Torchy Blane.. Playing with Dynamite

They gave Jane a new hairdo and camouflage her as beautiful. Not buying it. Glenda Farrell is one of the prettiest women in Hollywood at the time,wierd replacement. Allen Jenkins always great though. Just a super odd duo,movie isnt bad.

By the way Glendas first "real" Torchy outing was Mystery of the Wax Museum,Glenda at her spunkiest.

In court for a traffic ticket, reporter Torchy Blane encounters a shoplifter sentenced to nine months in jail—and later spots said shoplifter in a photo with much sought bank robber Denver Eddie. Torchy loses no time in having herself thrown into jail, befriending the moll, and planning an escape that—she hopes—will lead her to Denver Eddie himself and a great big scoop.

Jane Wyman is a brisk and chipper Torchy Blane, bubbling with self-confidence and bright ideas in this fun final picture in the Torchy Blane series. Wyman also talks fast—though not as fast as Glenda Farrell, who played Torchy in most of the series' previous entries. Wyman's Torchy is perhaps a bit sweeter than Glenda's and not quite as hard-nosed.

Wyman is aided greatly by Allen Jenkins as Lieutenant Steve McBride—annoyed, as always, by his fiancée's superior detecting skills as well as her willingness to poke criticism at his department's failures. Jenkins brings a touch of good humor to the role, at least in comparison with Barton McLane, who was the series' regular Lt. McBride…. It's a sour but not really bitter Stevie who complains that Torchy's latest column makes "a hero out of this Denver Eddie punk after we do everything but go through the public schools looking for him."

Tom Kennedy is as much fun as ever as Gahagan, police chauffeur and assistant. This time around we learn that Gahagan was once wrestling champ of the Navy—and has the belt buckle to prove it. He is, of course, pressed into service in the wrestling ring, billed (reluctantly) as "Harry the Horse" and allowed to show off his moves.

Other highlights include Torchy's crime spree—setting off fire alarms all over town in order to get herself locked up. There's also a wonderful "gritty prison picture" sequence that lasts all of about two minutes, in which Torchy and the shoplifter cross paths, form a bond, and plan their breakout; it's brief, but it sure has all the earmarks of a Warner Brothers crime drama for that one (fun but rather incongruous) scene.

The stars work well together; a decent plot, some fair dialog and a little action all add up to a very enjoyable little comedy-mystery.

Jane Wyman and Allen Jenkins team up as the reporter/detective pair in their first but also the series final episode. Wyman looks great but simply does not have the wisecracking hard-boiled presence of the annoying Glenda Farrell. Jenkins is fair but Barton MacLane is better.

As in the rest of the series and many other films of this type, the amateur is a necessary component of bringing the criminal to justice. Torchy goes undercover in jail and on the lam in order to meet up with the notorious Denver Eddie. By the end of the movie she is in the arms of fiancé Detective Lieutenant Steve McBride.

Tom Kennedy steals most of the movie by playing a former Navy wrester turned policeman. In reality Tom was a boxer and he carries off his match as Harry the Horse with Bone Crusher (played by Tiny Roebuck in his final on-screen performance) with good comedic style. If you have ever wondered what the protagonists in a wrestling match say to each other while they are otherwise locked into their imposing holds, watch this movie.

I just watched this one on TCM. Torchy gets herself tossed in jail so that she can cozy up to Jackie McGuire, girlfriend of the notorious gangster Denver Eddie. Torchy and Jackie break out of jail and go on the lam, finally linking up with Eddie and his two goons. Steve McBride and Gahagan are close behind. We learn that Gahagan is a former wrestling champion from the navy. The climax is a wrestling match between Gahagan, AKA Harry the Horse, and The Bone Crusher, his old wrestling nemesis from the navy.

Jane Wyman takes over the Torchy role in this final film of the series. Glenda Farrell had left the studio. Allen Jenkins is Steve McBride. He was much better suited to comedy. Pretty but hard looking Sheila Bromley is very good as Jackie.

This is an OK entry as the series swan song. It's fast paced and the script is clever. The action scenes, especially the wrestling match, are well done. Tom Kennedy had been a professional wrestler and boxer before becoming an actor so he was very well suited to the ring sequences. TBPWD is only 59 minutes long but is an OK way to spend a lazy Saturday morning.

I love Glenda Farrell. She is always fun, and she's fun in this series. But the plots are thrown rogether so quickly they frequently make no sense.

Lola Lane was a ghastly substitute in the Panama outing.

In this one, Jane Wyman and Alan Jenkins seem an unlikely couple, to say the very least. However, it has a linear plot that makes good sense and is both exciting and funny (when it wants to be.)

Jane Wyman: such a strange career. She is heartbreaking in "The Yearling" and deserves her Oscar for "Johnny Belinda." And she was a charming light comic before and even these two.

Then she got ultra-serious and made those schmaltzy women's pictures. Douglas Sirk? OK. Fine craftsman. But most of Wyman's output after the early 1950s is a disappointment, though it kept her in the public eye and surely made a good deal of money.