A Guide to the Interesting and Unusual on TCM
Glenda Farrell Gets
Her Day
By Ed Garea
This week this column is dedicated to a single day for a special
actress. Upon hearing the words “brassy fast-talking blonde,” the name that
comes first to my mind is Glenda Farrell. On August 29, TCM is devoting a day
of its annual “Summer Under the Stars” to Farrell. Several of the movies being
shown have not been seen on television in years, so this is a “Must See” for
all cinephiles.
Born in Enid, Oklahoma, on June 30, 1904, Farrell had been acting
since the age of 7, when she appeared as Little Eva in a production of Uncle
Tom’s Cabin. Realizing she had found her life’s work, she would continue on
the stage through the early ‘30s, taking time off only to finish her education
and to marry Thomas Richards, a film editor, in 1921. The marriage lasted until
1929 and produced a son named Thomas.
Her film career began in 1928 with a bit part in the film Lucky
Boy for Tiffany-Stahl. Warner Brothers signed her in 1930 and
immediately placed her in a Vitaphone short, The Lucky Break, to
see what she could do. Impressed by her performance, her next role was a
featured one later that year in Little Caesar. Warners kept her
busy throughout the ‘30s in roles centered around her persona as a brassy,
hard-boiled, wise-cracking blonde. She gained good notice for her role as Paul
Muni’s scheming wife in I Am a Fugitive
From a Chain Gang. But for the greater part of her career at Warners, she was
cast in supporting roles as the girlfriend, sidekick, or friendly adversary of
the hero/heroine. Farrell realized early on that it was a man’s world at Warner
Brothers and this would be her glass ceiling. She was frequently paired with
Joan Blondell, another brassy, wise-cracking blonde whom the studio had no idea
about what to do with, in a series of B comedies.
In 1936 came the role that would cement herself permanently in the
hearts of film fans – that of Torchy Blane, the fast-talking reporter with a
nose for news and a habit of getting herself into such trouble that she always
had to be rescued by her boyfriend, police Detective Steve McBride (Barton
McLane). Their first film, Smart Blonde, released in 1937, was just
supposed to be a one-shot B programmer, but like so many of the B series in
Hollywood history, it just took off with audiences and distributors alike, and
a series developed. Farrell and MacLane did seven films together, all
moneymakers.
Farrell’s star faded in the ‘40s, but in 1941 she married Dr.
Henry Ross, a West Point graduate and Army physician who served on General Dwight
D. Eisenhower’s staff. When not traveling with her husband she worked on stage
and in a few select movies. In 1954 she again was in the spotlight with her
role as Mrs. Winston in the Charlton Heston adventure epic Secret of
the Incas (Paramount), a film that directly influenced 1981’s Raiders
of the Lost Ark. In the ‘60s she won an Emmy for her work on the television
series Ben Casey, and had a supporting role in the 1964 Elvis
Presley film, Kissing Cousins. She was starring on Broadway in Forty Carats in 1969 when she got news
that she was diagnosed with lung cancer. She continued in the play until her
health gave out and returned home to die on May 1, 1971. She is interred in the
West Point Cemetery, West Point, New York.
Below is the day’s schedule, along with a short synopsis. All
films this day were made for Warner Brothers save for the last, The
Talk of the Town, made for Columbia in 1942. The year and director are in
parentheses.
A note of trivia: Farrell’s son, Tommy also went into acting and
billed himself as Tommy Farrell. He performed mainly as a supporting character,
and later went into television with some success.
6:00 am – Little Caesar (Mervyn Le Roy, 1930): Farrell’s first
feature. Her dancer Olga takes Joe Massaro (Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.) away from
Rico (Edward G. Robinson) and his gang, leading to Rico’s downfall. A+
7:30 am – I’ve Got Your Number (Ray Enright, 1934): Farrell has a small
role as Bonnie, a fortuneteller exposed by telephone repairmen Terry (Pat
O’Brien) and John (Allen Jenkins) as a fake. But she does get some revenge by
dating John. B
9:00 am – The Personality Kid (Alan Crosland, 1934): Farrell’s in solid
form in this blue-collar romance as Joan McCarty, the wife and manager of brash
upcoming boxer Ritzy McCarty (Pat O’Brien). When Ritzy gains success he wanders
away from Joan, with the predictable results. B-
10:15 am – Kansas City Princess (William Keighley, 1934): Farrell and Joan
Blondell are a couple of fast-talking grifters on the lam over a mix-up
involving a diamond engagement ring given to Blondell by gangster boyfriend
Robert Armstrong. Aboard a ship to Paris, they find new marks to con. Farrell
is particularly adept at handling the script’s fast dialogue. She was timed
speaking 390 words a minute while on Broadway. B
11:30 am – Snowed Under (Ray Enright, 1936): Pat O’Brien is a
playwright with writer’s block who has retreated to a snowbound cottage to
write the play’s third act. Genevieve Tobin is his first wife, sent to the
cabin by O’Brien’s producer to nudge him along. Farrell is his second wife who
shows up at his retreat for her alimony. Patricia Ellis is the neighbor who
wants to have fun. So we find O’Brien stuck in a snowbound chateau with three
women and a jug of applejack. C+
12:45 pm – Fly Away Baby (Frank McDonald, 1937): A routine entry in
the Torchy Blane series, as Torchy takes to the air to track a band of killers.
C
2:00 pm – The Adventurous Blonde (Frank McDonald, 1937): Jealous that
Torchy Blane is getting the scoops, rival reporters plan a fake murder to fool
her and embarrass her paper. But to their surprise, the fake turns into the
real thing. C
3:15 pm – Blondes at Work (Frank McDonald, 1938): Steve McBride
promises his captain not to let Torchy in on his cases, but she continues to
scoop the other reporters. And in this film she even scoops the police. C+
4:30 pm – Torchy Gets Her Man (William Beaudine, 1938): A notorious
counterfeiter passes himself off as a Secret Service agent to Steve and gets
him to unwittingly bilk a race track of its receipts. Torchy manages to penetrate
the counterfeiting ring and bring the man to justice. C
5:45 pm – Torchy Blane in Chinatown (William Beaudine, 1939): Not only are
Torchy and boyfriend Steve on the trail of a Chinese gang, but they must also
deal with a phony Scotland Yard inspector trying to extort $250,00 from a rich
young man who is trying to marry a senator’s daughter. C
6:45 pm – Torchy Runs For Mayor (Ray McCarey, 1939): 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. C
8:00 pm – Smart Blonde (Frank McDonald, 1937): In this, the first
in the Torchy Blane series, Torchy and boyfriend Steve McBride team up to solve
the murder of an investor who just purchased a popular local nightclub. B
9:15 pm – The Mystery of the Wax Museum (Michael Curtiz, 1933): Reporter Farrell
discovers something’s fishy in the city’s new wax museum run by Professor Igor
(Lionel Atwill). With Fay Wray and Frank McHugh. A-
10:45 pm – I Am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang (Mervyn Le Roy, 1932): Farrell gives a
solid performance as escaped fugitive Muni’s landlady, who forces him to marry
her when she discovers the truth about his past. A classic. A+
12:30 am – Gold Diggers of 1935 (Busby Berkeley, 1935): In this entry
about another show on the rocks Farrell has a minor role as hotel secretary
Betty Hawes, who nonetheless plays a crucial role in keeping the show’s backer
from discovering her daughter has married hotel desk clerk Dick Powell instead
of millionaire Hugh Herbert. Great musical numbers and Gloria Stuart is
show-stopping gorgeous as the female lead. A-
2:15 am – Gold Diggers of 1937 (Lloyd Bacon, 1936): Another contrived
backstage musical, only the numbers themselves are not enough to redeem the
script. But tough Termite Terrace was able to put the songs to good use in
the Merrie Melodies cartoons. Farrell is Joan Blondell’s pal,
who’s trying to land a millionaire. C
4:00 am – The Talk of the Town (George Stevens, 1942): Farrell has a good
supporting role in this comedy about an unjustly accused arsonist Cary Grant,
whom Jean Arthur champions to vacationing law professor Ronald Colman. Farrell
is a beauty parlor owner who knows the truth of what really happened that
night. A
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