Watch Torch Singer For Free

I love this movie so much

Really Surprised!

Overrated and overhyped

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Hollywood sometimes went pretty far afield to find offbeat plots and Torch Singer is one the most offbeat you will see. It starts off soapy and ends up as a love story of sorts and in between there is some comedy and some musical numbers - something for everyone. I kept waiting for it to descend into bathos and tears but Claudette Colbert was so excellent that she singlehandedly kept the show afloat.Ordinarily I don't care for Colbert much but I found new respect for her acting ability and was amazed to learn she sang her own songs in this picture. Other readers have rehashed the story but I just want to add a few words about the supporting cast. It was refreshing to see Ricardo Cortez in a role that was not sinister - in fact, he was kind-hearted and almost tender. I can never get enough of Lyda Roberti, who I thought had a future as a top film comedienne but died too soon. Here she's only on screen for about 15 minutes. In a night club scene you can get a glimpse of Dennis O'Keefe behind David Manners' shoulder.This picture was headed for a sub-par rating from me as it is a very odd and contrived story, but as reported it was salvaged by Colbert's performance. Just enjoy it and don't ask too many questions.

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.

This is a decent Claudette Colbert film but its plot is very unusual to say the least. It begins with an unmarried Claudette going to a charity hospital to have a baby!! This certainly is NOT typical of most of her films and it's obvious by this plot device that this must be a Pre-Code film. That's because films made after the tougher Production Code were enacted would never have allowed the main character to have a baby out of wedlock. Such happenings wouldn't be seen again in films until the 1960s and beyond.Soon after the baby is born, struggling Claudette finds she can't afford to take care of the child so she regrettably puts it up for adoption. Years later, she's now a successful torch singer AND she stumbles into a career as a children's radio personality. Despite her life going so well, the film gets very weepy as Claudette is being torn apart by the absence of her child. In fact, she spends most of the rest of the film pining and searching for the girl. Not surprisingly, by the end of the film she has gotten both the child AND the girl's birth father--leading to a contrived but very emotionally charged ending (have a Kleenex nearby).Overall, it's a good but odd film. This sort of long-suffering mother role is more like what you might expect from Barbara Stanwyck and it seemed strange having Colbert in such a role. Negatives include a rather contrived plot and tons of pathos--which might turn some off. Positives are Colbert's performance as well as a touching finale. While not a must-see or one of her best films, it's worth a look.

It's fun to see Colbert warbling the blues (several times) and kiddies lullabies in this well made and directed soap. Unwed and unable to manage she gives up her baby and becomes a disreputable torch singer and the hottest attraction around. Colbert goes from forlorn unwed mother to Mae-Westian blues singer in a captivating role. "Realization" puts her "back on track" to find her daughter. All this in 72 minutes! Good support from Lyda Roberti, Ricardo Cortez and David Manners. It's a shame this isn't available on video.