Fredric March and Claudette Colbert were contract actors who worked contemporaneously for several years at Paramount Studio. As employees of Paramount, both were often required to accept projects assigned to them notwithstanding their uneven quality or suitability. For every great film he made like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, March appeared in such lesser efforts as Merrily We Go to Hell and Strangers in Love. Similarly, Colbert followed her famous role in The Sign of the Cross with inferior films like Three-Cornered Moon and Torch Singer. The Studio System then was operating at or near its greatest level of control and power. This almost guaranteed that contract actors like March and Colbert would often have to "take the bitter with the better" when it came to film assignments.
While Torch Singer (TS) is a minor movie in Colbert's long and distinguished career, it did have certain redeeming qualities. TS gave her an opportunity to demonstrate a pleasant singing voice, which unfortunately she was unable to seriously integrate into her future work as a film performer. For another, TS offered Colbert the chance to hone her acting chops in a meaty single mother role, which she did to greater success in the subsequent original version of Imitation of Life on loan out to Universal Studio. And as in the latter named movie, Colbert in TS plumbed a part that took her from rags to riches through assorted personal trials and tribulations. Finally, both films involved narrative complications brought on by circumstances related to the Colbert character's young daughter in each picture.
TS was not helped by a script that veered uneasily between melodramatic tearjerker and romantic comedy. It was at times somewhat hard to follow. This situation was offset to some extent by Colbert's striking gowns, attractive appearance and considerable acting ability. Her professionalism and generosity as a performer were also demonstrated by her effort to salvage the material into something more significant than appeared from the written screenplay. In Claudette Colbert-An Illustrated Biography by Lawrence J. Quirk (1985), the author related a conversation he had many years later with Ricardo Cortez, Colbert's co-star in TS, about the making of that film:
"I (Cortez) remember that film (TS) chiefly because of Claudette. She knew she had very little to work with, and I don't think Al Hall (the director) could help her much because he had not yet fully hit his stride as the fine comic director he became later. I saw her transform the picture through sheer dynamism and force of personality. I remember she would finish a scene and then retire to her dressing room or a set chair looking worn out and dejected, as if saying to herself, 'What am I doing in this?' Then, when on call again, she became something else entirely-energetic, humorous, sharp. Some people think that Torch Singer was a good picture. That was because Claudette willed it. She made it sound and look so very much better than it was."
Quirk goes on to confirm Cortez's opinion of TS. He stated that "It is a prime example of a star, through sheer personality, redeeming an also-ran tearjerker-comedy-musical-whatever-it-was."
Colbert went on to achieve major success up to her 65th (and final) film Parrish in 1961. She brought intelligence, charm, style and beauty to every role she played------even if it may have been beneath her talent (like TS). She was one of the few actresses from Hollywood's Golden Age----e.g. Irene Dunne, Barbara Stanwyck and Rosalind Russell----who was admired for her talent, temperment and professionalism. TS shines an interesting light on all those qualities at an early stage of her long career, and provides a good reason for us to seek it out when it is next screened.
While Torch Singer (TS) is a minor movie in Colbert's long and distinguished career, it did have certain redeeming qualities. TS gave her an opportunity to demonstrate a pleasant singing voice, which unfortunately she was unable to seriously integrate into her future work as a film performer. For another, TS offered Colbert the chance to hone her acting chops in a meaty single mother role, which she did to greater success in the subsequent original version of Imitation of Life on loan out to Universal Studio. And as in the latter named movie, Colbert in TS plumbed a part that took her from rags to riches through assorted personal trials and tribulations. Finally, both films involved narrative complications brought on by circumstances related to the Colbert character's young daughter in each picture.
TS was not helped by a script that veered uneasily between melodramatic tearjerker and romantic comedy. It was at times somewhat hard to follow. This situation was offset to some extent by Colbert's striking gowns, attractive appearance and considerable acting ability. Her professionalism and generosity as a performer were also demonstrated by her effort to salvage the material into something more significant than appeared from the written screenplay. In Claudette Colbert-An Illustrated Biography by Lawrence J. Quirk (1985), the author related a conversation he had many years later with Ricardo Cortez, Colbert's co-star in TS, about the making of that film:
"I (Cortez) remember that film (TS) chiefly because of Claudette. She knew she had very little to work with, and I don't think Al Hall (the director) could help her much because he had not yet fully hit his stride as the fine comic director he became later. I saw her transform the picture through sheer dynamism and force of personality. I remember she would finish a scene and then retire to her dressing room or a set chair looking worn out and dejected, as if saying to herself, 'What am I doing in this?' Then, when on call again, she became something else entirely-energetic, humorous, sharp. Some people think that Torch Singer was a good picture. That was because Claudette willed it. She made it sound and look so very much better than it was."
Quirk goes on to confirm Cortez's opinion of TS. He stated that "It is a prime example of a star, through sheer personality, redeeming an also-ran tearjerker-comedy-musical-whatever-it-was."
Colbert went on to achieve major success up to her 65th (and final) film Parrish in 1961. She brought intelligence, charm, style and beauty to every role she played------even if it may have been beneath her talent (like TS). She was one of the few actresses from Hollywood's Golden Age----e.g. Irene Dunne, Barbara Stanwyck and Rosalind Russell----who was admired for her talent, temperment and professionalism. TS shines an interesting light on all those qualities at an early stage of her long career, and provides a good reason for us to seek it out when it is next screened.