Torchy Blane in Chinatown

Torchy Blane in Chinatown

Theatrical release poster
Directed by William Beaudine
Produced by Hal B. Wallis
Jack L. Warner
Written by Frederick Nebel
Murray Leinster
Screenplay by George Bricker
Starring Glenda Farrell
Barton MacLane
Music by Howard Jackson
Cinematography Warren Lynch
Edited by Frederick Richards
Production
company
Release dates
  • February 4, 1939 (1939-02-04)
Running time
 58 minutes
Country United States
Language English

Torchy Blane in Chinatown is a 1939 American crime mystery film directed by William Beaudine. The film stars Glenda Farrell and Barton MacLane.[1][2][3] It was released on February 4, 1939. This is the seventh film in the "Torchy Blane" movie series by Warner Bros. The rivalry between newspaper reporter Torchy Blane and her boyfriend lieutenant Steve McBride, escalates as the two investigate a death threat involving priceless jade tablets.

Plot

On behalf of Senator Baldwin (Henry O'Neill) the owner of the world's largest Chinese jade collection, detective Steve McBride (Barton MacLane) investigate a death threat involving the priceless jade tablets that were brought to the United States by three adventurers, who is now on the hit list of an oriental gang. A note written in Chinese warns the impending doom at midnight unless a ransom is paid for the valuable jades, which have been stolen. Steve is put on the case to protect the people who were involved in smuggling the jades into the country.

That night, Torchy Blane (Glenda Farrell) joins Steve at the Adventurers club where he and his assistant, Gahagan (Tom Kennedy) are guarding the threatened victims, Fitzhugh, Mr. Mansfield (James Stephenson) and Captain Condon (Patric Knowles). Once midnight is passed, they leave, but Fitzhugh is machine-gunned in his car and killed. A note found in the car warns that Mansfield will be the next to die. He is later found dead after smoking a poisoned cigarette, and his body vanishes mysteriously before the coroner arrives at the crime scene.

Senator Baldwin's daughter Janet Baldwin and her fiancé Dick Staunton, is ordered by the mysterious killer to deliver the $250,000 ransom to the last buoy in the New York city harbor. Torchy discovered that Fitzhugh's fingerprints and those of the body in the morgue do not match. She joins Steve in a US Navy submarine as Dick rides out to pay the ransom. At the appointed place, Torchy and Steve surface in the submarine, just in time to save Dick and prove that the murders were all part of an elaborate plot by Fitzhugh, Mansfield, and Condon to extort money from Senator Baldwin.

Cast

Torchy Blane series

Home media

Warner Archive released a boxed set DVD collection featuring all nine Torchy Blane films on March 29, 2011.[4]

References

  1. ↑ "Torchy Blane in Chinatown (1938)". All Movie. Retrieved September 30, 2016.
  2. ↑ "Torchy Blane in Chinatown (1939)". British Film Institute. Retrieved February 22, 2016.
  3. ↑ "MOVIE REVIEW: Robert Sherwood's 'Idiot's Delight' Opens at Capitol --'Torchy Blane in Chinatown' Offered at Palace". The New York Times. February 3, 1939. Retrieved February 26, 2016.
  4. ↑ KEHR, DAVE (May 7, 2010). "The Torchy Blane Collection". The New York Times. Retrieved October 1, 2016.
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