Third in WB's fun Torchy Blane series. This time Torchy and Steve are about to get married but get sidetracked with another murder investigation. The particulars of this murder are a doozy. Four of Torchy's rival reporters stage a murder to stop the wedding but then the actor playing the victim actually winds up killed. Cast includes Anne Nagel, George E. Stone, William Hopper, Charley Foy, and Natalie Moorhead. Glenda Farrell and Barton MacLane are especially cute together in this one.

The Adventurous Blonde (1937) *** (out of 4) The third film in the series has Torchy Blane (Glenda Farrell) and Lt. MacBride (Barton MacLane) soon to be married, which drives her fellow reporters crazy because they feel she'll get all the scoops. To get even with her they get a famous actor needing publicity to pretend to be murdered so that Torchy will report the story and then get in trouble. The tables turn however when the actor ends up murdered just the way the joke was supposed to happen. This third film in the series is actually the best up to this point thanks in large part to the cast doing a fine job but the story here is also extremely well-done with a couple nice twists at the end. The idea of a "joke" murder getting into the newspaper is a bit far-fetched but I really thought this was rather fun at the start of the picture. The jealousy of the male reporters was quite funny but once the murder takes place things get a lot more serious. As someone who watches every "B" murder/mystery that comes on TCM, I must admit that the story here was quite good and especially the various suspects and their connection to the victim. Farrell and MacLane are both at the top of their game here with the chemistry flying high. Anne Nagel, George E. Stone and Tom Kennedy are all good in their supporting bits as is Anderson Lawler, , Leyland Hodgson and Virginia Brissac. The twist at the end is something I won't give away but I serious doubt anyone will see it coming.

Torchy and Steve just might get married this time around: they've got the license and the minister and are meeting at the station. But wait—the boys from the rival paper hatch a plan: they stage a phony murder, arrange for Steve to be called in to investigate, and hire an actor to play the corpse.—Heavy on the comedy so far, but when the "corpse" is really murdered, the plot thickens into a somewhat convoluted but very funny comedy-mystery, the third film in the Torchy Blane series (and third of the same year!).Barton McLane is fine in his third go-round as Steve McBride, serious-minded police detective; gruff but loyal and tenacious, Lieutenant McBride seems to be getting smarter and more appealing as the series progresses.Glenda Farrell is just great as reporter Torchy Blane, once again mixed up in a murder investigation…once again scooping her rival reporters…and once again staying approximately one step of Steve in a case that sorely interferes with their wedding plans.Tom Kennedy is also back as Officer Gahagan, composing poetry in his spare moments and hopefully asking, "Siren and all?" every time McBride orders him to drive somewhere in a hurry. It's an unsettled first fifteen minutes; that phony murder plot really makes little sense. Once the real plot starts rolling, however—and once Torchy is on the case—this picture is great fun and moves at a terrific pace. The supporting cast is steady if unspectacular; the plot itself is rather complicated at times, partly because Farrell talks so fast. Luckily, the appealing main characters, and a script that gives them some good moments together, do keep things zipping right along, whether they're talking murder or marriage:Steve: "I never know what you're gonna do next." Torchy: "You wait'll we're married."Exceedingly light but delicious.

I like the Torchy Blane character and the way Glenda Farrell played her in the Warner Brothers series. But this third episode probably could have sank the whole series.Glenda Farrell and Barton MacLane are about to be married which of course will make them even closer. Both the police and Farrell's fellow reporters see problems. But the reporters in their infinite wisdom decide to do something about it.Can you believe these lugnuts decide to stage a fake murder of and hire a ham actor to play the part? But then the ham actor really does turn up dead, leaving another mystery for Farrell and MacLane to solve.Call me just an old fuddy duddy but I seem to remember their being laws against this sort of thing. There sure is in making a false report of a crime. In real life a lot of the working press of Torchy's city would have been filing their stories from the big house. And that's even if this thing had stayed just a gag.Incredibly stupid movie.