The whodunit part is fairly complicated involving a newspaper rivalry, a faked murder that turns real, along with Torchy and her cop buddy trying to stay out of trouble. Logic-wise, the plot's more than the usual stretch.I haven't seen other entries in the Blaine series so I can't compare. This programmer, however, carries the earmarks of 30's style WB—fast paced, lots of street-wise mugs, few lengthy talk scenes, and a sassy blonde. Torchy (Farrell) is a cannily aggressive reporter who pairs up with cop Steve (Mac Lane) to scoop rival reporters. Note how, in one scene, she even takes over Steve's seat at the station house. There's some typical lowbrow humor from the likes of Tom Kennedy who specialized in such roles. And catch tough guy Mac Lane in what's almost a leading man role, certainly a departure for him. Likely a handsomer Lawler (Hugo) was added to compensate in the looks department. I guess I missed Perry Mason's William Hopper who's in the credits, but short on screen time.Anyway, the programmer's okay as a time passer, especially if you keep a note pad to keep up with the plot, but otherwise it's nothing special.(In passing—Over the years, I've surmised that whenever viewers see a city street closed off at one end by a cross street, that means it's a back lot set, as is the case here.)

For what was considered a Warner Brothers B series, the Torchy Blane series was fantastic. Torchy (Glenda Farrell) is a reporter and spitfire engaged to police detective Steve McBride (Barton McLane) who is equally tough. They don't have traditionally romantic moments, but they are a great team for solving murders and have great chemistry. You can see them probably acting the same to each other the day before they are married, the day after, ten years later, twenty years later. They are tough people in tough jobs and they get one another. Should everybody be that lucky.In this installment of the series, the reporters of the other papers are talking about how Torchy always scoops them because of her close association to McBride. So they decide to set up a fake murder, let Torchy report on it and have it go to press, and then reveal that the whole thing was a fake just to embarrass her. They get a ham actor (Harvey Hammond) to play the part of the corpse. They get an assistant at the coroner's office to pronounce death and probably cause of death - strangling, and then have other actors that they have hired to play the servants. Well the whole thing blows up in their face when it turns out Hammond actually HAS been strangled! So Torchy scoops the other reporters again because their hoax is a real murder.Now to find out who did it. It turns out that there are any multitude of suspects, and that strangely enough that Hammond was a lady's man, although he had been married for twenty years and honestly he came across like a stuffed shirt and was not good looking at all. What was the attraction? Torchy solves this one, but she makes one leap of logic that you have to rewind to the beginning of the film to figure out HOW she figured it out. Several people persuade various suspects to falsely confess, and one of these false confessions outs the murderer.You know, watching this fast paced entertaining film brings up a few questions. For one thing, why does Torchy think of doing standard investigative techniques that the cops should have thought of? Does Torchy REALLY want to get married? You can tell she loves McBride, but it is he that seems to be the sentimental one, and she always seems to be coming up with excuses as to why they need to wait. As she drives off at one point McBride is frantically waving at her, and when several other detectives think he is hailing them he seems suddenly embarrassed by this display of affection by "a tough guy" like himself.Highly recommended if you like the B crime movies of the 30's and 40's. Oh, and Barton McLane and Glenda Farrell were so good together that outside of the Torchy Blane series they did "Prison Break" together for Universal in 1938.

In 1937 Glenda Farrell was finally given her own series that completely suited her snappy and sassy personality. She was Torchy Blane and the series kicked off with "Smart Blonde" (a very apt title). "Adventurous Blonde" was the third but didn't keep up the high standard that the first programmer had started unfortunately. Farrell being Torchy was always two jumps ahead of Lt. Steve McBride (the gravel voiced Barton MacLaine) who in spite of the fact that they were supposed to be sweethearts, seemed to have a love/hate relationship going on. In the first movie, Wini Shaw was the main lady, in this one it was Natalie Moorehead, who in 1937 may have elicted a "I seem to recall that name" but now with the accessibility of pre-code movies conjures up (to me anyway) a sophisticated "other woman"!! Heroines could not neglect their man if Natalie Moorehead was in the cast!!!Here she plays Theresa Gray, who, while on a cross country train trip, is given the wrong wire by a porter. Sitting next to her is Torchy Blane - ace reporter - who happens to get her wire which is a callous message advising Theresa that Harvey Hammond is through with her!! McBride and Torchy are almost married but as his superior points out to him - "you haven't done anything for two weeks but run around acting like a love sick kid"!!! Torchy's reporter colleagues want to play a trick on her - so they invent a hoax murder involving a ham actor, Harvey Hammond, the only problem is he actually turns up dead!!!The suspects (of which there are many) are rounded up - Hugo, the butler (Anderson Lawler), Miss Brown, the nurse (Anne Nagel) and Aunt Jenny, a bed ridden invalid (Virginia Brissac) but Torchy soon realises that she is as sprightly as anyone in the house. In this confused mystery everyone is playing a part - Hugo and Miss Brown are actors who were in on the hoax and Aunt Jenny was in reality Harvey's wife who was fed up with his philandering ways.Although it was interesting to see a very youthful William Hopper long before his Perry Mason days, I agree with the other reviewers it definitely wasn't up to the first in the series. Poor Glenda didn't seem quite so adventurous in this one - it seemed to be top heavy with comedy and the murder and sleuthing took a back seat.

This is the 3rd film of the Torchy Blane series and once again Glenda Farrell and Barton MacLane are in the leads once again. The film begins with the Lieutenant (MacLane) getting a slight dressing down by his boss. It seems that since Torchy is the lieutenant's fiancée, she gets an inside scoop of crimes that other newspaper people are now complaining about--after all, should the Lieutenant's girl get stories that no other reporter has access to? In addition, the reporters decide to play a trick on the couple to get revenge--they'll stage a fake murder and make them look like idiots when they investigate. The problem is that this fake murder turns out to be a real one--and once again, Torchy gets the scoop.Throughout the film, Torchy takes the law into her own hands--making guesses and playing hunches again and again. And, since this IS a Torchy Blane film, you know that all of it will work out in the end. Unfortunately, compared to the earlier Torchy Blane films, this one more contrived and less believable. Enjoyable, sure--just not particularly outstanding in its execution.