After a ten year absence in which Joan Crawford proved she was not by any means through as an actress when she won an Oscar for Mildred Pierce, she came back to MGM for what became her second musical role in Torch Song. She plays a Broadway star, a temperamental one at that which I think was modeled on Ethel Merman who's tired of everyone including her family of using her.It takes a blind musician played by Michael Wilding to set her straight about herself. But Wilding's got his reasons, he remembers her as a promising young singer whom he saw before he went off to war and lost his vision.Crawford also probably drew on her own experiences as a film star with the number of hangers-on folks like her inevitably develop. That would also include her husbands, thespians though they all were as well. And she had blood relatives as well who lived off her celebrity.Joan's vocals were dubbed by India Adams and having heard Joan actually sing, she sounds nothing like Ms. Adams. In the beginning she dances with Charles Walters and I wish Torch Song had included more of that. A lot of people forget that it was as a dancer that Joan Crawford got her start at MGM way back in silent films.One of the songs interpolated in the score was Tenderly, one of the great romantic ballads of the Fifties. Right about this time Rosemary Clooney was enjoying a big megahit from her recording for Columbia Records. No doubt that helped the box office of Torch Song.Marjorie Rambeau got an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress as Joan's mother. She lost to Donna Reed for From Here To Eternity. Harry Morgan as the director of the revue Joan is rehearsing for also scores well in this film.One of her numbers as Joan in a black wig looking very much like Lena Horne. I don't think that anything disrespectful was meant in this, in fact I think it was an homage to Lena Horne. MGM had signed Lena Horne a decade earlier and then didn't quite know what to do with her. Maybe they were making some amends. Torch Song is not one of Joan Crawford's better films, but her legion of fans will approve and she's good in the part. I just wish she'd danced some more.

Second time I've seen it.So many don't things add up I can't imagine this movie wasn't concocted as some sort of payback by some former-flunky-turned-Hollywood-producer out to "get back" at Joan.The color styling is offputting - garish in way unlike any other movie of its time.Joan ends up cast as a variant of her "Harriet Craig" character: controlling, bitchy, chewing every one and everything (like cigarettes) up, then spitting them out. (I guess they should have named the character "JENNY Craig"???)She just comes off looking completely ridiculous.Oh - that blackface number - "Two-Faced Women" - very curious. Referred to as "The Finale" by the show's stage manager, it bears the marks of some awful editing/re-shooting.When they are first scrambling to take places, the chorus looks like they're decked out in coal-black face makeup (the burnt-cork of the old minstrel performers). Then Joan starts the number and looks similar.Strangely, after she makes her way down to the male members of the chorus, she lightens up (on her makeup - NOT her hammy-acting), while they seem to have lost theirs. For the rest of the number, the blackface seems to have disappeared on the guys, lightened up considerably on the girls (I think one female may even be a real African-American), then at the close of the number suddenly everyone darkens down. Finally, when Joan tears off her wig in frustration at Ty's departing despite her "wonderful" rendition of "Two-Faced Woman", she sports not only dark makeup but rhinestones on her eyebrows. The orange hair that sprouts out from under her black wig - disheveled as it is - makes her look like a troll doll from the 1970s (Joan was ahead of her time?). Oddly enough, her "look" seems a color complement to the getup Faye Dunaway put together for "Mommie Dearest":black- vs. white-face, orange vs. dark hair. It is in no way complimentary - it looks absurd, not dramatic, and I'm sure she was completely unhappy when she saw the result on screen (I think even audiences in the 1950s during the first-run of this trainwreck must have laughed at her bizarre appearance.)Someone has also mentioned the "all-male" plus one party thrown by Jenny. Jeez - it's filled with gay entendres - but the strangest aspect of all is the fact that a genuine African- American actor is at the piano, apparently singing but in reality dubbed by professional dub artist Bill Lee.From what I can tell, very little original music was written for this piece - a very curious decision considering MGM had all the song-writing talent they needed.One dance rehearsal uses a Fred Astaire song from "Royal Wedding", in another instance a dropped number intended for Cyd Charisse in "The Bandwagon" (the aforementioned "Two- Faced Woman" blackface) gets a second attempt at life here via Joan (it dies an ignoble death unfortunately).I just can't believe anyone was serious regarding this production - except the actors, in particular poor Joan who was desperate to regain her former crown at her old studio.

After Joan finished Mildred Pierce, she entered her absurd period. Enhancing that, she became severe, and with Torch Song she has added just plain scary to her film presence.I didn't know whether to laugh or cry when I watched Torch Song. Joan's close-ups look like some kind of art deco over-colorized presentation that is guaranteed to make the viewer wonder if this was intended as a joke or as a surreal escape. Check out the eyebrows that look like they belong on Queen Kong, the fruit-like color of her hair, the blood red lips, and in fact the she-devil enhanced shape of her lips themselves.So many embarrassingly obvious ways to get her legs in the picture...nauseatingly odd as she tried to portray Marjorie Rambeau's daughter - they looked more like a couple of old hag sisters who belonged in a smoky cocktail bar, not doing "girl talk" in mom's apartment.And furthermore, Joan is not pretty, she was always an overly made-up actress full of spite, nastiness, and intolerance for human frailty. I don't really think this film is a portrayal of character Jenny Stewart as much as it is a realistic view of Joan Crawford.

Joan Crawford (as Jenny Stewart) is an iron-willed Broadway musical star; she knows how to stomp out a cigarette, and soak up the cocktail hour. In her "Torch Song" opening, Ms. Crawford chews out her dancing partner (actually director Charles Walters, who is paid to get around Crawford's right leg). Alone, at night, Crawford weeps - she is really a very lonely woman, unsatisfied by her younger boyfriends, and adoring teenage fans. When her beleaguered pianist is replaced by blind Michael Wilding (as Tye Graham), the domineering diva may find love, at last.As a Broadway musical star, Crawford is wasted. "Torch Song" is, however, fun to watch… as an example of the "trashy" Joan Crawford film. The wretched excess is highlighted by the legendary star's dubbed "Two-Faced Woman" production number; keep watching for the moment, shortly after the song, when "black-faced" Crawford pulls off her "wig", in ghastly fashion.Mr. Wilding (then Mr. Elizabeth Taylor) and Gig Young do their best, as Crawford co-stars. Marjorie Rambeau has a nice supporting role, as Crawford's mother; their pivotal "Gypsy Madonna" scene is very nicely played, with Crawford singing "Tenderly" (her real voice) in a "duet" with the woman who dubbed her material (India Adams), while mother Rambeau guzzles a beer. Down the hatch!*** Torch Song (10/1/53) Charles Walters ~ Joan Crawford, Michael Wilding, Marjorie Rambeau, Gig Young