‘B’ for Blane and ‘B’ for budget: the productivity and narrativity of the Torchy Blane Series
2020; Oxford University Press; Volume: 61; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1093/screen/hjaa043
ISSN1460-2474
Autores Tópico(s)Cinema and Media Studies
Resumo‘She’s shrewd and aggressive without being too tough. She’s beguiling as well as resourceful. The character whips up a taste for ensuing adventures.’1 Such was Variety’s glowing assessment of the new Warner Bros. heroine when, leaping from a taxi to pursue a train and jumping aboard it to track her quarry and nail her story, Torchy Blane first burst onto the screen. The film in which this occurs, Smart Blonde (Frank McDonald,1937), introduces the series of nine Torchy films produced at Warner Bros. between 1937 and 1939. Each centres upon Torchy, the fast-talking, independent ‘lady newshound’ as she ‘scooped to conquer’, and her relationship with her long-suffering fiancé, police lieutenant Steve McBride.2 Torchy was played by Glenda Farrell, partnered by Barton McLane as Steve, in seven of the nine Torchy films: 1) Smart Blonde, 2) Fly-Away Baby (Frank McDonald, 1937), 3) Torchy Blane: The Adventurous Blonde (Frank MacDonald 1937), 4) Blondes at Work (Frank McDonald, 1938), 6) Torchy Gets Her Man (William Beaudine, 1938), 7) Torchy Blane in Chinatown (William Beaudine, 1939) and 8) Torchy Runs for Mayor (Ray McCarey, 1939). In the fifth film of the series, Torchy Blane in Panama (William Clemens, 1938), Farrell was replaced by Lola Lane opposite Paul Kelly as Steve, and in the ninth and final film, Torchy Blane … Plays with Dynamite (Noel Smith, 1939; aka Torchy Blane … Playing with Dynamite), Jane Wyman took the role opposite Allen Jenkins.
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