touser2004 Excellent performance by Colbert who plays the part of a naive chorus girl who gets pregnant .Unable to provide for her daughter she has no choice but to give her up for adoption. Within a year her fortunes change and she becomes a very successful Torch Singer but is now a cynical soul who hides her softer side . After doing a good turn she lands the part of a children's radio presenter but this reminds her of the loss of her daughter.Knowing she is now wealthy enough to provide for her daughter ,she embarks on a plan to find her. Colbert plays the different emotions of her character with great skill ,changing from the happy go lucky prankster (when taking over the mike at the radio station),then the bitter ex girlfriend,and finally ,to the despairing mother who feels she will never see her daughter again. It was clever how she tried to track down her daughter using the radio show but the film failed to develop any strong attraction between Sally and Mike which made the ending unsatisfactory. Even a small speech by Sally confessing she had always loved him would have improved the film appreciably. This film more than any other,highlights the true versatility of one of Holywoods great actresses.

evanston_dad Claudette Colbert sizzles in this "women's film" about a girl gone bad who's forced to give her illegitimate baby up for adoption and then sets out to find her years later after she's become a famous nightclub singer.This is melodrama good and proper, folks, so be prepared to suspend your disbelief if you're going to have a chance at enjoying it. But if you give in, you might just find what I found in this film, a sexy, sometimes funny, sometimes truly affecting story about a mother's love with an absolutely sensational actress making sure you buy it hook, line and sinker. Colbert is marvelous, and I couldn't take my eyes off of her whenever she's on the screen, which fortunately is most of the time.Grade: B+

bkoganbing For only a 72 minute movie Torch Singer packs quite a lot into the film with Claudette Colbert playing the starring role of an unwed mother who is forced to give up her daughter as she can't locate the baby's father David Manners and his rich family won't give her the time of day. She supports herself by becoming a nightclub singer and according to a recent biography of Claudette Colbert she actually sung her own numbers which were written by songwriting team of Leo Robin and Ralph Rainger for the film. Claudette's scenes with her child, her prospective in-laws and with the nuns running the adoption facility are heartbreaking and touching on melodrama.A case of 'mike fright' scares off the prospective host of a children's radio program and sultry torch singer Claudette substitutes as the story lady who sings lullabies and tells fairy tales. Which gives her a day time career as well as a nighttime one as long as she can keep the secret. In the meantime the show affects her and decides to seek her child.Claudette proves to have a nice style as a singer much as Susan Hayward did when played Lillian Roth in I'll Cry Tomorrow. And she treads on Barbara Stanwyck territory as a woman made hard by the circumstances of her life. Ricardo Cortez who after the silent screen days ended where he played Latin lovers as a poor man's Rudolph Valentino, in sound either played smart alecks or downright heels. I was fully expecting him to be a heel in this film, but he turns out to be a nice guy as a radio executive who sympathizes with Colbert and her situation.Lyda Roberti also makes an appearance here playing a fellow unwed mother who rooms with Colbert for a while. Her character has all too little time in Torch Singer, I wish we saw more of her.Claudette Colbert whose career in 1933 was really beginning to take off moved a bit higher with this film. It holds up very well for today's audience.

A2ZJerry The soap suds reach almost to the ceiling in "Torch Singer" but that's part of the fun. Claudette Colbert and the rest of the excellent cast have a grand old time as they work their way through the somewhat rusty plot. Colbert sings a couple of songs and wears some smashing gowns as she portrays a chorus girl with a heart of gold who's forced to give up her baby daughter and become a torch singer to earn a living in Depression-era New York. In no time at all she's the toast of the town, with a fancy apartment, a maid, and a boy friend who's a big radio executive. She covers up her need for her daughter by drinking, dancing and carrying on, and does it ever look like fun. But it all works out in the end, and with only minutes to spare.Look for Lyda Roberti, the Polish bombshell in the first part of the movie as Colbert's friend and roommate. Roberti died tragically young, with only a few films to her credit, notably "The Kid From Spain " and "Million Dollar Legs," in which she played Mata Machree, The Woman No Man Can Resist. "Torch Singer" is kind of tame for a pre-Code feature but it's fun and well worth watching.