1933 Directed by Alexander Hall, George Somnes
When she can't support her illegitimate child, an abandoned young woman puts her up for adoption and pursues a career as a torch singer. Years later, she then searches for the child she gave up.
Claudette Colbert Ricardo Cortez David Manners Lyda Roberti Charley Grapewin Sam Godfrey Florence Roberts Virginia Hammond Ethel Griffies Baby LeRoy Mildred Washington Cora Sue Collins Helen Jerome Eddy Albert Conti Jean Acker Gladys Hulette Dennis O'Keefe Eddie Phillips Ronald R. Rondell Florence Wix Bobbe Arnst Toby Wing James Burke Kathleen Burke Davison Clark Edward Cooper William B. Davidson Anna Demetrio Lester Dorr Show All…
"Sure I am. Just like glass. So hard nothing will cut it but diamonds. Come around someday with a fistful...maybe we can get together."
After Sally Trent (Claudette Colbert) is forced to give her baby up for adoption in tough times, she goes on to be a well known torch singer and, more surprisingly, children's radio show personality. But she never stops thinking about the daughter she regrets giving up and begins plotting ways to use her influence to get her back.
Great first act. The script shows a lot of empathy for women trying to make ends meet and barely hanging on. The friendship Sally has with her roommate Dora (Lyda Roberti) is warm and highlights the good times.…
“you've changed, alright! you're selfish, hard.”
“sure I am, just like glass. so hard, nothing'll cut it but diamonds. come around some day with a fistful. maybe we can get together.”
the plot goes a little off the rails toward the end, and the final line made me gag a teensy bit, but this sloppy little pre-code is held together so well by claudette colbert’s chameleonic performance. she fully embodies every shade of strong and vulnerable in the short runtime, and I loved watching her expertly play all the different roles her character demanded.
100% soap-opera melodrama, but I’m going to go to bat for this one and say it’s actually pretty good. It’s all thanks to Claudette Colbert, of course; her character transforms from a desperate single mother into a brassy night club singer hiding her pain in jollity, and it’s touching and believable. I even got a little choked up at one point … damn you, movie!
You know it’s a pre-code because Sally has a child out of wedlock and Mimi is “notorious”—that’s shorthand for a lady who interferes with men’s chastity and then accepts presents from them. Her vamping of the baby food magnate is shuh-hameless. If this movie had been made in 1940 she would have been hit by…
“I get a lot of proposals too, but marriage isn’t one of ‘em.”
A film where Ricardo Cortez is a perfectly nice guy that doesn’t get shot in the gut! I’m going to erase it from my Cortez-canon. I do wish Sally/Mimi’s decent into the depths of hell was a bit more explicit than…flirting with guys and getting slurring drunk. Feels more 1936 than 1933.
More interesting than Claudette Colbert’s “downfall” (just watch Blonde Venus instead) are the few moments we have with African American characters. Look, this is 1933, it’s far from progressive, but it’s also far from mean-spirited. Mimi has a black house maid that is depicted as just another one of the gang, dancing at the wild…
I love Claudette Colbert so I watched this for her and her alone, and she is...good in it? Like her performance is great because she was a fabulous actress, but I think they had her do her own singing, which is honorable but...well...
Colbert's titular torch singer Sally Trent (stage name Mimi Benton) often comes across as very unlikable, especially in how she treats her maid Carrie. Carrie is in fact one of the most interesting characters of the film, thanks to Mildred Washington's charismatic performance. She is someone I will be looking out for more in other films, it seems she was mostly relegated to the role of the Black maid to the white protagonist (in this movie in…
The plight of the single mother and starving artist as elevated by the harsh necessity of having to give up your child for their benefit, but to your ultimate detriment. A doctor at the beginning of the film, hovering over Sally states that she could use a new body with some strength "and Mike." As Sally slides seamlessly into the guise of one Mimi Benton, we learn that the torch she carries was indeed for him at one point, i.e. the one who purportedly rejected her and absconded to China, however the script is flipped in service of the daughter she longs to reconnect with over all else as her happy accident Aunt Jenny gig gradually closes the chasm between…
Claudette Colbert is very good indeed in managing to wear the many caps this role requires: downtrodden chorus girl, doting mommy, silky chanteuse, kiddies' radio fave Aunt Jenny. It showcases her range very well and this film is 100% hers.
However. The plot. Lordy. Belief has been beggared and is currently destitute in a cardbox box on the street. It's a story that Aunt Jenny would have rejected for being too fairy-tale. Just luxuriate at La Colbert in a sparkly lamé gown, lip synching rather effectively and brandishing that torch with a sultry smile.
TORCH SINGER quite surprised me for an early 1930’s melodrama. It is a genuinely emotional tear-jerker. The story is quite strong and doesn’t pull any punches for the first third of its running time. (It is definitely not a plot that would have seen the light of day within a year or so.) And Claudette Colbert actually sings … no “truth in advertising” problems with this movie’s title!
Claudette Colbert portrays Sally Trent, a down-on-her-luck chorus girl with a new child born out of wedlock. As potential areas of assistance prove unhelpful, Sally becomes desperate to protect her child’s welfare. Her decision drives her new life direction, and gives her a seat in the front car of…
Part of my Pre-Code Hollywood Challenge
Based upon the 1933 magazine short story "Mike" by Grace Perkins, the title of this film from co-directors Alexander Hall and George Somnes refers to a female vocalist who makes her living by singing sentimental love songs. In this case that singer is Mimi Benton aka Sally Trent played by vivacious actress Claudette Colbert.
The story opens with penniless, pregnant Sally checking into St. Anne's Hospital as a charity case. During childbirth, she almost dies, crying out deliriously for "Mike." Although weak, she survives, as does her baby girl named Sally (Shirley Ann Christenson). What's more, she meets another single mom, Dora Nichols (Lyda Roberti), who invites the two Sallys to share an apartment…
Even as a pre-Code, Torch Singer is maudlin at best, but I had to bump the rating up significantly just for Claudette Colbert. Her actual torch singing may not be great, but she's nothing if not a convincing actress--all of this film rests on her ability to sell sincere maternal feeling, and she succeeds at every turn. Whether she's cooing at babies, tearfully sacrificial, putting up a fancy-free facade, or drunk and downtrodden, she's always believable, she looks amazing, and she's acting circles around everyone else in this film. If Torch Singer moves you, it'll be because of Colbert's performance, and not because of anything in the story itself.
I really enjoyed the beginning and a decent amount of the middle of this film, and then The Torch Singer falls apart in the later middle to the end. Claudette Colbert is great, and I’m sure without her this would be less enjoyable.
