Chanteuse de cabaret

This is a touching if not extraordinary film about a woman who has a child out of wedlock, gives it up for adoption and suffers a great deal despite achieving wealth, glamour and fame first as a nightclub torch singer and then as a children's radio personality. This may have been Claudette Colbert's first great cinematic tour de force, gorgeously photographed by Karl Struss (through whose lens she also appeared to huge advantage in Sign of the Cross and Four Frightened People), sheathed in a variety of Travis Banton gowns and singing rather ludicrous songs by Ralph Rainger and Leo Robin in her own voice and let's give her a nod for that! The role is as juicy as can be, giving her the opportunity to essay mother love, humiliation, anger, despair, bitterness, drunkenness, nobility, eroticism - you name it. What a showcase! The screen bursts with life when she is at its center. The other performers, including an underused Lyda Roberti as a fellow unwed mother and a stiff David Manners as the father of the child, serve as window dressing. The only standout aside from Colbert is Ethel Griffies as Manners's stodgy, coldhearted aunt; acting like hers, in the grand old fashion, died decades ago but not until talkies captured the work of some of its practitioners, and it is still a treat to watch.

For only a 72 minute movie Torch Singer packs quite a lot into the film with Claudette Colbert playing the starring role of an unwed mother who is forced to give up her daughter as she can't locate the baby's father David Manners and his rich family won't give her the time of day. She supports herself by becoming a nightclub singer and according to a recent biography of Claudette Colbert she actually sung her own numbers which were written by songwriting team of Leo Robin and Ralph Rainger for the film. Claudette's scenes with her child, her prospective in-laws and with the nuns running the adoption facility are heartbreaking and touching on melodrama.

A case of 'mike fright' scares off the prospective host of a children's radio program and sultry torch singer Claudette substitutes as the story lady who sings lullabies and tells fairy tales. Which gives her a day time career as well as a nighttime one as long as she can keep the secret. In the meantime the show affects her and decides to seek her child.

Claudette proves to have a nice style as a singer much as Susan Hayward did when played Lillian Roth in I'll Cry Tomorrow. And she treads on Barbara Stanwyck territory as a woman made hard by the circumstances of her life.

Ricardo Cortez who after the silent screen days ended where he played Latin lovers as a poor man's Rudolph Valentino, in sound either played smart alecks or downright heels. I was fully expecting him to be a heel in this film, but he turns out to be a nice guy as a radio executive who sympathizes with Colbert and her situation.

Lyda Roberti also makes an appearance here playing a fellow unwed mother who rooms with Colbert for a while. Her character has all too little time in Torch Singer, I wish we saw more of her.

Claudette Colbert whose career in 1933 was really beginning to take off moved a bit higher with this film. It holds up very well for today's audience.

Claudette Colbert sizzles in this "women's film" about a girl gone bad who's forced to give her illegitimate baby up for adoption and then sets out to find her years later after she's become a famous nightclub singer.

This is melodrama good and proper, folks, so be prepared to suspend your disbelief if you're going to have a chance at enjoying it. But if you give in, you might just find what I found in this film, a sexy, sometimes funny, sometimes truly affecting story about a mother's love with an absolutely sensational actress making sure you buy it hook, line and sinker. Colbert is marvelous, and I couldn't take my eyes off of her whenever she's on the screen, which fortunately is most of the time.

Grade: B+

"I get a lot of proposals too, but marriage isn't one of them."

This is such a great vehicle for the adorable and talented Claudette Colbert, so despite this film's flaws, if you're a fan of hers, it's one to see. She plays a woman who has a child out of wedlock, making a highly sympathetic protagonist, something that clearly puts us in pre-Code territory at the beginning of the film (and speaking of adorable, the babies we see early are on are mighty cute too). Her roommate (Lyda Roberti) has to fend off workplace harassment before disappearing, leaving Colbert's character unable to pay the rent and begging for help from the wealthy family of the baby's father. She's turned away, so in her desperation, decides to give up her baby to the church who helped her with her pregnancy. She leaves her baby with this advice: "Don't ever let any man make a sucker out of you. Make them know what you're worth. Anything they get for nothing is always cheap."

The film then settles into its next act, which has her becoming a nightclub, er torch singer, starting from the bottom. The scene of her listlessly singing in front of a couple shoveling spaghetti into their mouths is priceless, but soon she's performing in much finer venues. Of course she is, she's Claudette Colbert, and for me it was a treat to hear her sing in this film. Her sleek hairstyles and the gowns from Travis Banton are stunning, and soon she draws the attention of an admirer (Ricardo Cortez). The film was firing on all cylinders at this point, as Colbert seems to toughened and flirtatious, for example, this interaction with a middle-aged businessman:

Him: "I don't stay up that late on account of my lumbago." Her: "Oh, lumbago? (sweeping her eyes over him, then looking him in the eye) I have something grand for lumbago. ... I'll fix you up."

The film then shifts when after rising to the top, she fills in as the radio voice for a children's bedtime show on a lark, and becomes a hit there too. You can see what's coming a mile away, her desire to reunite with her now 5-year-old daughter, something I had resigned myself to, but then on top of it the film piles on the child's father (David Manners), having returned from China and who says he had wired for her before leaving. I loved how Colbert's character was never punished for having premarital sex, but the film ends with the nuclear family restored in a rather nauseating and predictable climax, complete with Cortez's character bowing out gracefully (not to mention the adoptive parents).

Colbert is radiant though, and shows a lot of range, including desperation, comedy, caring for babies and children, flirtation, singing, and depressed to the point of intoxication. There were several cute kids here too, including a little black girl (Carlena Beard) who is treated with heartwarming love. There's a supporting role for a black maid as well (Mildred Washington) and the scene where she's caught dancing is amusing; it was sad to find out she died at just 28, the year this film came out.

An unwed TORCH SINGER uses her children's radio show to search for her illegitimate daughter.

Claudette Colbert has a fine time in this Pre-Code melodrama playing a distraught female who covers up for the necessary separation from her child by embracing a life of empty decadence. While highly fanciful--the heroine is both sultry nightclub chanteuse and kindly kiddy radio hostess--the plot is still most enjoyable, with Colbert wringing every bit of pathos from her character's plight.

Ricardo Cortez plays the refreshingly decent producer who assists Colbert to become a celebrity. David Manners ably plays her long-lost lover. Peppery Lydia Roberti is most enjoyable as a high-spirited young mother; her character is sorely missed when she disappears early in the film. Old Charley Grapewin adds some spark as the flirtatious breakfast cereal tycoon who sponsors Miss Colbert's radio show.

A quartet of character actresses lend able support in small roles: Florence Roberts as a sympathetic nun; Virginia Hammond as Grapewin's suspicious wife; Mildred Washington as Miss Colbert's energetic maid; and aristocratic Ethel Griffies as Manners' inflexible aunt. Baby LeRoy, nemesis of W.C. Fields, appears in only one scene as Miss Roberti's infant son.

Movie mavens will recognize unbilled Scots actress Margaret Mann as a nanny.