The good and the bad balance each other in the second Perry Mason film

The Case of the Curious Bride (1935)

Starring: Warren William, Margaret Lindsay, Allen Jenkins, Owlin Howland, Donald Woods, Thomas E. Jackson, Claire Dodd, and Barton MacLane

Director: Michael Curtiz

Rating: Six of Ten Stars

Famed defense attorney Perry Mason (William) must uncover the truth buried beneath lies and police corruption when a former lover (Lindsay) comes to him for help with a blackmail case but ends up being accused of murdering the blackmailer.

"The Curse of the Curious Bride" was the second Perry Mason film produced by Warner Bros. during the mid-1930s. Reportedly, although film reviewers said nice things about it at the time, and it did well financially, Perry Mason's creator, Earl Stanley Gardner strongly disliked it. And I think it's clear why.

Although the film is fast paced, features an engaging mystery with stakes that keep getting raised as it goes, and a suspect pool that keeps getting larger instead of smaller as the story unfolds, it spends too much time trying to be a comedy. From banter that isn't entertaining, to scenes that are supposed to be funny but are mostly just dumb, and renaming and reshaping of Paul Drake into the third-rate comic relief Spudesy Drake, just about every attempt at humor in this film falls flat and just lays there on the floor, stinking like a dead fish in the sun. They only supposed-to-be-funny bits that come close to working is when Perry Mason is being overly dramatic and flamboyant in front of newspaper reporters.

It's a shame that the filmmakers decided to lean so heavily on badly done comedy in this picture, because, unlike so many other Perry Mason tales, this one gives a lot of insight into what he does for fun and who he spends time with outside of the law offices and courtrooms. In some ways, Mason feels like a more fully rounded character in this film than he did even after the total of two decades of television series and made-for-TV movies starring Raymond Burr. This aspect, combined with the fact that the film features a great cast, which could have made this a great Perry Mason movie is why I'm giving it a Six instead of the Five it probably deserves.

Another quirk of the film is that it never enters a courtroom; in fact, the case at the center of the film never even makes it to trail. While the concluding "action" doesn't always take place in a oourtroom in Perry Mason stories, there's at least some sort of legal proceeding at some point. Here, the closet we get is Mason meeting with the District Attorney, in a scene that's more there to underscore the corruption of the D.A. and the police department more than anything else.

And speaking of the corrupt police department... corruption is another aspect of this film that's unusual when compared to other Perry Mason screen adventures I've seen. While the police and prosecutors are often shown as either dimwitted, lazy, or just unwilling to look beyond their initial conclusions when it comes to getting their convictions, they aren't usually out-and-out corrupt like they are here. For example, the police detectives don't just go where the evidence takes them here--they all but frame their prime suspect for murder while the prosecutor prevents Mason from seeing her. (On the other side of the coin, however, Mason engages in corruption to a degree that I've also not seen any screen incarnations do up to this point. While I'm used to Mason playing a bit loose with the spirit of the law or bending procedural rules, and even the law, almost to the breaking point, he goes well beyond that in this film.)

Some of the elements which seemed out of place to me probably did not appear that way to audiences in 1935. Corrupt police and prosecutors were the norm in detective films of the day, and the Perry Mason Formula didn't have 85 years of development behind it like it does now. (And, for that matter, the corruption of the justice system that exists everywhere in this movie might be something that will allow newcomers to Perry Mason--via the excellent series that recently ran on HBO.)

"The Case of the Curious Bride" in included with five other Perry Mason films that were produced by Warner Bros. in the 1930s. It's a reasonable priced set, and I think it's worth checking out for Perry Mason fans, old and new.

'Torchy Runs for Mayor' is a mixture of the really good and the really bad

Torchy Runs for Mayor (1939)
Starring: Glenda Farrell, Barton MacLane, Tom Kennedy, John Miljan, John Downing, and Irving Bacon
Director: Ray McCarey
Rating: Six of Ten Stars

Reporter Torchy Blane (Farrell) takes on the city's corrupt political machine and underworld power broker Doc Dolan (Miljan), and after losing her career due to political pressure, she eventually becomes a candidate for the office of mayor herself.

"Torchy Runs for Mayor" was the eighth film in the Torchy Blane series, and it's at once both one of the best and one of the worst in the series.

First, what makes this the best film in the series: We get a good look at Torchy (Glenda Farrell) plying her trade as a story-at-any-cost reporter. In too many of the previous films, Torchy's workday has happened off-screen, but here we get to see her no only go about her ethically and legally questionable (and outright illegal) information gathering methods, but also her dealings with editors and publishers, as well as her working to turn her source material into column inches for print. We get to see a realistic reaction on the part of the police force when they are placed under political pressure from corrupt forces in the sense that instead of railing against Torchy and trying to shut her down, they got out of her way and quietly encouraged her to keep digging and poking at the bad guys--except for her long-suffering boyfriend Steve (Barton McLane) who genuinely fears for her life. (Although he's not so concerned that he doesn't join his Captain is executing an elaborate prank that becomes Torchy's inspiration to run for mayor). We also get to see long-running comic relief character Gehagan (Tom Kennedy) show that he is a capable police officer and useful for more than just taking up space. This film also has one of the most serious storylines and thrilling climaxes of any of the ones in the series; there's a sense that the characters are actually in danger and that things may not work out for them in the end.

Second, what makes this the worst in the series: A potentially fantastic villain, Doc Dolan played by John Miljan, ends up as an uninteresting cypher. We're told how powerful he is in both political and underworld circles, but we only get the slightest hint of this and we're never shown where that supposed power comes from. More to the point, this supposed criminal and political mastermind has to resort to kidnapping Torchy during the film's second half, something the character himself admits to Steve is a stupid thing to do (as a way of denying he did it), but that then begs the question as to why he kidnapped her. This question becomes even more vexing when one considers that he kept her alive and unconcious for at least a couple days--why? Why not just kill her and be done with her? The answer remains as mysterious as the nature of Dolan's powerbase... but it does ensure that Torchy is once again reduced to damsel-in-distress at the end of her own story and must be rescued by Steve. And, finally, the film doubles-down on Torchy being "just a woman" by ending with her quitting the office of mayor that she has just won in a landslide election to go off and marry Steve and have babies. (Yes, I just spoiled the ending.)

"Torchy Runs for Mayor" has the strongest script since the first couple of Torchy films, and the most dramatic storyline of all of them. As it unfolds, Torchy and Steve both are left without jobs, and there's a real sense that thnigs aren't going to end well for them as the story heads towards its climax. Naturally, things do ultimately turn out well for our heroes and heroine, and we're even given a sense of closure to the tale of Torchy and Steve that we've been following for the past seven movies; and it's a great closing, too.

At least it would have been if "Torchy Runs for Mayor" had been 20 or so seconds shorter. We still get closure for the story of Torchy and Steve, but it's a closure that betrays everything that Torchy has been about since she first strolled onto the screen, cracking wise. I realize that in the late 1930s, a woman's place was at home, but Torchy had been bucking that trend and fighting the good fight for eight movies, and now that she was in a place where she had the resources to really impliment change and justice on a large scale, she instead bows to conservative social convention and gives it all up--after the public clearly said they were okay with a woman mayor in charge of the city. (The only good point about this totally botched ending is that Steve is as taken aback by Torchy's announcement and total change of heart and character as I was. He was, naturally happy, as he and Torchy exited Stage Right... where I was left irritated and borderline angry to the point where the film dropped from a solid Seven Rating to a low Six.)

Although the story wraps up so neatly in this picture that it feels like the last "Torchy Blane" film, there was one more made. This film was the last for Farrell and McLane, but the characters they portrayed would be back, embodied by different performers. I'll find out if this should have been the last Torchy film, period, at some point in the future. When I do, I'll tell you all about it in this space.

2019

'Torchy Blane in Chinatown' is misnamed

Torchy Blane in Chinatown (1939)
Starring: Barton MacLane, Glenda Farrell, Tom Kennedy, Patric Knowles, and Richard Bond
Director: William Beaudine
Rating: Four of Ten Stars

A shadowy group of Chinese assassins are killing those involved with stealing Jade burial tablets from a powerful family. Will police detective Steve McBride (MacLane) stop the killers before they finish marking names off their hit-list, and will his girlfriend and reporter Torchy Blane (Farrell) keep her promise about keeping the details of his investigation of of the papers?

"Torchy Blane in Chinatown" is a major step down quality-wise from the five previous installments of this series. While it mostly avoids the racist stereotypes you'd expect from a film of this time period, it doesn't deliver anything that the title promises... unless the title character Torchy Blane spent all the time she was missing from the screen in Chinatown.

Yes, despite this supposedly being a film about Torchy Blane in Chinatown, no time is actually spent in Chinatown, and comic relief character Gahagan (Tom Kennedy) has more impact on the action than Torchy does. (Well, not quite; there's some dialogue at the end that tells us that Torchy was doing things off camera, but that's no way to treat what is supposed to be the main character).

As bad as it is that we get to see very little of Glenda Farrell and Torchy in this picture, it's even worse that the mystery here is so simple that I had it mostly figured out as of the first of three murders. But what pushed this film down to a Four Rating--and only its brief running-time of barely an hour, combined with Torchy not ending up as a damsel in distress like in the last two films saved it from getting Three Stars--was the way the story only worked if the characters behave like complete idiots and contrary to all common sense. Twice, the villains' master plot should have been stopped dead in its tracks, but the lazy scriptwriters just turned off the brains of all the characters so it would work. (Hell, the investigation would have taken an entirely different direction--and the movie would have been even shorter--if Torchy Blane hadn't been off-screen in Chinatown for as much as she was, because she had a key to the solution early on. She even tried to tell McBride about it, but he just brushed her off with "I'm too busy to talk to you"... as he gets into his chauffeured car in which Torchy could have ridden along and told him the clue she had uncovered.)

I have been irritated by some of the far-fetched, should-have-been-career-ending shenanigans that Torchy got up in previous films, and I have been frustrated when the filmmakers made her a spectator and/or damsel in distress during the climaxes of the movies bearing her name, but none of the previous films inspired the borderline anger that this one did. I literally felt like my intelligence was being insulted--I tried to think of it as a film made for kids instead of adults (which it isn't), and I still felt it was a lazily written, badly executed story. And to add insult to injury, Gahagan is portrayed as so mind-blowingly stupid in this film that it's hard to believe he even has a job as McBride's driver. He is so dumb, in fact, that he's not even all that funny.

As for the performances and technical aspects of the film, everyone does a good job. Barton MacLane seems engaged with his part again, and the various supporting players--both the ones portraying characters unique to this film, or the returning characters at the police station--all do excellent jobs. As always, Glenda Farrell is lots of fun as Torchy... it's just a shame she doesn't get to do more, or even have a single important scene. (That's not entirely true... in retrospect, the scene where Steve McBride tells her he's too busy to talk to her is an important one, but not in a good way.)

"Torchy Blane in Chinatown" is one of the nine films included in the "Torchy Blane Collection." I think it's the first one that I've had a hard time coming up with something good to say about, so in balance, this is still a series worth checking out if like Girl Power stories and fast-talking 1930s reporters. There are two more installments in the series for me to watch... and I really hope they get better rather than worse.

Torchy is Returned to Her Roots

Torchy Gets Her Man (1938)
Starring: Glenda Farrell, Barton MacLane, Tom Kennedy, and Willard Robertson
Director: William Beaudine
Rating: Seven of Ten Stars

A counterfeiting ring, led by the elusive "100 Dollar Bill" Bailey (Robertson) engages in an elaborate deception to trick police detective Steve McBride (MacLane) and his superiors in the police department into thinking they are Secret Service agents conducting a sting operation and to inadvertently give them cover to operate. Meanwhile, his fiance, crime reporter Torchy Blane (Farrell), hopes those Secret Service agents will provide her with leads for her investigative article about Bailey and his career in crime, and she badgers a vacationing police officer (Kennedy) into helping her tail them.

"Torchy Blane Gets Her Man", the sixth film in this series, sees Glenda Farrell return as the character she originated... and it's great to have her back. It's also great to have the character back in full hard-nosed, dedicated crusading reporter mode, something that had faded in the two previous installments where Torchy was more a trickster and action heroine respectively.

While Farrell and the return of Classic Torchy is enough to boost this film, it is further enriched by a brazen and coldhearted villain with a clever scheme that, although I doubt it would ever work in the real world, makes for great movie entertainment. It also provides some nice old-school melodrama action during the third act with all the main characters assembled in house where a time bomb is counting down to their demise. We also get lots of Tom Kennedy's dimwitted Gahagan... and the dynamic between Torchy being the "straight-man" to his goofiness is a joy to behold. The only returning performer who doesn't shine is Barton MacLane, partly because Steve McBride is sidelined for most of the story, but also because some of the life seems to have gone out of MacLane's performance. He also appears puffier than he did in the previous three movies; perhaps he was ill, or maybe he just wasn't interested in even being on the set?

There are, however, two crucial aspects that prevent this film from being as great as it could have been. First, the film feels cheaper than previous installments, with a cramped feeling about most of the sets as well as a very sloppy use of stock footage badly matched to the sequence it's inserted into; the Torchy Blane films have always been low-budget B-pictures, but this is the first one that looks like it. Second, the story suffers from the same flaw that undermined "Torchy Blane in Panama"--Torchy ultimately ends up as a "damsel in distress" that must be rescued by her boyfriend. It's more deftly done here, but it would still have been nice if Torchy had played a more active role in the film's resolution.

"Torchy Gets Her Man" is included on DVD with the rest of the films in this classic 1930s series in the Torchy Blane Collection from the Warner Archives.

'Blondes at Work' has Torchy Blane at her best

Blondes at Work (1938)
Starring: Glenda Farrell, Barton MacLane, Thomas E. Jackson, Tom Kennedy, Frank Shannon, Rosella Towne, and Donald Briggs
Director: Frank McDonald
Rating: Nine of Ten Stars

Crime reporter Torchy Blane (Farrell) gets extra creative (and even more ethically dubious) in her pursuit of scoops once her fiance, homicide detective fiance Steve McBride (MacLane), is ordered by his superior (Shannon) to stop favoring her over other reporters.

"Blondes at Work" is the fourth entry in the Torchy Blane series, and it's the best one so far. The script is well-crafted; the dialogue is sharp, all the characters are intelligently written with no one taking brainless actions just so the plot can move forward, and even minor characters get their moments to shine. Every performance in the film is top-notch, with series regulars Glenda Farrell, Barton MacLane, Tom Kennedy, and Frank Shannon giving particularly impressive performances. Thomas E. Jackson, who spent the 1930s and 1940s playing police detectives is a nice addition to the cast as Steve's right-hand man and the unfortunate person charged with keeping Torchy on a leash and out of investigation.

Speaking of the investigation, unlike the previous films, the murder mystery here is entirely secondary plotwise to the interaction among characters while Steve and his detectives try to navigate an increasingly ugly public relations and political situation that's being stirred up by Torchy's aggressive pursuit of a story the police department is trying to freeze her out of. Although she actually harms their ability to close their case more than once, I never felt that her behavior was out of line or unrealistic in the context of the lighthearted pulp-fiction universe the characters live in. I felt that way at several points during the previous film in this series, "Torchy Blane, the Adventurous Blonde", so that's another testament to the quality of the script. I did wonder if she would have any friends at the end of it all, given how she treated them--with poor, trusting Gahagen (Steve's less-than-brilliant driver, played by Tom Kennedy) getting the worst of it. Even that thought, however, was addressed neatly within the story... Torchy ended up paying a price for crossing the many lines she crossed in a way that gave her friends an opportunity to admit that maybe she went too far and for her friends to forgive her.

The only complaint I have about this highly entertaining film is that the murder mystery that both Steve and Torchy were investigating was ultimately resolved off-screen. It works within the context of the film, but it was still a little disappointing. (The resolution isn't a surprise, which is something else that makes the script praiseworthy; the basic solution to the "whodunnit" is out in the open the whole time.)

If you have an hour to kill, watching "Blondes at Work" is a fine way to do it.

A chess writer becomes involved in a deadly (and goofy) game of wits with a killer

Scared Stiff (1945) (aka "Treasure of Fear")
Starring: Jack Haley, Ann Savage, Veda Ann Borg, Buddy Swan, Lucien Littlefield, Arthur Aylesworth, and Barton MacLane
Director:  Frank McDonald
Rating: Six of Ten Stars

A hapless chess editor (Haley) becomes the prime suspect in a murder while getting caught up in a scheme to steal a valuable and historically significant chess set.

"Scared Stiff" is a light and fluffy comedy mystery that you're bound to forget five minutes after it's over. It's lots of fun while it's unfolding, but there isn't anything particularly remarkable about its story, its characters, or anything else really.

What makes this somewhat unremarkable film worth watching is the cast, particularly the leads of Jack Haley and Ann Savage. The characters' past relationship (as well as a mutual attraction that is stifled by shyness and social propriety respectively) is established with some deft writing and some skilled acting on Savage's part. Haley, meanwhile, plays the befuddled, goodhearted character I previously saw him do in "One Body Too Many" and its even more fun to watch him here than in the previous films as he gets to play off several cantankerous and threatening characters, as well as the charming Ann Savage and the aggressive man-eater portrayed by Veda Ann Borg.

Another character that adds to the fun is the sadistic child prodigy played by Buddy Swan. I don't usually wish for child characters to get murdered, but here I was rooting for the killer to put him out of everyone's misery. This character's absolute loathsomeness is a testiment to both the writing and the acting that went into making him.

On the downside, the film's climax is a bit of a misfire--it's almost as if the writers ran dry on the last few pages and weren't quite sure how to tie up the kookiness of the previous hour or so. Tied into this is the disappointing way the subplot that brought the chess reporter out of his usual element is resolved. He was given the field assignment because every other staff writer was out chasing leads about an escaped convict, but entirely too little comes of this in the end, especially considering the part of the escapee was played by Barton McLane (of the Torchy Blane series).

In the final analysis, the good outweighs the bad here, and a strong cast makes a completely forgettable film worth watching.

Torchy Blane's 3rd adventure is a mixed bag

Torchy Blane, the Adventurous Blonde (1937)
Starring: Glenda Farrell, Barton McLane, Tom Kennedy, Anderson Lawler, Anne Nagel, Charles Foy,  Bobby Watson, and Natalie Moorehead
Director: Frank MacDonald
Rating: Six of Ten Stars

Reporters at a rival paper (Foy and Watson) arrange a hoax murder to humiliate Torchy (Farrell) and expose what they view as favoritism toward her by her homicide detective boyfriend (McClane) when it comes to information. However, the hoax becomes very real when someone uses it as an opportunity to commit an actual murder.

"The Adventurous Blonde" is the third Torchy Blane movie, and it is a mix of really bad and really good material.

On the good side, we've got a back-and-forth subplot about Torchy and Steve's looming marriage. It was inching closer during the first two films, and it seems like it might actually happen in this one... but the various reasons for it being delayed--even as the magistrate stands ready to perform the ceremony--add to fun of the film. We're also treated to lots of witty dialogue, not only from McLane and Farrell as Steve and Torchy banter and bicker their way through the movie, but from the supporting cast as well. Even dimwitted Gahagan (Tom Kennedy) gets a couple good zingers. Finally, the intersection of Torchy and Steve's professional lives serves as a plot complication with both members of the media and the police department raising questions about the propriety of a crimebeat reporter and a police detective being in an intimate relationship with each other.

The intersection of police work and journalism is also what gives rise to some of the film's worst points. First, there's the hoax murder that Torchy's rivals stage. Initially, it makes sense within the rules that exist in the breezy, pulp-fiction universe of Torchy Blane... but as it continues, it becomes less and less believable. By the time the "corpse" is being loaded onto the coroner's transport vehicle, it has become downright stupid in its execution. How could the ambulance crew not notice the corpse wasn't dead? Or were they paid off to further the hoax? And if they were paid off, why didn't they give the hoaxters a heads-up that the hoax had turned real? But even before we get to that point, the number of people involved in the hoax beyond newspaper staff--people who will be serving jail-time for giving false evidence to the police--have gotten to the number where the intended reason for it was going to fail anyway. Finally, there's the "creative detective work" that Torchy engages in during the second half of the film. It's amusing, but it's doing things the hard way... and in a way that barely makes any sense and is as unethical (perhaps evenmoreso) than the hoax that set the events of the movie in motion.

In balance, "Torchy Blane, the Adventurous Blonde" is a fun romp, but it's not one that you want to think too hard about while it unfolds. Ultimately, the best part of the film ends up being the will-they or won't-they about Steve and Torchy's nuptuials and the many caustic exchanages between characters.

'Fly Away Baby' is a fun mystery

Fly Away Baby (1937)
Starring: Glenda Farrell, Barton McLane, Gordon Oliver, Raymond Hatton, Tom Kennedy, and Marcia Ralston
Director: Frank McDonald
Rating: Seven of Ten Stars

In order to unravel the mysteries surrounding the murder of a jeweler, scoop-hunting reporter Torchy Blane (Farrell) joins two other reporters (Hatton and Olivier) for on-the-spot coverage of an around-the-world-record flight attempt. The other reporters are keeping secrets... but is one of them a killer?

"Fly Away Baby" is the second film in the "Torchy Blane" series, and like the first one, it clocks in at about an hour... and it makes good use of every second of running time, with a tightly delivered story, a lively cast delivering sharp and witty dialogue, and nice cinematography and sets that make the film look like it has a bigger budget than it did.

The relationship between Torchy (Glenda Farrell) and her police detective boyfriend Steve (Barton McLane) is again a nice center to the picture. It's also nice to see recurring supporting characters get some meaty scenes, like Tom Kennedy's dimwitted cop (who quits his job for reasons that become clear when he, too, shows up as part of the junket following the around-the-world flight).

The only serious complaint I have about the film is that it takes too long to get the characters in the air and overseas, and then doesn't spend enough time along the way. As a result, the climax feels a bit rushed and a lot deus-ex-machina with a heavy dose of "characters gotta do stupid things, or the story won't resolve in time" or the story won't resolve it time. This may sound like a bit of a contradiction to my comment above about the film making good use of its run-time, but it basically does: There is't a second of padding here and the clumsy plotting doesn't actually make the film any less entertaining. It does knock it from an Eight Rating to a low Seven.

'Smart Blonde' is a wise viewing choice

Smart Blonde (1937)
Starring: Glenda Farrell. Barton McLane, Addison Richards, Tom Kennedy, Jane Wyman, and Winifred Shaw
Director: Frank McDonald
Rating: Eight of Ten Stars

Newspaper reporter Torchy Blane (Farrell) and her boyfriend, Homicide Squad Lt. Steve McBride (McLane), unravel the mysteries surrounding the murder of an out-of-town investor poised to buy the businesses of Fitz Mularky (Richards).

"Smart Blonde" is a breezy mystery flick with just the right amount of suspects and story for its brief one-hour running time. Another strong element of the film is that the romantic relationship between Torchy and Steve is long-established before the beginning of this story, which is a nice change of pace. Too often, these films shoe-horn an insta-romance into the picture, but here the writers were smart enough to avoid that contrivance.

(Of course, to some degree, the source material can be thanked for that. In the story this film was adapted from, Torchy is a man who is best friends with MacBride.)

Aside from the well-cast, well-written central characters, the supporting cast is made up of similarly charming actors playing interesting characters. Stand-outs are Tom Kennedy, as Steve's small-brained, big hearted chauffeur, and Jane Wyman, a a chatty hat-check girl.

If you like 1930s mystery films that throw a "battle of the sexes" into the mix, I think you'll find "Smart Blonde" right up your alley... and a refreshing change in several ways.