelly has 168 titles in his list and Lane has 45.  Lola Lane was one of the Lane Sisters, and it is said that in her one Torchy Blane film, she was the inspiration for Lois Lane in the Superman series.

Also in Panama we see a small role with Leo White (1873 - 1948) who has only 432 films listed in IMDb, but some suspect he made over 2,000 films without any credit or notice.  That's what happened to many actors and actresses in the silent era.

Torchy Gets Her Man sees the return of Glenda and Barton.  I think by now the Torchy series is beginning to show its age and the stories start to get less exciting.  Thank goodness the bit parts don't.

Willard Robertson (1886 - 1948) has 145 roles in his list.  George Guhl (1875 - 1943) has 143 roles.  Frank Reicher (1875 - 1965) with 230 roles was also the ship's captain who went to Skull Island in King Kong (1933).

Three movies to go!

Who Was Torchy Blane?

I had to do some research, because I am not that well read on literature of the 1930s.  Torchy Blane (1937 - 1939) had a short movie life, just nine films in three years.  She should be remembered.  All actors and actresses in B-Movies should.

Torchy was a strong woman who worked as a reporter.  She was close friends (as close as you could get in the Hays Code days) with police detective Steve McBride (also 1937 - 1939).  The pair would get involved with one crime or another, and Torchy always seemed to solve it before her beau.  Talk about a role model for young women.

The movies were made by Warner Brothers and First National Films, and they were all about an hour long, making them true B-Movies.  They would be shown along with a feature and a cartoon or newsreel, back in the day.  Quite a value for your admission fee, but we were still in the depression and this type of entertainment helped everyone feel better.  (You may also get a piece of "depression glass" at the theater as a thank you gift.  I have a nice set of depression glass ice cream cups!)

Back to Torchy.  The first three films were all in 1937 and starred Glenda Farrell (1904 - 1971) and Barton MacLane (1902 - 1969) as Torchy and Steve.  They were, Smart Blonde, Fly Away Baby, and Adventurous Blonde.  I guess Torchy was a blonde.

In Smart Blonde we see Jane Wyman (1917 - 2007) in a bit part.  Wyman played Torchy in the very last film in the series.  We also find the ever popular Tom Kennedy (1885 - 1965) as another cop, and he is the only actor to appear in all nine Torchy films.

Most of the cast are people you find in other B-Movies, and are not household names today.  I suspect that is the case for the entire series.  But if you can find these films, watch the small parts.  You will find gems like Fred "Snowflake" Toones (1906 - 1962) who has 213 titles listed on IMDb, including The Gold Diggers of 1937 (released in 1936) starring Dick Powell (1904 - 1963) and Joan Blondell (1906 - 1979), and Way Out West (1937) starring Laurel and Hardy.  I would like to see his film, Yodelin' Kid from Pine Ridge (1937) with Gene Autry (1907 - 1998) and Smiley Burnette (1911 - 1967).

In Fly Away Baby, Torchy goes around the world to get her story.  Along the way she meets some great Bit Actors including Gordon Oliver (1910 - 1995).  Oliver appeared in Jezebel and Blondie (both in 1938), and has 45 titles on his list.  She also meets Lane Chandler (1899 - 1972) who has 376 roles in his career.

Adventurous Blonde was next with rival newspapers staging a fake murder that turns out to be real.  Guess who solves the crime?  Look for Anne Nagel (1915 - 1966) who was in a total of 86 roles in her career.  She was in My Little Chickadee (1940), Blondie's Holiday (1947), and Mighty Joe Young (1949), among her other work.

More Torchy tomorrow.