Torchy Blane in Panama

In the fifth installment of the series, Torchy Blane is tasked with solving an armed robbery and must travel to Panama in order to catch the criminal.

This is my first Torchy Blane movie that I have seen as I caught the show on TCM. As far as the story goes it feels pretty basic. There is very little amount of mystery or detective work going on in the movie. The majority of the plot seemed to be centered on side gags with the minor characters and getting a full taste of Lola Lane's character. I believe the studio tried to really sell the audience on her but turned out to be a failure as the studio brought back Glenda Farrell in the next movie.

One of the main gripe I have with this movie that really doesn't go with the story, but with the characters. If you recast both lead actors for a movie and still try to push their romantic chemistry as if nothing has changed, it is going to fail. The audience will not feel for the characters at all.

I however liked Torchy in this movie. It was the rest of the characters that brought this movie down. Given that I haven't seen the other entries in the series; I don't know if this is just how the character Steve McBride is. He felt like a push over way to many times and almost was no existent in the movie. If he wasn't the love interest, I might have forgotten he was even in the movie. Gahagan had his moments of funny comedy but he got annoying after awhile.

This was a okay movie and I feel more inclined to check out the prior movies because of this. This movie will fall in the below 6 range maybe a 5.7 out of 10.

Wide-eyed, beautiful brunette Lola Lane assumes the role of Torchy Blaine, a role Warner Bros. created for the blonde and brassy Glenda Farrell. She starred in the previous seven. No longer the smartest person in the room, this Torchy is probably the most athletic: parachuting, jitterbugging, jumping ship and climbing walls. The character is now more adventuress than working girl. Comedy now dominates the series, with Tom Kennedy's part expanded. A parade of his goofy Lodge of the Leopard opens the film. Briefly seen is a float of black-faced white guys in leopard skins. Lola was one of the Lane Sisters that Warner Bros. put under contract. Among her husbands were Lew Ayres and Roland West.

Lola Lane stars as Torchy, Paul Kelly as Steve, but don't worry, because Tom Kennedy is still Gahagan, and too dumb to notice the substitution.

There's a bank robbery during the Loyal Leopards parade, and our intrepid threesome wind up pursuing the thieves on a cruise ship bound for Los Angeles via the Panama Canal -- hence the name. Miss Lane proves herself as intrepid as she parachutes into the water, and does a fine imitation of Glenda Farrell's gum-chewing intonation, but cannot, of course, match her high speed in spewing the lingo.

Happily, Miss Farrell and Barton MacLane return for the next entry.

Tom Kennedy as leadfooted and deadheaded Sergeant Geoghan gets a bit more screen time in this Torchy Blane film as his lodge The Leopards is used as a cover for a bank robbery. Think how Amos and Andy would feel if the Mystic Knights of the Sea was so dishonored or Ralph Kramden if someone did that to the Loyal Order of the Racoons. Good thing Kennedy got so much screen time as movie audiences apparently missed Glenda Farrell and Barton MacLane. I sure missed them myself.

Lola Lane and Paul Kelly are the stars of Torchy Blane In Panama and they didn't click with me either. Pity because this was one of the better Blane stories. A bank robber robs a bank during the middle of the Leopard Convention Parade in Manhattan and kills a teller. The perpetrator makes off with $90,000.00 in consecutive bills and our ace reporter Torchy finds a Leopard Lodge pin at the scene.

A little detective work and Lane, Kelly, and Kennedy are off on a cruise ship to Panama figuring that it's a good place to fence hot money. Kelly to put Torchy in her place brings along rival reporter Larry Williams whose an obnoxious sort. But Lane's way ahead of all of them, though it nearly gets her killed.

What Farrell and MacLane could have done with this.

Everybody wants Torchy off of the case: Her fiancé Lieutenant Steve McBride, police captain McTavish, rival reporter Bill Canby—all strongly discourage and ridicule Torchy's detecting abilities. –Which is kind of depressing because she's way smarter than any of these guys.

Lola Lane as reporter Torchy Blane is a bright spot in this otherwise pretty unimaginative series entry. Lane's Torchy is energetic, snappy, practically impossible to intimidate. She responds to Steve's efforts to push her away from playing detective by pinching his cheek: "Whatsa matter, Stevie, need help?"

Paul Kelly does not fare so well as Steve McBride….Unfortunately, the character this time around is neither sympathetic nor smart. Kelly does his best to inject some spirit into the character's sour disposition, but just isn't given much to work with.

Both Lane and Kelly made only this one appearance in the Torchy Blane series, and they really don't develop much chemistry in one short picture. (Original series stars Glenda Farrell and Barton McLane returned to the roles by the next entry.)

Tom Kennedy does appear once again as police driver Gahagan—he's still composing poetry, and he is also a member of a lodge called the Leopards whose parade leads them right past a bank that is being robbed. More than comic relief this time around, Gahagan actually spots at least one key clue….

Besides a bank robbery, the plot involves $90,000 of stolen money hidden inside of a stuffed leopard, a chase to Panama in pursuit of a suspect…and Torchy's striped pajamas.

Lane is definitely fun to watch…but overall, the story really lacks suspense and is only moderately amusing. Interesting for Torchy's fans but no great shakes.