Smart Blonde

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.

Smart Blonde is the first film of the Torchy Blane series with Glenda Farrell as former showgirl turned reporter with a real keen sense of a scoop. She works the police beat where she constantly runs up against her boyfriend, homicide cop Barton MacLane.

Depending on how you view things, Torchy's a help or a hindrance. But in this case she was literally on top of the story. Seconds after being interviewed by her, nightclub impresario Joseph Crehan is shot down in Union Station.

Crehan was going to buy a nightclub owned by Addison Richards who was getting out of the business and getting ready to marry Charlotte Wynters and go into the real estate business with her and her brother Robert Paige, leaving his club singer Wini Shaw all in distress. Another one in distress is Max Wagner, Richards's gunsill because there's not much call for his line of work in real estate.

One murder later of course Torchy's put it all together for MacLane and gets her paper the scoop. But the plot does take an interesting twist or two, it's not who you think it is.

Jane Wyman has a small supporting role as a hatcheck girl with a tendency to gossip which aids Farrell in her story. This was of course at the beginning of Wyman's career which included a film as Torchy Blane herself when Farrell quit the series.

Smart Blonde proves how popular the Torchy Blane series was at Warner Brothers and why it was so well received in the late Thirties.

Dynamite comes in small packages. Which describes both short "B" second feature Smart Blonde and its cute, perky star Glenda Farrel as Torchy Blane. Initial entry in the highly successful Torchy Blane series, Smart Blonde runs on open throttle for its entire 59 minutes. It is smart, tough, breezy, lightning paced, with funny, snappy dialog delivered incredibly fast. This picture is nothing if not fast-talking. Glenda Farrell reportedly could speak 390 words per minute, and she demonstrates it throughout. But co-star Barton MacLane, who plays her tough cop boy friend Steve McBride, may actually have surpassed her in the motor mouth department in a couple of scenes. Most of the other Runyonesque characters in this entertaining mystery do likewise. If all the dialog in this movie had been delivered at a normal cadence, the running time would have been at least twenty minutes longer. This picture along with other Warner Brothers gangster movies of the 1930's makes you wonder if the studio had a course in fast talking for its stock players.

Stock players were exactly what Farrell and MacLane were. Usually in supporting parts, she the hard-boiled broad, he the burly, loud-mouthed gangster or cop. But the Torchy series gave both a chance to use their special talents in leading roles, and both made the best of it. The pair had crackling chemistry together, with cozy affectionate interludes only occasionally breaking their constant rat-a-tat wise-cracking. Torchy is a smart girl reporter who solves the cases Steve isn't sharp enough to dope out on his own. At least that's the way she sees it.

Farrell and MacLane get solid support from a crew of other Warner Brothers stock players, especially Addison Richards as a shady, but on-the-level night club/race track operator around whom the murder mystery swirls, Wini Shaw as the beautiful singer who loves him, and Charlotte Wynters as the high class dame he loves. This role as a tough, but likable borderline hoodlum was a real change of pace for Richards. In 400 movie and television appearances from the 1930' to the 1960's the tall, lanky actor rarely played other than judges, district attorneys, doctors, high ranking army officers, and other dignified types. MacLane may have showed good chemistry with the pretty, vivacious Farrell, but it was Charlotte Wynters who became Mrs. Barton MacLane about a year after Smart Blonde's release.

Smart Blonde is a delightful, stimulating little mystery potboiler, full of plot twists, intrigues, and explosive bursts of action. Characterization is colorful and well developed. As a big studio "B" picture, the sets and cinematography are nearly as good as in one of Warner Brothers' top productions. Director Frank McDonald, a life-long "B" picture specialist, keeps all on target throughout. To compress all that happens in the story into less than an hour running time, even considering the machine gun dialog delivery, should rate as a masterpiece of film editing for Frank MaGee. Acting was first rate all around but especially from the two likable leads.

An enduring example of how the big studios of Old Hollywood could turn out good looking, entertaining pictures when only half-way trying.

Entertaining entry in Warner Bros. "Torchy Blane" series. In fact, it's very entertaining, with all the usual trimmings of the series and with a good, solid mystery to boot. The best murder mysteries are the ones that keep you guessing right up to the end, and this one delivers.

There is the usual back story, the relationship between Torchy (Glenda Farrell), the reporter/ sleuth, and Det. Steve McBride (Barton MacLane); are they an item or not? The role of Torchy is tailor-made for Glenda Farrell, the prototypical wisecracking blonde of 30's movies, and she doesn't disappoint.

For Golden Age movie fans, there is another wisecracking blonde in the supporting cast who is tough to recognize - none other than Jane Wyman, who most of us remember as a brunette. Maltin says this is the only entry in the series taken from material from its author, Frederick Nebel, which could account for the better storyline than most of the other entries.

Good start to the B series about the fast-talking, gutsy, and snoopy lady reporter, a forerunner to Lois Lane. It has a brisk pace and a fun cast of characters. This first entry deals with the murder of a guy who just bought a popular nightclub. Reporter Torchy Blane (Glenda Farrell) and her detective boyfriend Steve McBride (Barton MacLane) set out to solve the case, together and in spite of each other.

Farrell and MacLane are both terrific in parts well-suited to their particular talents. Jane Wyman, who would later play the role of Torchy herself, has a small part here as a gabby hatcheck girl. Good support from Addison Richards, Tom Kennedy, Wini Shaw, Robert Paige, Joseph Crehan, and Charlotte Wynters (the future Mrs. Barton MacLane). If you're a fan of B's from back in the day, or just a fan of the great Glenda Farrell, you should find a lot to like here.