BLONDES AT WORK (1938)

Reporter Torchy Blane sees a rookie cop named Regan writing her a ticket for parking too close to a fire hydrant. Torchy tries to avoid the ticket by letting Regan know that she is the fiancée of police officer Lieutenant McBride, but no dice. As it happens, McBride is in hot water for leaking too much information to Torchy for her scoops. He refuses to discuss cases with her, and wants her to quit her job when they marry. Of course, this makes her more determined than ever to make headlines. Department store magnate Spencer is reported missing (Torchy saw him hustled into a car while getting her ticket), then found dead. When Torchy finds out that McBride’s driver Gahagan keeps a diary that he leaves in his car's glove compartment, she encourages him to write about the cases that McBride is working on, then Torchy sneaks peeks at the diary and manages to get secret info that she makes front page news with. McBride is stumped for a while, but soon catches on, though by that point, Torchy is going full speed ahead with her meddling in the Spencer case, going so far as to eavesdrop on a jury room discussion to get info. She is jailed on contempt charges just as the case is coming to a climax, but McBride actually gives her a hand so she can still get the final scoop. This is the fourth in a series of Torchy Blane movies, with Glenda Farrell as Torchy and Barton MacLane as McBride (they appeared in seven of the nine movies). I have enjoyed some of the entries in this series of fast-paced B-movies, but this one left me cold. For starters, the mystery is handled rather haphazardly and there's not much at stake for the audience—I started to include the details of the mystery in my summary but didn't think it was worth it. The climax of the case plays out offscreen. I like Glenda Farrell OK but Torchy comes off as a bit unlikable in her single-minded drive to get scoops, not seeming to care how much trouble McBride might get into. MacLane is boring and the two have little chemistry. Busy comic character actor Tom Kennedy outshines the leads as Gahagan, and I like John Ridgely in the small role of Regan. I must admit I enjoyed seeing Torchy in jail. Some plot elements were borrowed from 1935’s FRONT PAGE WOMAN. Unless you’re a Torchy Blane completist, this is not necessary viewing. Pictured are Farrell and MacLane. [TCM]