A2ZJerry

Sven was completely off-base in his comment, as far as I can tell from some quick Internet research. Anna May Wong was a star of silent movies in the 1920s and it seems unlikely that she would have taken a role in a Paramount short in 1932, especially one where she portrayed a singer in a dive. "Anna May Wong: From Laundryman's Daughter to Hollywood Legend" by Graham Russell Gao Hodges would confirm this but even if you rely on the Wikipedia entry on her, "She spent the first half of the 1930s traveling between the U.S. and Europe for film and stage appearances." A look at her picture shows no resemblance to Anna Chang. According to a review on another site, Chang and Joe Wong, her co-star, were "popular Chinese vaudeville stars." That seems more plausible to me than assuming that Anna May Wong appeared in "Singapore Sue" under a pseudonym.

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.