Torch Singer ** (1933, Claudette Colbert, Ricardo Cortez, David Manners) – Classic Movie Review 8451

Director Alexander Hall’s creaky 1933 antique drama Torch Singer [Broadway Singer] stars Claudette Colbert as the torch singer of the title, who pleasantly trills some songs by Ralph Rainger (music) and Leo Robbins (lyrics), among them ‘Give Me Liberty or Give Me Love’.

Colbert plays Sally Trent, a mother who abandons her illegitimate child and gives the baby up for adoption to follow her career as a notorious nightclub gal, changes her name to Mimi Benton, and after becoming as the character Aunt Jenny on children’s radio, she decides to uses the airtime to try track down her little one.

Torch Singer is soppy stuff, mixing musical and romance with the drama, not nearly bright or sophisticated enough for Colbert, who carries on regardless like the smooth supreme professional she is. David Manners plays the child’s father Michael Gardner, who leaves for China not knowing about the baby, and Ricardo Cortez also stars as Tony Cummings. The screenplay by Lenore J Coffee and Lynn Starling is based on Grace Perkins’s play Mike.

Also in the cast are Lyda Roberti, Baby LeRoy, Shirley Ann Christiensen, Florence Roberts, Ethel Griffies, Cora Sue Collins, Charley Grapewin, Albert Conti, Virginia Hammond and Kathleen Burke.

It is available on DVD as part of the Pre-Code Hollywood Collection.

© Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 8451

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