Torchy Blane was scorching newspaperwoman

 

Bill Knight column for 9-17, 18 or 19, 2020

 When news came that actress Diana Rigg died Sept. 10, her role as journalist/feminist Sonya Winter in “The Assassination Bureau” came to mind (not her turn in HBO’s “Game of Thrones” or even the ’60s ABC series “The Avengers”).

“The Assassination Bureau” came out in 1969, the year SDX/ the Society of Professional Journalists finally let women join – a year before the National Press Club admitted women.

Considering how marginalized women journalists were in real life, Hollywood’s “reel-life” newswomen have sometimes been as memorable as Rigg’s character. The best-known might be Rosalind Russell’s Hildy Johnson in “His Girl Friday,” but cinema’s most enjoyable newspaperwoman is the oft-overlooked Torchy Blane.

Torchy was played by Glenda Farrell, an Oklahoma-born child actress who landed on Broadway and then Hollywood by her early 20s. Her career spanned almost 60 years, including more than 120 films and television shows, plus numerous plays and radio programs, and a 1963 Emmy for her performance in TV’s “Ben Casey” drama.

Within a few years of signing with Warner Brothers, Farrell starred in gangster movies “Little Caesar” and “I Was A Fugitive from a Chain Gang,” was featured as a no-nonsense reporter in 1933’s “Mystery of the Wax Museum” and the next year as the reporter Gerry in “Hi Nellie!” (where a boss calls her “the best newspaperman in skirts”). After working in 20 movies in less than three years, Farrell was picked by director Frank MacDonald for the lead in Warners’ series of Torchy Blane adventures based on novelist Frederick Nebel’s “MacBride and Kennedy” stories.

MacBride became Steve McBride (Barton MacLane), a police detective, and Kennedy became Theresa “Torchy” Blane, a wisecracking, fast-thinking reporter. They’re in love and in cahoots for crime-solving and headline-grabbing, starting with “Smart Blonde” where the “sassy, saucy” newswoman was established.

Films’ other female reporters never quite measured up to Torchy, although some were impressive: Claudette Colbert (“Arise, My Love”), Bette Davis (“Front Page Woman”), Katharine Hepburn (“Woman of The Year”), Julia Roberts (“I Love Trouble”), Barbara Stanwyck (“Meet John Doe”), Winona Ryder and Jean Arthur (who both starred in versions of Frank Capra’s comedy “Mr. Deeds Goes to Town”), and Margot Kidder (“Superman” – whose co-creator Jerry Siegel said the inspiration for his Lois Lane character was Farrell’s Torchy as a “working girl whose priority was grabbing scoops”).

The Torchy series became a popular second title on double features due to Farrell’s fun-loving portrayal and her respect for newswomen.

            “They were caricatures of newspaperwomen as I knew them,” Farrell said in a Time magazine interview (also in 1969). “Before I undertook to do the first Torchy, I determined to create a real human being, not an exaggerated comedy type.

“I met those [newspaperwomen] who visited Hollywood and watched them work on visits to New York,” she continued. “They were generally young, intelligent, refined and attractive. By making Torchy true to life, I tried to create a character practically unique in movies.”

Farrell starred in seven of the studio’s nine Torchy films and became close to fellow Warners actress Joan Blondell, and in the 1930s, they were teamed in a series of five farces and appeared together in nine other films. In 1939, Farrell left Warners when her contract expired, citing a pay dispute, typecasting and a desire to return to the stage. She came back to movies in 1941, starring in “Johnny Eager,” and through the decades was in numerous films, including 1942’s Oscar-nominated “Talk of the Town” and dozens of TV shows, from the TV remake of “The Bells of St. Mary’s” and “The Fugitive” to “Wagon Train” and “Rawhide.”

In 1960, she received a star on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame.

            Here are the Torchy Blane pictures, available as a 5-disc DVD collection or online:

“Smart Blonde” (1937). An investigation into the murder of a nightclub investor has Torchy helping McBride, whose sidekick cop Gahagan (Tom Kennedy) is introduced.

“Fly Away Baby” (1937). Involved in a murder case and an around-the-world stunt, Torchy ends up in Nazi Germany (in a script written by real-life reporter Dorothy Kilgallen).

“The Adventurous Blonde” (1937). Torchy is embroiled in a newsroom prank, then murder.

“Blondes at Work” (1938). Torchy is jailed for contempt of court but gets engaged to McBride.

“Torchy Blane In Panama” (1938). Lola Lane substitutes for Farrell and Paul Kelly for MacLane in this less exciting entry.

“Torchy Gets Her Man” (1938). Torchy probes a counterfeiting; Farrell makes a speech of almost 400 words in some 40 seconds.

“Torchy Blane in Chinatown” (1939). Murders, jewel smugglers and blackmail make headlines.

“Torchy Runs for Mayor” (1939). Blane exposes a corrupt city government and wins public acclaim.

“Torchy Plays with Dynamite” (1939). Jane Wyman assumes the role, as Torchy arranges her imprisonment to contact a criminal’s girlfriend. Allen Jenkins takes over as McBride.