BootDigest Such a frustrating disappointment

Fluentiama Perfect cast and a good story

Comwayon A Disappointing Continuation

Marva-nova Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.

evanston_dad After she reached a certain age, Joan Crawford was always at least a little bit scary in the best of circumstances. But never have I seen her scarier than in a scene late in "Torch Song" immediately after she's performed a song in black face(!), tears off her wig to reveal a shock of bright orange hair, and snarls at the camera.And so we have "Torch Song," the kind of movie the term "guilty pleasure" was coined to describe, in which Crawford plays Jenny Stewart, stage diva who wakes up to the fact that she's destined for bitterness and loneliness because of her difficult, controlling ways. Crawford is terrific, as always, and makes the film riveting even though hardly anything of note happens.Michael Wilding plays the blind pianist who takes over as Crawford's accompanist when her other one quits and who makes Crawford aware of her selfish, petulant attitude. Marjorie Rambeau won an Oscar nomination for her brief performance as Crawford's salty mother.Grade: A-

whpratt1 Enjoyed this 1953 Classic Musical with Joan Crawford playing the role as Jenny Stewart, a New York City actress who could dance, sing and give great dramatic roles and many Broadway Hits. Jenny had a mind of her own and hated anyone to criticize her on her singing and dance performances. One day Jenny meets up with a piano player named Tye Graham, (Michael Wilding) who is a blind veteran and is a sort of substitute piano player when the original piano player quit and walked off the Broadway Production. Tye becomes very critical of Jenny's performance numbers and the two of them become very angry with each other. This is a great romantic story because when Tye was able to see, he viewed Jenny Stewart in a show where Jenny sung the song, "Tenderly" and he never forgot her great performance. This is one of Joan Crawford's great films along with a great supporting role by Michael Wilding, who was in real life married to Liz Taylor. Enjoy.

LOVEfords 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.

preppy-3 **PLOT SPOILERS** Just hilarious. Joan Crawford plays hard-boiled bitchy singer/actress Jenny Stewart. She treats everybody like dirt--but that's cause she's (sigh) lonely. Only piano player Tye Graham (Michael Wilding) sees right through her. And--oh yes--he's BLIND!!!! Oh the irony! Naturally she hates him then falls in love with him. It leads up to a totally predictable twist at the end that leads to a happy ending that will have you screaming for insulin! Crawford made plenty of bad films in her career--but none was as much fun as this one! She overacts even more than usual (believe it or not) and bulldozes her way through the film. It's a terrible film with a truly rotten script but Crawford is so over the top it's hard to not enjoy. Her "singing" numbers are unbelievable. When she "sang" her first number "Follow Me" I broke out laughing! It is SO obviously not her voice and Crawford's overdone acting during it is just incredible. Still she DOES lip sync well. The high point (so to speak) is the song and dance of "Two Face Woman" with Joan AND the entire chorus in black face! It's just too jaw-droppingly silly to take seriously. And when Joan tears off the black wig at the end to show that blazing red hair it hits new heights of camp! The rest of the cast falls by the wayside of Crawford's histrionics. Poor Gig Young barely registers. Wilding is actually pretty good--his nice underacting actually compliments Joan's overacting very well. Marjorie Rambeau (playing Joan's mother) is very good also and was actually nominated for a Best Supporting Actress for this. Also Joan's "clumsy" dance partner is director Charles Walters.This is most definitely not a good picture but it's in blazing Technicolor, has a hilariously stupid story and has Joan going full blast! A must see for camp followers. I can only seriously give it a 7 though. Yeah it's fun but it's SO stupid!