Fly Away Baby (1937)

Pretty Good

Boring

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Fly Away Baby is the second in the Torchy Blane series about a smart girl newspaper reporter whose boyfriend is a police detective. I thought Glenda Ferrell was good in Smart Blonde. Both movies have the same director and the detective boyfriend is the same actor, but somehow Fly Away Baby just isn't a very interesting story. As another user points out, it includes the rather absurd situation of a "race" between three people who all fly together on the same planes. There is one especially interesting thing about this movie. It was based in part on Dorothy Kilgallen, who was a real female crime reporter and later became popular on the TV show "What's My Line?" Dorothy Kilgallen actually raced around the world against two other people, then wrote a book about it called Girl Around the World. She came in second, so evidently that race was real. I'm giving Fly Away Baby three stars for Glenda Farrell's performance as Torchy, but as a mystery it really falls flat. Note, if you like Glenda Farrell, I highly recommend the 1933 movie Mystery of the Wax Museum.

Back in Jules Verne's steam-powered 19th Century, a trip around the World in only 80 days was considered astounding. In 1924 two U. S. Army aviators managed it in a new world record of 15 days, 11 hours. But that was nothing! In 1937 Warner Brothers second feature Fly-Away Baby, Glenda Farrell as irrepressible, smart-girl reporter Torchy Blane zips around the world in less than 30 minutes, using only the final half of the fast-moving, action-packed one-hour movie. All done with stock footage of the vehicles used and still pictures or footage of the various cities Torchy passes through, the mood for each locale set with appropriate regional music. All the while, a bold line meanders across a map of the Pacific Ocean, Asia, and Europe with the shadow of an airplane following along, motors humming. Lengthy scenes in Honolulu and Stuttgart are economically but artfully dispatched with small sets and back-projection. You may be so swept away by this Old Hollywood magic, and so absorbed into this engrossing, lightning-paced mystery pot-boiler, you will feel as if you've actually been to San Francisco, Hong Kong, and Suttgart with Torchy. And wow! what a window into time! You get to see file footage of a huge China Clipper taking off from a choppy sea, a gigantic Zepplin majestically gliding though the clouds, and a shot of the yet unfinished Golden Gate Bridge -- not to mention the usual swarms of square-top, spoke-wheel automobiles to be seen careening about the streets of 1930's motion pictures.The Torchy Blane series was a chance for reliable Warner supporting players Glenda Farrell and Barton MacLane to strut their stuff in lead roles for a change. And they both shine! He's Torchy's tough cop boy friend Steve McBride, who needs her help to dope out the cases he's not sharp enough for. At least that's the way she tells it. Fly-Away Baby has the crime-solving duo after a diamond thief/murderer. The main suspect (Gordon Oliver), who is a columnist of a newspaper rival to Torchy's, is making an around-the-world promotional trip. Torchy and Steve suspect the crook will try to sell the hot diamonds somewhere along the way, so Torchy convinces her own newspaper publisher (Henry Davenport) to spring for her to follow along in what is promoted as an "around the world race." Hugh O'Connell provides sophisticated comedy relief as another reporter in the so-called race. A dandy with a rich wife, he's always bragging to his no-class cronies about spending her money and playing around on her. Little does he know his suspicious spouse has hired Steve's muddled, philosophical driver Gahagan (Tom Kennedy) to tag along and keep an eye on him. Steve joins Torchy in Stuttgart, where another murder takes place, then they take off aboard the Zepplin for the final leg of the journey and the exciting denouement. The airship scenes are very impressive for a B-movie.Fly-Away Baby is not quite so good as the first in the Torchy series, Smart Blonde (1937) (see my review). But Smart Blonde was something special, really a tough act to follow, and Fly-Away Baby is still wonderful. Fast-talking, fast-moving, breezy, funny, engaging, exciting, beautifully filmed, and expertly acted, especially by the two charming leads -- a delight from beginning to end. All handsomely wrapped up in polished production values only a slice below what you would expect from one of Warner Brothers' top "A" pictures. Director Frank McDonald, a career B-picture specialist, and film editor Doug Gould pack so much action into sixty minutes of running time, it's like five gallons of slick, smooth Classic Hollywood entertainment concentrated into a half-pint movie!It's never ceases to amaze how the big studios of Old Hollywood could turn out these minor masterpieces while bringing to bear only a fraction of their available resources.

Fly Away Baby (1937) ** 1/2 (out of 4) The second in the series has Torchy Blane (Glenda Farrell) and her boyfriend Steve McBride (Barton MacLane) trying to solve some smuggling as well as a murder and the two end up flying across the world trying to catch the killer. FLY AWAY BABY is certainly a step up from the previous film as the story is a lot stronger, the characters more fun and we even get some nice support this time around. One thing that would have made the film even better is if it had been filmed with any sort of budget because one of the big things in the story is that it takes place in various locations throughout the world. These cities are just seen inside hotel rooms and other locations because they obviously didn't have the money to film at these places. In their place is a bunch of stock footage, which obviously makes the film look somewhat cheap but outside of this the story is pretty good. I thought both Farrell and MacLane were even better here than they were in the first and it seems that the two of them really worked on their chemistry. The duo come across here as a lot of fun and they certainly help carry the story with their charm. Gordon Oliver and Hugh O'Connell also add some value in their supporting roles. The film certainly doesn't become a classic and it's far from perfect but I think fans of the genre or fans of Farrell should at least have a good time with it.

The second Torchy Blane film is relatively short on mystery (there are only 2 real suspects for the crime, which in this case is the murder - and diamond robbery - of a jeweller), but for a "B" production "Fly Away Baby" does a pretty amazing job (through special effects, title cards, and stock footage) of simulating a plane (and zeppelin!) trip around the world. However, at the risk of sounding stupid, I don't understand why this trip is being promoted as a "race" in the movie - the supposed contestants are all traveling together and they don't seem to be competing against each other in any way. Anyway, Farrell and MacLane are fun as Torchy and Steve, and Tom Kennedy gets an expanded role as the poetry-loving and none-too-bright cop Gahagan, who wants to "retire" and start a new career as a private detective! **1/2 out of 4.