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It's fun to see Colbert warbling the blues (several times) and kiddies lullabies in this well made and directed soap. Unwed and unable to manage she gives up her baby and becomes a disreputable torch singer and the hottest attraction around. Colbert goes from forlorn unwed mother to Mae-Westian blues singer in a captivating role. "Realization" puts her "back on track" to find her daughter. All this in 72 minutes! Good support from Lyda Roberti, Ricardo Cortez and David Manners. It's a shame this isn't available on video.

This is a touching if not extraordinary film about a woman who has a child out of wedlock, gives it up for adoption and suffers a great deal despite achieving wealth, glamour and fame first as a nightclub torch singer and then as a children's radio personality. This may have been Claudette Colbert's first great cinematic tour de force, gorgeously photographed by Karl Struss (through whose lens she also appeared to huge advantage in Sign of the Cross and Four Frightened People), sheathed in a variety of Travis Banton gowns and singing rather ludicrous songs by Ralph Rainger and Leo Robin in her own voice and let's give her a nod for that! The role is as juicy as can be, giving her the opportunity to essay mother love, humiliation, anger, despair, bitterness, drunkenness, nobility, eroticism - you name it. What a showcase! The screen bursts with life when she is at its center. The other performers, including an underused Lyda Roberti as a fellow unwed mother and a stiff David Manners as the father of the child, serve as window dressing. The only standout aside from Colbert is Ethel Griffies as Manners's stodgy, coldhearted aunt; acting like hers, in the grand old fashion, died decades ago but not until talkies captured the work of some of its practitioners, and it is still a treat to watch.

This 1933 Paramount film, is a sophisticated and greatly acted drama, with the Depression as background and a powerful performance by the great comedienne and actress, Claudette Colbert, as a chic "fallen" woman. I'd even dare to say that this one pleased me even more than that other favorite 1934 tearjerker, "Imitation Of Life".

Awesome Miss Colbert's costumes, designed by the best Hollywood costume designer of all time, Travis Banton, to "showcase" her "conversion", when she turns into the successful "Torch" Singer-Mimi Benton-of the Title.

Great performance by latin-named, but European born, Ricardo Cortez, as Miss Colbert's lover and mentor and a good one too by David Manners, as the rich guy, who "unwantedly" & "unknowingly" disgraced Miss Colbert's life.

Nice acting by beautiful Mildred Washington, who plays Miss Colbert's maid, and "punchy" Lyda Roberti, who plays an earthy woman who befriends Colbert in the beginning of the film. Ethel Griffies, gives a good "nasty" performance, as Manners' stiff-upper-lip, aristocratic, embittered aunt.

Mention apart deserves Charley Grapewin as the mischievous sponsor of Miss Colbert's Radio Show. He delivers some great lines!

I won't add anything more about the plot of the movie, 'cos you oughta watch it for yourselves! A must see for Pre-Code and 1930's film lovers!

Claudette Colbert sizzles in this "women's film" about a girl gone bad who's forced to give her illegitimate baby up for adoption and then sets out to find her years later after she's become a famous nightclub singer.

This is melodrama good and proper, folks, so be prepared to suspend your disbelief if you're going to have a chance at enjoying it. But if you give in, you might just find what I found in this film, a sexy, sometimes funny, sometimes truly affecting story about a mother's love with an absolutely sensational actress making sure you buy it hook, line and sinker. Colbert is marvelous, and I couldn't take my eyes off of her whenever she's on the screen, which fortunately is most of the time.

Grade: B+

For only a 72 minute movie Torch Singer packs quite a lot into the film with Claudette Colbert playing the starring role of an unwed mother who is forced to give up her daughter as she can't locate the baby's father David Manners and his rich family won't give her the time of day. She supports herself by becoming a nightclub singer and according to a recent biography of Claudette Colbert she actually sung her own numbers which were written by songwriting team of Leo Robin and Ralph Rainger for the film. Claudette's scenes with her child, her prospective in-laws and with the nuns running the adoption facility are heartbreaking and touching on melodrama.

A case of 'mike fright' scares off the prospective host of a children's radio program and sultry torch singer Claudette substitutes as the story lady who sings lullabies and tells fairy tales. Which gives her a day time career as well as a nighttime one as long as she can keep the secret. In the meantime the show affects her and decides to seek her child.

Claudette proves to have a nice style as a singer much as Susan Hayward did when played Lillian Roth in I'll Cry Tomorrow. And she treads on Barbara Stanwyck territory as a woman made hard by the circumstances of her life.

Ricardo Cortez who after the silent screen days ended where he played Latin lovers as a poor man's Rudolph Valentino, in sound either played smart alecks or downright heels. I was fully expecting him to be a heel in this film, but he turns out to be a nice guy as a radio executive who sympathizes with Colbert and her situation.

Lyda Roberti also makes an appearance here playing a fellow unwed mother who rooms with Colbert for a while. Her character has all too little time in Torch Singer, I wish we saw more of her.

Claudette Colbert whose career in 1933 was really beginning to take off moved a bit higher with this film. It holds up very well for today's audience.

"I get a lot of proposals too, but marriage isn't one of them."

This is such a great vehicle for the adorable and talented Claudette Colbert, so despite this film's flaws, if you're a fan of hers, it's one to see. She plays a woman who has a child out of wedlock, making a highly sympathetic protagonist, something that clearly puts us in pre-Code territory at the beginning of the film (and speaking of adorable, the babies we see early are on are mighty cute too). Her roommate (Lyda Roberti) has to fend off workplace harassment before disappearing, leaving Colbert's character unable to pay the rent and begging for help from the wealthy family of the baby's father. She's turned away, so in her desperation, decides to give up her baby to the church who helped her with her pregnancy. She leaves her baby with this advice: "Don't ever let any man make a sucker out of you. Make them know what you're worth. Anything they get for nothing is always cheap."

The film then settles into its next act, which has her becoming a nightclub, er torch singer, starting from the bottom. The scene of her listlessly singing in front of a couple shoveling spaghetti into their mouths is priceless, but soon she's performing in much finer venues. Of course she is, she's Claudette Colbert, and for me it was a treat to hear her sing in this film. Her sleek hairstyles and the gowns from Travis Banton are stunning, and soon she draws the attention of an admirer (Ricardo Cortez). The film was firing on all cylinders at this point, as Colbert seems to toughened and flirtatious, for example, this interaction with a middle-aged businessman:

Him: "I don't stay up that late on account of my lumbago." Her: "Oh, lumbago? (sweeping her eyes over him, then looking him in the eye) I have something grand for lumbago. ... I'll fix you up."

The film then shifts when after rising to the top, she fills in as the radio voice for a children's bedtime show on a lark, and becomes a hit there too. You can see what's coming a mile away, her desire to reunite with her now 5-year-old daughter, something I had resigned myself to, but then on top of it the film piles on the child's father (David Manners), having returned from China and who says he had wired for her before leaving. I loved how Colbert's character was never punished for having premarital sex, but the film ends with the nuclear family restored in a rather nauseating and predictable climax, complete with Cortez's character bowing out gracefully (not to mention the adoptive parents).

Colbert is radiant though, and shows a lot of range, including desperation, comedy, caring for babies and children, flirtation, singing, and depressed to the point of intoxication. There were several cute kids here too, including a little black girl (Carlena Beard) who is treated with heartwarming love. There's a supporting role for a black maid as well (Mildred Washington) and the scene where she's caught dancing is amusing; it was sad to find out she died at just 28, the year this film came out.

This is a terribly made film. It's so disjointed it's like watching a YouTube compilation of Claudette Colbert clips from several different films all stuck together.

If this was a novel it would be like someone had removed every other chapter. Each ten minutes or so you're almost watching a different film with different characters. I would find it hard to imagine how any plot could be contrived to link all this character developments anyway. For example the story begins with David Manners running away to China for five years leaving his pregnant girlfriend destitute trying to bring up the baby without any money or anywhere to live. She can't so she has to give it up. Eventually he returns from China and says: "oh sorry for abandoning you and the baby to nearly starve and freeze to death." So obviously she forgives him and everything is fine.....seriously it is that stupid.

There is bit more to this such her becoming a nightclub singer, the most scandalous woman in New York (although none of that is explained at all) and presenter of a children's radio show in order to track down her daughter....all run of the mill stuff. Either the team of writers who put this together wrote their bits in complete isolation without any idea of what the other was doing or it was written on the day they abolished prohibition!

As always, Claudette Colbert's acting is outstanding. She's equally as good as the downtrodden starving waif as she is as the man-eating night club singer as she is the passionate mother searching desperately for her child. It's just a shame that we don't get to see how she changes. Maybe this was a 2 hour film once and the editor had a funny turn? There's absolutely no transition from one persona to the next. It seems a waste of good acting! The rest of the cast are excellent as well but again, they make no sense: at one point Colbert is sharing an apartment with Lyda Roberti, five minutes later, seemingly in another film, she's vanished. Ricardo Cortez, playing a nice guy for a change, seems as though he's set to be the romantic interest but in the next scene the writers changed their mind.

Overall this is dire. Other than an excuse to gaze at gorgeous Claudette Colbert for an hour and hear her singing - which really isn't that impressive (to become the successful singer in this picture she must have had other talents.....but that's not explained) there is no reason at all why this should be watched.......except is you're a Toby Wing spotter! Oh yes, the world's most beautiful non-speaking extra, the goddess herself, Toby Wing has no less than two walk on parts in this as "blonde at party."

An unwed TORCH SINGER uses her children's radio show to search for her illegitimate daughter.

Claudette Colbert has a fine time in this Pre-Code melodrama playing a distraught female who covers up for the necessary separation from her child by embracing a life of empty decadence. While highly fanciful--the heroine is both sultry nightclub chanteuse and kindly kiddy radio hostess--the plot is still most enjoyable, with Colbert wringing every bit of pathos from her character's plight.

Ricardo Cortez plays the refreshingly decent producer who assists Colbert to become a celebrity. David Manners ably plays her long-lost lover. Peppery Lydia Roberti is most enjoyable as a high-spirited young mother; her character is sorely missed when she disappears early in the film. Old Charley Grapewin adds some spark as the flirtatious breakfast cereal tycoon who sponsors Miss Colbert's radio show.

A quartet of character actresses lend able support in small roles: Florence Roberts as a sympathetic nun; Virginia Hammond as Grapewin's suspicious wife; Mildred Washington as Miss Colbert's energetic maid; and aristocratic Ethel Griffies as Manners' inflexible aunt. Baby LeRoy, nemesis of W.C. Fields, appears in only one scene as Miss Roberti's infant son.

Movie mavens will recognize unbilled Scots actress Margaret Mann as a nanny.

TORCH SINGER (Paramount, 1933), directed by Alexander Hall and George Somnes, from the story, "Mike" by Grace Perkins, gives indication as a musical drama starring torch singer Helen Morgan, but, while Morgan, best known for her early work in Rouben Mamoulian's APPLAUSE (Paramount, 1929), might have stepped into this particular role with conviction, especially when songs are concerned, the leading role went to none-other than Claudette Colbert, with screen personality most associated with comedy than singing. The finished product, however, is not so much a musical, in spite of songs thrown in, but a Depression era theme of a poor woman's rise to success, unable to forget her past concerning that special someone she hopes to meet again.

Following the opening credits with titles over blazing fire, this hot item begins with Sally Trent (Claudette Colbert), a show girl by profession, arriving at St. Ann's Hospital, registering as a free clinic patient, where she soon gives birth to her illegitimate daughter. While there, she befriends Dora (Lyda Roberti), a young Bronx widow who gives birth to a little boy, Bobby. Upon their release, the two mothers help each other by sharing an apartment together and watching each other's babies while looking for work. With Dora finding a new husband after losing her job, Sally struggles on her own after landlady evicts her for non payment of rent. Unable to care for Little Sally, she comes to the rich aunt (Ethel Griffies) of the man who fathered her child for help, but is refused. Sally makes the supreme sacrifice by giving up her child to the sisters of St. Ann's Hospital, with the condition that she'll never see her daughter, again. The next few years finds Sally, now known professionally as Mimi Benton, torch singing in restaurants and night clubs before being discovered by Tony Cummings (Ricardo Cortez), who arranges her new career singing on radio for Andrew Judson's (Charley Grapewin) Pure Food Broadcast. Mimi soon finds further success hosting as Aunt Jennie on a children's radio program telling bedtime stories. In spite of her fame and fortune, and fan letters from children, Sally, a/k/a Mimi, starts yearning for her daughter, using her radio broadcast to regain custody of her, while the father of her child, Michael Gardner (David Manners), who had been away in China during her pregnancy, makes every effort to find her.

The supporting players consists of Florence Roberts (Mother Angelica); Mildred Washington (Carrie, the maid); Virginia Hammond (Mrs. Julia Judson); Helen Jerome Eddy (Miss Spaulding); William B. Davidson and Toby Wing in smaller roles. Ricardo Cortez, noted for playing heals or villains, is surprisingly effective as a loyal friend for a change, while David Manners, usually the good guy, as a rich young lad unaware of his child's existence. Appearing 40 minutes into the start of story, Manners is given little to do in the process, as with Lyda Roberti, whose character disappears shortly before the plot gets underway.

In a role that might have dramatically suited Paramount's own drama queens as Sylvia Sidney or Tallulah Bankhead, TORCH SINGER is made credible by the casting of Colbert, shortly before reaching super star status in 1934, vocalizing such tunes as: "Here Lies Love," "I'm Waiting For You," "Give Me Liberty or Give Me Love," "Sail, Baby, Sail," "You Can Depend on Me" and the reprise of "Give Me Liberty or Give Me Love." For her introduction during the opening minutes in the hospital, she comes close to becoming recognizable without makeup, especially during her moments of labor pain.

When this long unseen drama was selected as part of Turner Classic Movie's spotlight on "Complicated Women" broadcast May 13, 2003, host Robert Osborne, during his after movie profile, mistakenly gave credit to Baby LeRoy as Colbert's long lost son (an error commonly found in other related sources), instead of rightfully naming those who played her daughter, Shirley Christensen (the baby), and Cora Sue Collins (the child). Not broadcast since its TCM premiere, TORCH SINGER was brought back in circulation again when distributed on DVD in 2009 by MCA Universal.

With TORCH SINGER being one of the many prime examples on how unwed mothers are portrayed during Hollywood's pre-code era, and this being Colbert's preparation for another self sacrificing mother role in IMITATION OF LIFE (Universal, 1934), the movie itself is basically weakened by unbelievable circumstances taking place after such a fine start. Regardless of its flaws, TORCH SINGER is a worthy rediscovery. (**)

The soap suds reach almost to the ceiling in "Torch Singer" but that's part of the fun. Claudette Colbert and the rest of the excellent cast have a grand old time as they work their way through the somewhat rusty plot. Colbert sings a couple of songs and wears some smashing gowns as she portrays a chorus girl with a heart of gold who's forced to give up her baby daughter and become a torch singer to earn a living in Depression-era New York. In no time at all she's the toast of the town, with a fancy apartment, a maid, and a boy friend who's a big radio executive. She covers up her need for her daughter by drinking, dancing and carrying on, and does it ever look like fun. But it all works out in the end, and with only minutes to spare.

Look for Lyda Roberti, the Polish bombshell in the first part of the movie as Colbert's friend and roommate. Roberti died tragically young, with only a few films to her credit, notably "The Kid From Spain " and "Million Dollar Legs," in which she played Mata Machree, The Woman No Man Can Resist. "Torch Singer" is kind of tame for a pre-Code feature but it's fun and well worth watching.

Fredric March and Claudette Colbert were contract actors who worked contemporaneously for several years at Paramount Studio. As employees of Paramount, both were often required to accept projects assigned to them notwithstanding their uneven quality or suitability. For every great film he made like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, March appeared in such lesser efforts as Merrily We Go to Hell and Strangers in Love. Similarly, Colbert followed her famous role in The Sign of the Cross with inferior films like Three-Cornered Moon and Torch Singer. The Studio System then was operating at or near its greatest level of control and power. This almost guaranteed that contract actors like March and Colbert would often have to "take the bitter with the better" when it came to film assignments.

While Torch Singer (TS) is a minor movie in Colbert's long and distinguished career, it did have certain redeeming qualities. TS gave her an opportunity to demonstrate a pleasant singing voice, which unfortunately she was unable to seriously integrate into her future work as a film performer. For another, TS offered Colbert the chance to hone her acting chops in a meaty single mother role, which she did to greater success in the subsequent original version of Imitation of Life on loan out to Universal Studio. And as in the latter named movie, Colbert in TS plumbed a part that took her from rags to riches through assorted personal trials and tribulations. Finally, both films involved narrative complications brought on by circumstances related to the Colbert character's young daughter in each picture.

TS was not helped by a script that veered uneasily between melodramatic tearjerker and romantic comedy. It was at times somewhat hard to follow. This situation was offset to some extent by Colbert's striking gowns, attractive appearance and considerable acting ability. Her professionalism and generosity as a performer were also demonstrated by her effort to salvage the material into something more significant than appeared from the written screenplay. In Claudette Colbert-An Illustrated Biography by Lawrence J. Quirk (1985), the author related a conversation he had many years later with Ricardo Cortez, Colbert's co-star in TS, about the making of that film:

"I (Cortez) remember that film (TS) chiefly because of Claudette. She knew she had very little to work with, and I don't think Al Hall (the director) could help her much because he had not yet fully hit his stride as the fine comic director he became later. I saw her transform the picture through sheer dynamism and force of personality. I remember she would finish a scene and then retire to her dressing room or a set chair looking worn out and dejected, as if saying to herself, 'What am I doing in this?' Then, when on call again, she became something else entirely-energetic, humorous, sharp. Some people think that Torch Singer was a good picture. That was because Claudette willed it. She made it sound and look so very much better than it was."

Quirk goes on to confirm Cortez's opinion of TS. He stated that "It is a prime example of a star, through sheer personality, redeeming an also-ran tearjerker-comedy-musical-whatever-it-was."

Colbert went on to achieve major success up to her 65th (and final) film Parrish in 1961. She brought intelligence, charm, style and beauty to every role she played------even if it may have been beneath her talent (like TS). She was one of the few actresses from Hollywood's Golden Age----e.g. Irene Dunne, Barbara Stanwyck and Rosalind Russell----who was admired for her talent, temperment and professionalism. TS shines an interesting light on all those qualities at an early stage of her long career, and provides a good reason for us to seek it out when it is next screened.

After a slam bam, thank you mam, pregnancy, dad (David Manners) takes a slow boat to China and abandons chorus girl/singer Sally Trent (Claudette Colbert). She attempts to bring up the child but penniless she allows it to be adopted. She then works her way up the ladder as a torch singer in clubs before a fortuitous event turns her into a radio sensation that she manipulates into a search for her long lost daughter, Sally.

Colbert handles the mawkishly melodramatic script well, in tears one moment, hard as nails in another. The script is all too pat however with its happily after ending drowning in suds. One absolutely touching and eloquent scene that does deserve mention is Trent arriving at a ramshackle home in hopes of finding her daughter who turns out to be a black child with the same name and date of birth. "Was she black?" asks the little girl. "I don't remember, it was long ago," Trent says with the perfect answer, reminding us we are all God's children..

And that's Claudette Colbert, playing a not entirely plausible good-woman-turned-tough-cynic, who suffers, wisecracks, repents, and, most surprisingly, sings. That's clearly her voice taking on some decent Rainger-Robin songs, and it's a true, throaty, expressive contralto. Why didn't Paramount, which so often exploited the cheery, joie-de-vivre aspects of the Colbert personality, put her in more musicals? She's a natural. And she emotes touchingly in the soapier sections of this one, including a really devastating scene of her giving up her child. The story doesn't make a lot of sense, least of all the David Manners character, a Boston blueblood who is first portrayed as a rotter but turns out to be wonderful. Nor does Ricardo Cortez fit in easily, as Colbert's radio-manager boss; the script seems to want to suggest a romance for them, but never gets around to it. And the plot gymnastics toward the end, which are determined to give Colbert and Manners a happy ending whatever the cost to logic, are just impossible. Still, it's nicely pre-Code, never condemning Colbert for having a child out of wedlock, and quite a showcase for her many talents.

Excellent performance by Colbert who plays the part of a naive chorus girl who gets pregnant .Unable to provide for her daughter she has no choice but to give her up for adoption. Within a year her fortunes change and she becomes a very successful Torch Singer but is now a cynical soul who hides her softer side . After doing a good turn she lands the part of a children's radio presenter but this reminds her of the loss of her daughter.Knowing she is now wealthy enough to provide for her daughter ,she embarks on a plan to find her. Colbert plays the different emotions of her character with great skill ,changing from the happy go lucky prankster (when taking over the mike at the radio station),then the bitter ex girlfriend,and finally ,to the despairing mother who feels she will never see her daughter again. It was clever how she tried to track down her daughter using the radio show but the film failed to develop any strong attraction between Sally and Mike which made the ending unsatisfactory. Even a small speech by Sally confessing she had always loved him would have improved the film appreciably. This film more than any other,highlights the true versatility of one of Holywoods great actresses.

I agree with several other posters about this movie. It is not well written. It doesn't always flow well. I think that Claudette Colbert's acting is the only saving grace. I love everything she's in but this is my least favorite of her films. She still does a great job. But I was surprised she would be given a singing role. Her voice was atrocious and she had many singing parts. What I did enjoy about the movie was the subject matter. It evokes sympathy for this young mother and we want to see her dream come true. But I agree that the ending was completely unrealistic and I feel the latter part of the movie needed more work. It's watchable but I would never view it again and can't really recommend it. I would rate it lower but I'm giving it a five because Claudette's acting is good.

This is a classic Pre Code film covering taboo subject matters such as a child being born out of wedlock. One thing that I particularly enjoyed about it is the performance of black actress Mildred Washington. She plays Claudette Colbert's maid, however they have an unusual interracial friendship. I would even suggest that perhaps they are more than just friends, and maybe even having a lesbian (bisexual) affair. Many scenes are with the maid hanging out with Claudette Colbert's character while she is in her bed. I would suggest that is a subtle code that something deeper is going on between them, because what white woman in those days would allow a black woman servant into her bedroom? I could be wrong, but even the fact that they are friends is highly unusual for the 1930s. It is a movie that advanced civil rights in America through being a film that broke barriers with entertainment. The film can become a little bit melodramatic at times, but it is well worth seeing and examining how Pre Code films handled subject matters that most of us assumed were off limits for movies back then. Sadly Mildred Washington died at 28 years old around the same time the movie came out.

It's a poverty-to-riches drama set from 1928 to 1933 in New York City. It follows a young unmarried chorus girl, Sally Trent (Claudette Colbert), who has a baby girl. The father, Mike Gardner (David Manners), is from a wealthy family but departed for China on business without knowing about the baby. As Sally's circumstances become dire, she reluctantly gives up the child, also Sally (Cora Sue Collins), for adoption. She changes her name to Mimi Benton and finds wealth and fame as a notorious torch singer who moves in a fast crowd.

One day, by accident, she takes over a children's radio program as "Aunt Jenny," triggering a desire to find her daughter, who is now five years old. The remainder of the film follows this storyline to the end.

"Torch Singer" shows off Claudette Colbert's talent as a versatile actor and surprisingly good singer. However, the script is choppy, and all the other characters, including her friend Dora (Lyda Roberti) and radio executive Tony Cummings (Ricardo Cortez), are just facades. Some characters provide a little humor, but none is really sustained.