Torchy's Night Cap

Ray Cooke is Torchy the Office boy, told to deliver a letter; through a series of accidents, he winds up with the letter torn and can't explain it to his boss because reason. Later, he tries to help two friends elope, which eventually brings us back to the first sequence.

It's certainly well constructed as a story, but the comedy is mild and mediocre, mostly consisting of Cooke dressing up in women's clothes.

In the early 1930s, Ray Cooke made about a dozen Torchy shorts. In all the ones I've seen, Torchy is an office assistant who always seems to work very hard to extricate himself from problems but always seems to come out by the end of the film. "Torchy's Night Cap" is no exception.

When the story starts, Torchy's boss gives him a letter and tells him to deliver it ASAP. Unfortunately, during his walk to deliver the message, two old guys end up getting in a fight...and one of them is knocked into traffic and is nearly killed...and Torchy saves him. The guy he saved grabs the envelope and rips it in half...writing his name and phone number on it and returns half to Torchy! And, he tells Torchy to call him any time if he is in trouble....but he now IS in trouble, as the message is half missing! Torchy tries repeatedly to tell his boss what happened and the guy won't listen...telling Torchy to see him later.

Soon Torchy is roped into helping two friends who are wanting to elope. But her father is a jerk...and ends up being one of the two guys from earlier in the film! In fact, because he blames Torchy for the fight, you know things won't go well. What's next? See the film on YouTube as it was just posted today.

This is a pleasant comedy...without a lot of comedy. Very similar in style to Cooke's other Torchy films....worth seeing but certainly not brilliant.