GManfred 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.

mukava991 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.

mmipyle Watched "Torch Singer" (1933) with Claudette Colbert last night. I've seen this a few times before, but not for some time. Along with Colbert, Ricardo Cortez, David Manners, and Lyda Roberti headline the cast. I watched it from the new release in the set "Universal Pre-Codes", a set interesting for the fact that NONE of them are Universal! Universal simply owns the lot now. "Torch Singer" was made at Paramount. Anyway, this one really shows how a budget that gets used up fast causes a ridiculously quick ending that nearly doesn't make sense! It's a pre-code in the real sense of the word: Colbert becomes pregnant, has a baby, the father is in China and doesn't know about the baby, neither is married, of course, etc. She moves in with another lady (Lyda Roberti) who has just had a baby similarly, and she stays there until Roberti loses her job and is forced to move out. Colbert now must give up the baby and make some kind of living. She becomes a torch singer, a famous one at that, and begins a romance with Ricardo Cortez. This goes on and on until David Manners shows up late in the film. He's the father of Colbert's baby. Now - - miracle of miracles - - he's also adopted HIS own baby in the interim. Of course, there's more to the story, with a radio program that helps Colbert find her baby and Manners and so forth - but, in the end all this happens and the film ends abruptly. What happened to Cortez???? Why was Lyda Roberti only in the film for two scenes? Why was David Manners not introduced until nearly the end? A botched job of editing, if you ask me. A botched job of supporting the finances obviously. This could have been a much, much better show than what finally ends up in the sprockets. It's certainly not bad. Nothing with Claudette Colbert is ever bad. She's wonderful. But - this show should have been much better.

sobaok 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.