Blondes at Work

Reporter Torchy Blane is getting all the scoops, and Captain McTavish is mad. He thinks Torchy's fiancé, Lieutenant McBride, is giving her inside police information. The rival newspaper's editor "wants to know if we're running the police department for the taxpayers or for Torchy Blane." McBride ought to keep her in line!

Glenda Farrell as Torchy is funnier than ever in this fast-moving farce with a bit of mystery tossed in. Torchy plays innocent when asked where she's getting her leads ("Oh, I don't know, those things just seem to come to me. I told you I was psychic") but has soon tracked a missing businessman to a hotel room where someone has been stabbed. Inside info or no, Torchy is consistently a step quicker than the cops.

Barton McLane is a good sport as the generally bewildered Lieutenant McBride; the character is solid enough but essentially a straight man for Torchy and for police chauffeur Gahagan.

Tom Kennedy is back as poetry-loving cop Gahagan and this time around he's keeping a diary—for "postererity," he says. He lets Torchy in on the secret diary; she asks if he has a good hiding place for it and encourages him to keep track of every little thing his boss McBride does….

The plot has a few thin spots. Could you really trace a person that easily from a single smudge of lipstick on a handkerchief? The ending is rather abrupt as well, wrapping things up in an awful hurry. However, such issues hardly matter since plot here is always secondary to the goofy character interplay. The mystery, such as it is, involves a disappearance and murder but is little more than a backdrop for the comic story of Torchy and her sources.

Not much suspense but lots of fun…. Farrell especially—hilarious and cute—appears to be having a ball.

: In the fourth Torchy Blane movie, Glenda Farrell finds the corpse and..... oh, what the heck. Do the police arrest the wrong guy? Of course. Does Miss Farrell find out whodunnit? Of course. It's all background for the hijinks, for Tom Kennedy to enthuse over snippets of poesy, for Barton Maclane to grouch amiably about his girl friend, and for Warner Brothers' writers to pull out tired witticisms for Thomas Jackson to recite. We're in the amiably low-lit world of pre-noir, when the people in charge might foul up, but they were trying to do the right thing, and it would get done eventually, with a few more laughs along the way. And in only an hour, too.

Frank Shannon as Captain McTavish feels that Barton MacLane is giving too much information to gal pal Torchy Blane so he's issued orders cutting her off from scoops. Plus it doesn't look bad if he can't solve his own cases. So Torchy is cut off.

If Shannon thinks that will stop Glenda Farrell, does he have another think coming. Farrell not only keeps scooping the cops without a bit of help from her boyfriend MacLane, she makes monkeys out of the whole police department. That includes thick as a brick Tom Geraghty and young rookie patrolman John Ridgely. And quite a few more.

As it happens she and Ridgely are the last to see a department store owner alive as he gets into a taxi. Although Farrell is resourceful she comes mighty close to obstruction of justice in her quest for the ultimate scoop.

Blondes At Work is a fair enough entry in the Torchy Blane series. The stories aren't much, but I just love the chemistry between Farrell and MacLane. Marry that girl quick Lt. McBride or pin a badge on her.

Blondes at Work (1938)

*** (out of 4)

Fun fourth entry to the series has Torchy Blane (Gelnda Farrell) finding news ways to get sources even when her fiancé Lt. McBride (Barton MacLane) has made it clear he won't be giving her any scoops. She gets on a hot murder case and is able to track down the suspect but things don't go as planned. BLONDES AT WORK is another fine film in the series and I'm sure fans are really going to enjoy it even though Blane is actually somewhat a villain here. The film basically has the police trying to keep the case quiet so that they can locate the killer but Torchy, obviously just thinking of her stories, manages to keep messing up the case. I don't think even fans will agree with the way she gets her news here and the ending, which I won't ruin, is actually quite fitting. As with the previous film, this one here benefits from a pretty good story that has a couple nice twists and of course two nice leads to carry us through it. Farrell is certainly at the top of her game here as she perfectly works her comic timing. MacLane is also good in his supporting bit but it's Tom Kennedy who steals the film as the dimwit who wants to be a poet. Rosella Towne is also good in her role. The film runs a fast-paced 63-minutes and contains enough entertainment to keeps fans interesting. Bette Davis fans will probably recognize this story as it borrows quite heavily from FRONT PAGE WOMAN.

Fourth in the WB series of B movies about a fast-talking lady reporter named Torchy Blane and her cop boyfriend Steve McBride. In this one, as usual, the couple are separately investigating the same case, each trying to solve it before the other. Lightweight, enjoyable entry with the stars at their best. The scene stealer in this one is Tom Kennedy. He's a treat as the dimwitted cop Gahagan, who inadvertently helps Torchy stay one step ahead of the police. Carole Landis has a bit part. The rest of the cast includes John Ridgley, Rosella Towne, and Donald Briggs. One of my favorites in the series.