Vanished Universe
Aug. 30th, 2013 03:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
onyxlynx posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
classicfilmIMDb seems to be having some sort of problem at the moment, so I can't point you at the entry for Glenda Farrell or Barton MacLane, who were the stars of the series, but yesterday afternoon I sat through either three or four Torchy Blane movies with several more promised later that day. (There were seven nine in all.) (ETA: FINALLY!)
This was not a series I had heard of; I think that I might have run across one and shrugged. These were Warner Bros. movies and therefore slightly more tethered to reality (prices are mentioned). Glenda Farrell, who if I remember correctly turns up in The Maltese Falcon, plays Theresa "Torchy" Blane, girl reporter for a Great Metropolitan Newspaper in what seems to be New York City. Ms. Blane's long suffering fiancé and rising detective on the force, Steve McBride, is portrayed by Barton MacLane. Together, theyfight crime solve murders, Torchy being the intuitive but smart half of the team (Steve isn't bumbling, but he has a certain rigidity of mind. Hey, is this sounding familiar yet?). Other newspapermen (Torchy seems to be the lone female in that office) and policemen make up the stock company of characters supporting the two stars; one of this mob was William Hopper with *gasp* dark hair. (He generally has one line per movie, and his voice has that tickle of familiarity.)
The murder mysteries are typical '30s mysteries, that is, timing, coincidences, lies, and impossibilities. Probably the less said about the romantic-comedy side, the better.
There weren't many people of color in these movies; I suspect the average is one per film. (The shoeshine guy was Italian.)
laughingrat , you said something about a book?
This was not a series I had heard of; I think that I might have run across one and shrugged. These were Warner Bros. movies and therefore slightly more tethered to reality (prices are mentioned). Glenda Farrell, who if I remember correctly turns up in The Maltese Falcon, plays Theresa "Torchy" Blane, girl reporter for a Great Metropolitan Newspaper in what seems to be New York City. Ms. Blane's long suffering fiancé and rising detective on the force, Steve McBride, is portrayed by Barton MacLane. Together, they
The murder mysteries are typical '30s mysteries, that is, timing, coincidences, lies, and impossibilities. Probably the less said about the romantic-comedy side, the better.
There weren't many people of color in these movies; I suspect the average is one per film. (The shoeshine guy was Italian.)
laughingrat , you said something about a book?