Torch Singer (1933) is a precode mixed bag of reality and froth. Claudette Colbert's character, Sally Trent, an unwed mother, at first steals your heart away with her desire to properly care for and love her infant girl, also named Sally. When destitution during the Depression forces her to give her baby up for adoption she transforms herself into morally loose and flirtatious torch singer Mimi Benton, who appears at the hottest nightclubs and on the radio. From poverty to riches along the way come a string of men (only hinted at, never shown), even though deep down she continues to love the man who abandoned her, the father of her baby, Michael Gardner (David Manners).
Mimi happens to be at the radio station when a new performer who is supposed to do a new children's' show freezes up. She runs into the studio and takes the woman's place as "Aunt Jenny". The sponsor likes what he hears and suddenly Mimi has a lucrative contract in the role. After receiving fan letters from children, including a five year old named Sally, Mimi realizes that she can use this medium to try and contact / locate her daughter.
Meanwhile Michael, her old love, returns from China, and seeks her out. Since she had changed her name Sally now known as Mimi is hard to find. Finally he finds her and confronts her, but she spurns his declarations of love. She tells him she had his child and he is shocked, now determined to find the child himself.
Torch Singer has a most implausible, unrealistic ending: where in the world are little Sally's adoptive parents and why would they simply relinquish her to a man claiming to be her biological father? We aren't told anything about how she was raised for five years, only that now Michael has custody of her. It's really laughable. I know they wanted to end it all with a nice big bow wrapped around it, but really, couldn't a more realistic ending have been inserted?
Best scene in the film is when Sally has signed the papers to give up her baby for adoption. Claudette plays this scene with real emotion. The scene boasts one of the best lines in the history of cinema, as she talks intimately to her little girl: "Don't ever let any man make a sucker out of you. Make him know what you're worth. Anything they get for nothing is always cheap." A lot has changed since 1933, but some truths like that are eternal. If only Sally, aka Mimi, had taken her own advice she would have saved herself a lot of heartache and grief.
Performances worthy of note here are handsome Ricardo Cortez as Mimi's business manager and friend, Lyda Roberti as another unwed mother friend of Sally's, and splendid woman of color Mildred Washington as Carrie, Mimi's maid, who is very pretty and manages to steal a few scenes. Unfortunately Mildred died the same year Torch Singer came out, or I am positive today we would remember her name right alongside Hattie and Butterfly.
Mimi happens to be at the radio station when a new performer who is supposed to do a new children's' show freezes up. She runs into the studio and takes the woman's place as "Aunt Jenny". The sponsor likes what he hears and suddenly Mimi has a lucrative contract in the role. After receiving fan letters from children, including a five year old named Sally, Mimi realizes that she can use this medium to try and contact / locate her daughter.
Meanwhile Michael, her old love, returns from China, and seeks her out. Since she had changed her name Sally now known as Mimi is hard to find. Finally he finds her and confronts her, but she spurns his declarations of love. She tells him she had his child and he is shocked, now determined to find the child himself.
Torch Singer has a most implausible, unrealistic ending: where in the world are little Sally's adoptive parents and why would they simply relinquish her to a man claiming to be her biological father? We aren't told anything about how she was raised for five years, only that now Michael has custody of her. It's really laughable. I know they wanted to end it all with a nice big bow wrapped around it, but really, couldn't a more realistic ending have been inserted?
Best scene in the film is when Sally has signed the papers to give up her baby for adoption. Claudette plays this scene with real emotion. The scene boasts one of the best lines in the history of cinema, as she talks intimately to her little girl: "Don't ever let any man make a sucker out of you. Make him know what you're worth. Anything they get for nothing is always cheap." A lot has changed since 1933, but some truths like that are eternal. If only Sally, aka Mimi, had taken her own advice she would have saved herself a lot of heartache and grief.
Performances worthy of note here are handsome Ricardo Cortez as Mimi's business manager and friend, Lyda Roberti as another unwed mother friend of Sally's, and splendid woman of color Mildred Washington as Carrie, Mimi's maid, who is very pretty and manages to steal a few scenes. Unfortunately Mildred died the same year Torch Singer came out, or I am positive today we would remember her name right alongside Hattie and Butterfly.