Smart Blonde
| Smart Blonde | |
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Theatre trailer
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| Directed by | Frank McDonald |
| Produced by |
Jack L. Warner Hal B. Wallis |
| Screenplay by | Kenneth Gamet Don Ryan |
| Starring |
Glenda Farrell Barton MacLane |
| Music by | Heinz Roemheld |
| Cinematography | Warren Lynch |
| Edited by | Frank Magee |
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Production
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Release date
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Running time
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59 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Smart Blonde is a 1937 American mystery film directed by Frank McDonald. Starring Glenda Farrell as Torchy Blane, a smart, sassy, wisecracking female reporter teaming up with her boyfriend, detective Steve McBride to solve the killing of an investor who just bought a popular local nightclub. This is the first of nine "Torchy Blane" films by Warner Bros. It was released on January 2, 1937. The film is followed by Fly-Away Baby.
Torchy Blane (Glenda Farrell) a reporter for the Morning Herald interviews Tiny Torgenson (Joseph Crehan) on the train. He is purchasing the Million Club and various gambling and sporting enterprises from his friend Fitz Mularkey (Addison Richards). Fitz has decided to quit the business due to his upcoming marriage to Marcia Friel. When Torchy and Tiny arrives at the train station, as they leave Union Station, Tiny is shot and killed. His murder was witness by Torchy and she calls her newspaper with the story.
Torchy goes with her boyfriend detective Steve McBride (Barton MacLane) who is in charge of investigating the murder case, to the Million Club and tells Fitz Mularkey about Tiny's murder. Fitz being very good friends with Tiny wants to catch the murderer himself before the police can, but Steve advises him to do otherwise. While Steve investigates, Torchy learns from the club's hat check girl Dixie (Jane Wyman) that the club singer Dolly Ireland (Wini Shaw) was in love with Fitz and that Fitz's right-hand man and bodyguard, Chuck Cannon, was angry about losing his job. Steve suspects the other bidders for the business for Tiny's murder, but Torchy suspects Chuck. She persuades Steve to look for Chuck, and while they are at Chuck's apartment, Fitz shows up and demands to know about the police investigation on the case. Steve later learns that Chuck and Dolly were seen at Union Station just before Tiny was killed.
Meanwhile, Torchy have afternoon tea with Fitz's fiancée Marcia, who asks Torchy to convince Fitz to sell his business to anyone who wants to buy it. Chuck is later found dead in his hotel room. Steve immediately suspects Fitz, when the evidence leads to him being the killer. Fitz is confronted by steve, but escapes. Steve doesn't believe Fitz is the killer and is covering for someone else. When the forensics report states that Chuck's gun did not kill Tiny, Steve questions Marcia, who tells him that because Chuck threatened her, she is afraid that Fitz killed him to protect her. Torchy becomes suspicious when Marcia and her brother Lewis Friel (Robert Paige) tell conflicting stories about their parents. Torchy, Steve, and Gahagan (Tom Kennedy) go to Marcia's apartment to find Fitz. That's when Torchy exposed Marcia and her brother being phonies, and are two con artist out to steal Fitz's money. Lewis killed both Tiny and Chuck. They killed Tiny because he will recognize Marcia as an imposter, and Chuck because he was blackmailing them after finding out who they really are. Lewis is shot by Fitz and Marcia is arrested. Later, Fitz decides to keep the business and proposed to Dolly, and Steve proposes to Torchy.
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Wikipedia