Torch Singer (1933)

Self-important, over-dramatic, uninspired.

It's no definitive masterpiece but it's damn close.

It is interesting even when nothing much happens, which is for most of its 3-hour running time. Read full review

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

I agree with several other posters about this movie. It is not well written. It doesn't always flow well. I think that Claudette Colbert's acting is the only saving grace. I love everything she's in but this is my least favorite of her films. She still does a great job. But I was surprised she would be given a singing role. Her voice was atrocious and she had many singing parts. What I did enjoy about the movie was the subject matter. It evokes sympathy for this young mother and we want to see her dream come true. But I agree that the ending was completely unrealistic and I feel the latter part of the movie needed more work. It's watchable but I would never view it again and can't really recommend it. I would rate it lower but I'm giving it a five because Claudette's acting is good.

This is a touching if not extraordinary film about a woman who has a child out of wedlock, gives it up for adoption and suffers a great deal despite achieving wealth, glamour and fame first as a nightclub torch singer and then as a children's radio personality. This may have been Claudette Colbert's first great cinematic tour de force, gorgeously photographed by Karl Struss (through whose lens she also appeared to huge advantage in Sign of the Cross and Four Frightened People), sheathed in a variety of Travis Banton gowns and singing rather ludicrous songs by Ralph Rainger and Leo Robin in her own voice and let's give her a nod for that! The role is as juicy as can be, giving her the opportunity to essay mother love, humiliation, anger, despair, bitterness, drunkenness, nobility, eroticism - you name it. What a showcase! The screen bursts with life when she is at its center. The other performers, including an underused Lyda Roberti as a fellow unwed mother and a stiff David Manners as the father of the child, serve as window dressing. The only standout aside from Colbert is Ethel Griffies as Manners's stodgy, coldhearted aunt; acting like hers, in the grand old fashion, died decades ago but not until talkies captured the work of some of its practitioners, and it is still a treat to watch.

TORCH SINGER is from 1933 and stars Claudette Colbert just before she broke into superstardom in 1934 with three landmark motion pictures IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT, CLEOPATRA, and IMITATION OF LIFE. This film has, until recently, been seldom seen compared to her later films but this is an emotion-packed, beautifully acted film.I've always considered Claudette Colbert one of the two or three greatest actresses from the golden era of Hollywood and even this early in her career, she was flawless. Colbert stars as a chorus girl whose wealthy playboy of a boyfriend David Manners impulsively skips the country on her, unaware he is leaving her with child. Destitute, Colbert regretfully signs away her rights to the child at the Catholic charity hospital which apparently is affiliated with an orphanage. Now "free" of motherhood, Colbert climbs to metropolitan stardom as a torch singer in nightclubs, earning a bit of infamy as a playgirl via the press. At the radio station managed by her quasi-beau Ricardo Cortez, she stumbles upon a young woman set to star in a new children's show as "Aunt Jenny" who has a bout of enormous mike-fright who panics just before the broadcast. As a lark, Claudette steps up to the mike and wings it, beautifully ad-libbing her way through the fifteen minutes. Claudette as Aunt Jenny is a sensation, bringing in stacks of fan mail from children and high ratings. Initially bemused by her celebrity, she suddenly sobers when she realizes the show may be a means of reuniting with her now five-year-old daughter. And as it happens, her old boyfriend David Manners is back in town, determined to find the girlfriend he left behind.Although packaged in a "pre-code" DVD set, this movie isn't about sex, it's simply a blunt look at one unwed mother's life. It's a soap opera/"women's picture", and an extraordinary one. Other than Manners' cold aunt, there really are no villains here, just flawed people who make mistakes, just like real life. The whole cast is wonderful. I've never seen David Manners more appealing, nor Ricardo Cortez, who plays an atypically mild-mannered role. Lyda Roberti is a hoot as a young widow who befriends Claudette early in the film and there is nice work by a character actress as the compassionate Mother Superior who is in charge of admissions. The kids are adorable in this movie! Baby Leroy is Roberti's child and the little girl who plays Claudette's daughter Sally looks amazingly like one would think a baby of Claudette's would. There's also an enchanting scene in which Claudette meets with one young fan whom she hopes is her daughter who turns out to be a African-American child.I've been a Claudette Colbert fan for decades but have never seen this movie until this year. TORCH SINGER immediately goes on to my list of favorite Colbert films. There's not another actress from her era who could have so beautifully played this young woman so well, from her frightened abandonment to her devastating poverty to her sardonic partying to her bitter reunion with her ex-lover to her loving interaction with the children, Claudette is true and honest every moment and thoroughly believable. Many an Oscar has been given to much less impressive performances. TORCH SINGER is one of the best soap opera films ever made and that's largely due to Claudette Colbert's bravura performance.

This 1933 Paramount film, is a sophisticated and greatly acted drama, with the Depression as background and a powerful performance by the great comedienne and actress, Claudette Colbert, as a chic "fallen" woman. I'd even dare to say that this one pleased me even more than that other favorite 1934 tearjerker, "Imitation Of Life".Awesome Miss Colbert's costumes, designed by the best Hollywood costume designer of all time, Travis Banton, to "showcase" her "conversion", when she turns into the successful "Torch" Singer-Mimi Benton-of the Title.Great performance by latin-named, but European born, Ricardo Cortez, as Miss Colbert's lover and mentor and a good one too by David Manners, as the rich guy, who "unwantedly" & "unknowingly" disgraced Miss Colbert's life.Nice acting by beautiful Mildred Washington, who plays Miss Colbert's maid, and "punchy" Lyda Roberti, who plays an earthy woman who befriends Colbert in the beginning of the film. Ethel Griffies, gives a good "nasty" performance, as Manners' stiff-upper-lip, aristocratic, embittered aunt.Mention apart deserves Charley Grapewin as the mischievous sponsor of Miss Colbert's Radio Show. He delivers some great lines!I won't add anything more about the plot of the movie, 'cos you oughta watch it for yourselves! A must see for Pre-Code and 1930's film lovers!