GREAT DETECTIVES & PEOPLE OF MYSTERY #40

TORCHY BLANE

Torchy Blane was a fictional female reporter and the main character in 9 films by Warner Brothers.  The Blane series was a popular B-movie feature in the 1930s with a mixture of mystery, action, adventure, and fun.  In the pre-WWII era, the role of a newspaper reporter was one of the few in American cinema that portrayed women as intelligent, competent, self-reliant, and career-oriented - virtually equal to men.  Torchy Blane was a wisecracking reporter with an instinct for a scoop.  A typical plot had fast-talking Torchy (she spoke 400 words in 40 seconds) unraveling a mystery by staying several steps ahead of her boyfriend, gruff police detective Steve McBride.  Torchy's given name is Theresa but its only used twice throughout the series.

The interesting aspect to all this is that the film series was an adaptation of the "MacBride and Kennedy" stories by Frederick Nebel.  These stories, a staple of Black Mask from 1928-1936, featured no-nonsense cop Steve MacBride and his friend Kennedy - a hard-drinking newspaperman.  For the film series Kennedy was changed to a woman named Torchy Blane who became a love interest of the cop whose name was now spelled "McBride".  Torchy's lifestyle was more compatible with the Hays Code than a faithful on-screen adaptation of Kennedy would have been.  Comic book writer and "Superman" co-creator Jerry Siegel credited Torchy Blane as the inspiration for the Daily Planet reporter Lois Lane.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

From the transition from the pulps to the screen, Frederick Nebel's skinny, drunk-as-a-skunk Kennedy of the Free Press became a sassy, brassy, sexy newswoman.  Torchy Blane was the lady bloodhound with a nose for news.  When pressed about the change Nebel responded, "Hell, they always change the stuff around.  But I don't mind - as long as I don't have to make the changes."  Nebel (1903-1967) was born in Staten Island and dropped out of school after only one day in high school.  He moved to Canada to work as a farmhand on his uncle's homestead.  He enjoyed the wilderness and became a self-taught expert on Canadian history.  This expertise helped launch his career writing adventure stories for Northwest Stories in 1925.  In 1926 he sold his first story to Black Mask.  Over the next 12 years Nebel published at a fast pace, writing 5000 words a day and getting stories in pulps like Action Stories, Danger Trail, Dime Detective, and Sea Stories.  Black Mask editor Joseph Shaw encouraged his authors to create series characters and Nebel came up with Capt. Steve MacBride and newspaper reporter Kennedy of the Free Press in the fictional Richmond City.  The pair were featured in 36 stories.  Nebel's first novel was published in 1933 and he acquired an agent and began getting his stories in the high-paying slicks like Collier's, Cosmopolitan, Liberty, McCall's, Redbook, Woman's Home Companion, and The Saturday Evening Post.  The last of his over 300 published stories was in 1962.  He suffered a cerebral hemorrhage three days after his 63rd birthday.

All the MacBride & Kennedy stories were printed in Black Mask.

"Raw Law" (Sept 1928)/  "Dog Eat Dog" (Oct 1928)/  "The Law Laughs Last" (Nov 1928)/  "Law Without Law" (Apr 1929)/  "Graft" (May 1929)/  "New Guns for Old" (Sept 1929)/  "Hell-Smoke" (Nov 1929)/  "Tough Treatment" (Jan 1930)/  "Alley Rat" (Feb 1930)/  "Wise Guy" (Apr 1930)/  "Ten Men from Chicago" (Aug 1930)/  "Shake-Down" (Sept 1930)/  "Junk" (Mar 1931)/  "Beat the Rap" (May 1931)/  "Death for a Dago" (July 1931)/  "Some Die Young" (Dec 1931)/  "The Quick or the Dead" (Mar 1932)/  "Backwash" (May 1932)/  "Doors in the Dark" (Feb 1933)/  "Rough Reform" (Mar 1933)/  "Farewell to Crime" (Apr 1933)/  "Guns Down" (Sept 1933)/  "Lay Down the Law" (Nov 1933)/  "Too Young to Die" (Feb 1934)/  "Bad News" (Mar 1934)/  "Take It and Like It" (June 1934)/  "Be Your Age" (Aug 1934)/  "He Was a Swell Guy" (Jan 1935)/  "It's a Gag" (Feb 1935)/  "That's Kennedy" (May 1935)/  "Die Hard" (Aug 1935)/  "Winter Kill" (Nov 1935)/  "Fan Dance" (Jan 1936)/  "No Hard Feelings" (Feb 1936)/  "Crack Down" (Apr 1936)/  "Hard to Take" (June 1936)/  "Deep Red" (Aug 1936).

FILMS

The first film "Smart Blonde" was based on Nebel's story "No Hard Feelings".  Director Frank MacDonald immediately knew who he wanted for the role of Torchy Blane.  Glenda Farrell had previously played hardboiled reporters in the WB films "Mystery of the Wax Museum" and "Hi, Nellie", and she was quickly cast.  Barton MacLane was detective Steve McBride.  Farrell and MacLane would costar in 7 of the 9 films, and the first film was a surprise hit.  WB made eight more.  In the fifth film WB replaced Farrell and MacLane with Lola Lane and Paul Kelly, but negative fan reaction forced WB to recast the original stars in the lead roles.  They made three more films and in 1939 Farrell left Warner Brothers and the studio recast Jane Wyman and Allen Jenkins for the final film.  The public reaction was tepid and the series ended.  The only actor to appear in all 9 films was Tom Kennedy as Gahagan, McBride's slow-witted cop sidekick (more slow-witted than McBride).  Farrell said of her portrayal, "Before I undertook the first Torchy, I determined to create a real human being, and not an exaggerated comedy type.  I met those newswoman who visited Hollywood and watched them work on visits to New York City.  They were generally young, intelligent, refined and attractive.  By making Torchy true to life, I tried to create a character practically unique in movies".

"Smart Blonde" WB, 1937.  Farrell, MacLane, Wini Shaw, Addison Richards, Robert Paige, Craig Reynolds, Jane Wyman.  Director: Frank MacDonald.  Based on "No Hard Feelings".  Torchy and McBride team up to solve the killing of an investor who just bought a popular local nightclub.

"Fly-Away Baby" WB, 1937.  Farrell, MacLane, Gordon Oliver, Hugh O'Connell, Marcia Ralston, Tom Kennedy.  Director: MacDonald.  Based on a story by reporter Dorothy Kilgallen. Torchy and McBride solve a murder and smuggling case during an around-the-world flight.  "Girl Around the World" by Kilgallen was her own real-life participation in a race around the world by air with two male reporters.

"The Adventurous Blonde" WB, 1937.  Farrell, MacLane, Kennedy, Anne Nagel, George E. Stone, William Hopper, Charley Foy.  Director: MacDonald.  After rival reporters, jealous of Torchy's success, conspire to fake the murder of an actor in order to embarrass her, the actor ends up strangled.

"Blondes at Work" WB, 1938.  Farrell, MacLane, Kennedy, Thomas E. Jackson, Frank Shannon, Rosella Towne, Donald Briggs, Carole Landis.  Director: MacDonald.  The film focuses on the actions undertaken by Torchy to evade the efforts of McBride to keep her from using inside information to "scoop" rival newspapers on the progress of police investigations.

"Torchy Blane in Panama" WB, 1938.  Lola Lane (Torchy), Paul Kelly (McBride), Kennedy.  Director: William Clemens.  Torchy and McBride are on the trail of a bank robber aboard an ocean liner  traveling from NYC to LA via the Panama Canal.

"Torchy Gets Her Man" WB, 1938.  Farrell, MacLane, Kennedy, Willard Robertson, Thomas E. Jackson.  Director: William Beaudine.  A notorious counterfeiter passes himself off as a Secret Service agent to McBride and gets him to unwittingly help him bilk a racetrack out of tens of thousands.

"Torchy Blane in Chinatown" WB, 1939.  Farrell, MacLane, Kennedy, Henry O'Neill, Patric Knowles, Janet Shaw.  Director: Beaudine.  Based on the 1920 novel "The Purple Hieroglyph" by Murray Leinster.  The rivalry between Torchy and McBride escalates as the two investigate a death threat involving priceless jade tablets.

"Torchy Runs for Mayor" WB, 1939.  Farrell, MacLane, Kennedy, John Miljan, Frank Shannon, Joe Downing, Irving Bacon.  Director: Ray McCarey.  Torchy conducts a one-woman campaign against a corrupt mayor and crime boss, and when the reform candidate is murdered, she takes up the banner.

"Torchy Blane...Playing with Dynamite" WB, 1939.  Jane Wyman (Torchy), Allen Jenkins (McBride), Kennedy, Sheila Bromley, Joe Cunningham, Eddie Marr, Edgar Dearing.  Director: Noel Smith.  Torchy and McBride try to nab a gangster by tracking his moll.

No matter how cocky or independent Torchy was or even potentially subversive, in the final scene she always found herself in the arms of good-natured lunkhead McBride.  The question wasn't how could Torchy Blane care about a numbskull policeman like Steve McBride.  The issue was that in the 1930s, she really had no choice.

RADIO

"Meet MacBride" debuted on CBS, June 13, 1936.  This radio series was negotiated by author Frederick Nebel about the same time as he was selling the film rights to WB.  From everything I've been able to find, this was probably an unsuccessful pilot that aired.