Customer Reviews

Torch Song [VHS]

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The less flattering views on Joan Crawford would be that the role of hard as nails musical star Jenny Stewart was a role that was no stretch for her, so closely did it resemble the real actress. While certainly the character of Jenny has few redeeming qualities, it is hardly typical of Joan Crawford's working relationship with her own crews and a large proportion of her costars in countless films over the decades. Here she has a role which has gone down into "camp" folklore because of its over the top viciousness and neurotic perfectionism. Jenny Stewart indeed is one of the harder and meaner roles that Joan Crawford took on in her later years and ironically came by at a very happy time in her professional life as it marked her return with great fanfare to MGM which had been her "home", for 18 glorious and mainly happy years in the 1920's and 30's.

Joan Crawford plays this forceful star as a cold and hard woman who believes in perfectionism in all things. The opening sequence finds Jenny in the middle of rehearsals for a new show. Her dancing partner ironically is played by the real life director of "Torch Song", dance legend Charles Walters. He misses one of the steps which sends Jenny into a rage and she shoots off a threat that unless the steps are perfected Ralph, (Walters), will be out of the show. The cast and crew alike live in constant terror of Jenny with the exception of stage assistant Joe Dennar (Harry Morgan) who has learnt to turn the other cheek to Jenny's manical quest for perfection. When her resident pianist has had enough of Jenny's controlling nature and quits Jenny finds herself with an unexpected replacement in the form of reserved blind pianist Tye Graham (Michael Wilding). Tye is not afraid of Jenny and very soon the pair are clashing as he is not slow in pointing out her wrong singing tempo or when she has over stepped the mark in her treatment of her cast and crew. Jenny finds herself perplexed by Tye's manner as she is used to getting her way in all things. She attempts to have him replaced but underneath her confident and ruthless exterior beats the heart of a woman who is alone and desperately in need of love. Her current relationship with vapid stagedoor leech Cliff Willard (Gig Young) is unfulfilling and slowly Jenny begins to realise that Tye's honest straight talk is what she is actually looking for in life. Visiting her mother (Marjorie Rambeau), Jenny happens to look through one of the old scrap books her mother has compiled about her career and in it she sees an old review written by Tye when he was a second string music reviewer. He writes in a glowing manner about Jenny's talent and likens her to a "gypsy madonna". After her cruel dismissal of his musical judgement and her action in getting Tye fired Jenny begins to realise how much she now misses him. She visits his apartment and finds that she has a rival for Tye's affections in Martha(Dorothy Patrick). Unbeknown to Jenny however Tye cannot commit to Martha as he has never actually seen her whereas he will always love Jenny as he saw her perform before he lost his sight in the war. Finding out that Tye still carries a torch for her Jenny finally realises that she has found someone to love her for the person she actually is and she goes to him and in a touching scene Dorothy exits the apartment with Jenny taking her place in the room as Tye is playing the piano. When he discovers who his audience actually is he takes Jenny in his arms and she confesses her total need for him in her otherwise empty life.

"Torch Song", gives Joan Crawford a very meaty role to sink her teeth into and it was her first full technicolour production. She dominates the proceedings from start to finish and Crawford handles the demands of playing a dancing star very well. The rehearsal scenes show an agile and capable Crawford keeping right up with veteran Charles Walters in the dance steps. With her flattering dance costumes created by MGM designer Helen Rose it can be seen that Crawford still possessed some of the best legs in the business. For her singing numbers Joan was dubbed by India Adams who performed the same service for numerous non singing actresses in musical roles. Her big production number "Two faced Woman", done in black face is amazing and in its garish colour and dated musical compostion is perfect as one of the highlights earning the film its "camp", appeal. The other performances pale into the background in front of the Crawford onslaught but Michael Wilding does a good job in the quite difficult role of Jenny's blind pianist. His handling of the characters blind status is convincing and his even playing beside the much more frantic Jenny makes a nice contrast. Also pleasing is the great chemistry between Jenny and the two characters of her mother and her black personal assistant respectively. Crawford displays an easy rapport with both actresses and in those scenes you can almost see a little extra dimension revealed in Jenny's character. The production has a handsome if slightly gaudy look to it with the bright Metro colour but the backstage atmosphere is recreated well with one very autobiographical scene inserted when Jenny greets her young fans at the stage door enquiring about their families etc. It is almost a snap shot of how Crawford related to her own real life fans on such occasions.

Campy, hilariously awful, and great nostaglia value are all labels that have a place in describing this film. It is overall great fun and shows Joan Crawford still in total command of the screen in the type of glamourous and no holds barred role that suited her to perfection. Not a great success at the time of it's release despite the publicity of Crawford returning to MGM after 10 years, it now seems to have a whole second life as a "camp", curio piece . Sit back and enjoy as Joan Crawford dominates the screen as the ruthless, domineering star of stars who finds love in the most unexpected place in MGM's "Torch Song".

This is not the great movie it was intended to be but Crawford (as in Joan) camps it up in questionable taste and the viewer is not disappointed. As usual, she plays a tough dame (not her fault) who's misunderstood (not her fault) who learns the hard way (her fault) the true meaning of love. Whew! And do we roll with the punches! Her costumes are DELUXE 50's to-die-for and her makeup so thick you'd have to crack it with an icepick. Allegedly, she had a face and breast lift before starting this picture and maybe that's why she looks so tight. But her hair color is what's really odd---ORANGE! As stage star Jenny, she cuts everyone down to chopped meat but stays loyal to her fans because they truly "love" her unconditionally. But a blind pianist ( a cowed Michael Wilding) crosses her orbit and -BOOM!- she enters a state of confusion over "is it love?" and it takes her alcoholic money-grubbing mother ( a splendid Marjorie Rambeau) to wake her up. Whew! Are we there yet? Almost. The musical numbers are WAY out there---esp. the "Two-Faced Woman" number ----in brownface!...(she was supposed to be mulatto) but dear God, what was she or anyone else THINKING? This movie is a must see and/or have for Crawford buffs. A major camp masterpiece in color and Crawford-vision. PUT THIS ON DVD NOW!...

If ever proof positive of the genius talent of Joan Crawford were needed to, say, save children from a burning building, all the fire department need do is look no further than this horrifying shambles of a movie. Yes, boys and girls, such is the strength of Crawford's performance as heartless tuneless theatre virago Jenny Stewart, that it propels this dull little movie from the lowly ranks of Pointlessness, right into the glorious lap of You Have Got To See This Right Now.

Put simply, Joan's an Atlas, carrying the combined weight of a pointless screenplay and an even more uninspiring supporting cast on her bullish, fabulous shoulders, and before God, she makes this otherwise-awful mess into an enjoyable laugh-a-minute tale of hate, love and redemption.

Swaddled in !!!GLORIOUS TECHNICOLOR!!! (honestly, there's a peignoir so !!!YELLOW!!! draped around Ms. Crawford in one of the earlier scenes that it's wont to give you shingles), Jenny Stewart begins to fall in love with her new blind piano accompanist Tye Graham (artless Michael Wilding, delivering his lines with about as much passion as a dead rock), but, since the teensy little pinprick of despair that used to be her heart won't let her have any feelings, Jenny tries her hand at reverse psychology, and does her level best to make Tye think that she, in fact, HATES him. Trotting out every single cliche from insulting his education to inferring bestiality (with his seeing-eye dog, a BULLDOG, yet! Metaphorical, perhaps?), Tye Graham, that brave little soldier, remains undeterred, and dauntlessly marches on, secure in the knowlege that one day the shrieking, glowering, generally hateful Ms. Stewart will belong to him. Brave man...

Okay, so firstly, there's nothing to write home about as regards the performances of the supporting cast, screenplay or direction. Bog-standard post-Busby-Berkley fare, and quite disjointed in places. This, lest ye be mistook, was ONLY ever going to be Joan's show, and, rather than simply chew the scenery, La Crawford merely parts her VERY BRIGHT RED LIPS and points to her mouth, and the scenery jumps down her throat all of its own accord. It's THRILLED to be along for the ride!

As should we all be.

Secondly, I can't really put into words how very wrong the use of colour is in this picture. The whole production seems to be deliberately designed in shades of off-grey and drab sludge, with the express purpose of throwing Joan Crawford's hair, makeup and de rigeur preposterous wardrobe into even higher relief. The !!!YELLOW!!! nightie is but one offender: other Gowns Of Note (And Mistake) include the Two-Faced Woman blue spangled extraveganza, and the tie-on flouncy skirt (with bejewelled waist-spikes, attached). Joan's hair colour deserves a special mention here, too: whatever Sidney Guilaroff mixed to create that flaming crown of doom, he obviously had to wear protective lens. It's not just orange, it's !!!HUGE BIG ORANGE!!! and by God, Joan's got the moxy to wear it, see?!?

However, nowhere in this all-singing, all-dancing, all-laughing catastrophe is the use of colour more pronounced (and inappropriate!!) than in the 'Two-Faced Woman' musical number. Joan does it, and she does it in blackface. When she tears off her black pageboy wig at the number's end, the shocking contrast between her chocolate-brown face paint, !!!HUGE BIG ORANGE!!! hair, bleeding red lips and (and this is my favourite part) blue forhead-sequins (no, I am not making this up!) is not just shocking: it IS how it feels when doves cry.

And finally, just to add to the despair/comedy value of the picture, India Adams' voice (Joan was dubbed: watch that clip of her "singing" a song called 'Got a feelin' for you' in the documentary on the flipside of the 'Mildred Pierce' DVD and you'll understand why this was necessary) is a hoot. Literally. Actually, not so much a Hoot as a Primal Bellow. Watch Joan !!!EMOTE!!! during the plainly dubbed rehearsal scenes and I promise you, even the Almighty Faye Dunaway screeching about wire and hatchets and box-office poison in 'Mommie Dearest' will lose some of its sparkle.

Joan Crawford is my favourite actress of all time. In 'Humoresque', 'Rain', 'Mildred Pierce', 'Possessed 1947', 'The Women', 'Grand Hotel', 'Baby Jane' and so, so many others, she's a luminous, magnetic, enthralling powerhouse of talent, and a genuine delight to watch.

In 'Torch Song', she's better than she's ever been before, but sadly, for all the wrong reasons.

And if nothing else, you HAVE to give the woman credit for beating seven shades of merry hell out of this dreadful, dreadful film.

Watch it, and laugh every ounce of water out of your body. But for heaven's sake, do it with protective goggles on.

This is a hoot- as her comeback to MGM, where she toiled since before sound was introduced, and right after winning an Oscar for "Mildred Pierce", Joan Crawford decided this was going to be her vehicle. All singing! All dancing! All swill! Never mind the conceit that the panist doesn't notice what a harridan Joan has become because he's blind (I mean really, he'd have to be in a coma, and even then..). Never mind Joan's terpsichorial attemps look sort of like she's imitating a Rockette in a body cast. Never mind the fact that she is dubbed by someone who sounds suspiciously like RuPaul. Just sit back and enjoy. Wait for the scene from her Broadway Triumph! After masterfully lip-synching to "Two-faced Woman" (Cut from an earlier MGM musical) in BLACKFACE yet, she makes the patented Joan "I just downed a quart of lemon juice" face and whips off her chocolate colored wig to reveal- An electric orange one! Not until the rocker contaning old Mrs. Bates in "Psycho" turned aroung has an unmasking been scarier!

As someone who watches all of Joan's movies on a fairly regular basis I can most certainly say that "Torch Song" is not one of my favorites. But I don't think it's fair to compare it to Joan's other movies, especially to any of the other movies that she made during this time period (the '50s) because all of her movie roles were so diverse and unique.

I enjoy "Torch Song" though because it's just so over-the-top and in-your-face. This was Joan's first really great color movie, too and the studio pulled out all of the stops for her. MGM had a huge campaign advertising their Queen and their "new" MetroColor that was used to process this film.

In "Torch Song" Joan plays Jenny Stewart, a performer who is as hard as brick. She is a woman who knows what she wants and says what she means. The movie included many impressive dance routines the final one with Joan's face painted is just too ludicrous for words, though.

Joan's co-star in the film is Michael Wilding, who plays Tye Graham, a blind pianist who helps Jenny with her comeback. Incidentally, while filming the picture Michael Wilding's wife Liz Taylor walked onto the set and passed right by Joan without saying a peep to her. Of course Joan was very offended and hurt by this snub. And Joan made sure she let the head of MGM know that this disrespectful girl will never enter her set again without saying something. The following day Elizabeth Taylor had the decency to speak to Miss Crawford.

Joan loved "Torch Song" because it gave her a chance to do so many different things and play a character that was so different for her. Once speaking about this project, she said, "I loved doing this film. It gave me a chance to dance, to pretend to sing, to emote all over the place, and in color, yet."

There is not a stand-alone copy of "Torch Song" on DVD. Instead, you can get this with Joan's second boxed set , which also includes audio of Joan rehearsing for the film. The movie is also shown on TCM at least a few times a year, too.

And here it is more than 50 years later and this film is still loved by fans the world over. That is because Joan, in all of her movie roles, no matter what type of charter she portrayed was always so universally identifiable. She personified the American dream.

**This review is for the 2008 DVD released as part of the set, The Joan Crawford Collection, Vol. 2 (A Woman's Face / Flamingo Road / Sadie McKee / Strange Cargo / Torch Song).**

Surely, the Joan Crawford in this laughably over-the-top 1953 melodrama must have been Faye Dunaway's direct inspiration for her lacerating impersonation of the screen legend in Mommie Dearest. The garishly Technicolor film marked Crawford's highly trumpeted return to MGM after she was unceremoniously pushed out in the early 1940's only to make a comeback at Warner Brothers in a series of meaty roles in classic films like Mildred Pierce and Humoresque and prove she had the chops to handle older roles. It's too bad this is such a silly vehicle because Crawford, hovering around fifty at that point in her career, seems determined to make something substantial out of it. With her hair a flaming orange and her face severely tightened, she plays a disagreeably vainglorious Broadway diva named Jenny Stewart, a musical comedy star that seems to have all of Margo Channing's insecurity but little of her scathing wit. Instead, Crawford is made to snarl the lines in John Michael Hayes and Jan Lustig's limp screenplay without any noticeable irony.

Everyone kowtows to Jenny and cowers when she has her frequent outbursts, everyone except Tye Graham, a blind pianist hired to be her accompanist. Of course, they will inevitably fall in love, but this absurdity occurs almost in a vacuum since director Charles Walters seems more interested in showing Jenny as a raging harpy when she isn't acting pitiable in the privacy of her bedroom. For an MGM production, the movie looks surprisingly budget conscious and contains only one fully-costumed production number, the amazingly offensive and badly choreographed "Two-Faced Woman" which Crawford and a chorus of dancers perform in blackface (!). It has to be seen to be believed. Crawford's singing voice is dubbed by an emphatic singer named India Adams, not the worst offense at the time since such lip-syncing was pervasive. As a dancer, Crawford likes to show off her still-impressive gams, but her moves are so slow and deliberately minimized that Carol Burnett's years-later parody looks all the more accomplished by comparison.

Michael Wilding simply looks embarrassed as Tye, especially in the final wrap-up scene that requires him to have an excessive tantrum, and an extremely disengaged Gig Young is wasted (and looks wasted) as a sycophantic drunk leeching off Jenny. The one scene that works is between Jenny and her beer-guzzling mother, played with unapologetic relish by Marjorie Rambeau. They actually seem related. The 2008 DVD contains several extras - a 14-minute retrospective featurette called "Tough Baby: Torch Song", a PSA for the Jimmy Fund featuring Crawford at home with her subservient children, an audio clip of her recording session (apparently done before the decision was made to dub her voice), a vintage MGM cartoon and short, and the original theatrical trailer. It's just not good enough to be considered a camp classic, but there are moments that truly defy logic.

Joan's at her bitchy best in this one. She's a famous Broadway diva who yells at her co-star and gripes at her director, but takes the time to sign autographs for all the bored housewives hanging around the stage door, most of whom she seems to know personally ("How's your mother, dear?"). When her accompanist finally has enough and quits, blind Michael Wilding takes his place and drives Joan crazy by being unable to admire her fabulous "beauty" like everyone else does (by the time she was in her fifties, as she is here, lantern-jawed, huge-eyebrowed Joan looked like an unsuccessful drag queen).

Soon, against her will, Joan finds herself falling in love with her new accompanist (when she's not yelling at him or telling him to "find a nice seeing eye girl"). Seems he's the one man in the world who doesn't knuckle under to her, and she likes that. She's also feeling that the life of a rich, famous Broadway star who wears a new haute couture outfit every day is, after all, an empty one. Wouldn't it be nice to settle down and just be some ordinary man's wife? After all, that's the very bestest thing any woman can be. But will Michael want to play house with her?

Fabulously campy film, with Joan in full, blaring technicolor for the first time, lip-syncing to leftover MGM songs dubbed in by smoky-voiced India Adams. A can't-miss flick.

Unintentionally hilarious film with Crawford as the great Jenny who finds truth in a blind man's love for her.

The real fun strats at the strat when Joan tells her parftner in a really clop clop dance routine that she will NOT move her leg and "spoil that line??"

Ther is the famous Two- Faced Woman number with Joan in black face that stuns even after many viewings. How did Joan get the nerve to do it? It was done by Cyd Charissse and cut from a film she made of it and as great as Cyd is, Joan's is more arresting, and of course crazy. What can equal this in musical film history? Maybe Lost Horizon (1973)??

Many great lines and lots of Joan being mean to everyone in her path.

Michael Wilding is way off the beam but who cares. Joan is all in all. Buy it wherever you can.

Jenny Stewart (Joan Crawford) is a tough Broadway musical star who doesn't take criticism from anyone. Yet there is one individual, Tye Graham (Michael Wilding), a blind pianist who may be able to break through her tough exterior. Joan puts the "C" in CAMP with one of her most outrageous performances ever! With flaming "orange" hair (yes ORANGE hair!) she's once again the tough broad that love's done wrong. The "camp" meter goes from low to over-the-top with the "Two Faced Woman" musical number, which has Joan in "brown face" and some really ridiculous routines! Thanks to a close friend, I finally got to see this Joan Crawford "camp" classic! Loads of fun! Joan's "Torch Song" belongs on every "Camp Collector's" DVD library shelf and is long overdue for a proper DVD release! Viva la Joan!

**UPDATE!** "Torch Song" is now on DVD in "The Joan Crawford Collection Volume 2" Hooray!! And all of you "Joan Crawford" fans, PLEASE DON'T MISS! Joan in "Daisy Kenyon" which is FINALLY on DVD!! and is part of the Fox Film Noir DVD series! And to all Joan Crawford fans and die-hards keep requesting MORE of Joan's movies to be released on DVD, these titles prove that the studios ARE listening!!

This is a supremely enjoyable Joan Crawford vehicle -- she's hard as nails, in all-too-rare MGM color. It's a camp classic. Once it's released on DVD, snatch it up!