Smart Blonde (1937)
Directed by Frank McDonald
Genres - Mystery |
Sub-Genres - Detective Film |
Release Date - Jan 2, 1937 (USA - Unknown) |
Run Time - 65 min. |
Countries - United States |
MPAA Rating - NR
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Synopsis by Hal Erickson
As originally conceived by detective novelist Frederick Nebel, hotshot girl reporter Torchy Blaine was a male news-hound named Kennedy. For the purpose of Warner Bros.' Smart Blonde, the character's name and gender was changed -- thereby inaugurating one of the most popular and enjoyable movie series of the 1930s. Glenda Farrell, she of the mile-a-minute mouth, was an inspired choice for Torchy Blaine, while burly Barton MacLane was equally well cast as Torchy's boyfriend-nemesis, police lieutenant Steve McBride. In this first series entry, the only one actually based on a Nebel story, Torchy and Steve join forces to solve -- what else? -- a baffling murder case. McBride thinks that crook-gone-straight Tom Carney (Craig Reynolds) is the guilty party, but Torchy determines that the killing was the handiwork of one of Tom's old underworld cronies. It takes a second murder for McBride to admit that Torchy is right as usual.
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Keywords
killing, boyfriend, gangster, investigation, journalism, murder, newspaper, police-detective, reporter