Blondes at Work (1938)

Director:

Frank McDonald

Writer:

Albert DeMond (original screenplay)

Release Date:

5 February 1938 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Mystery | Romance

Tagline:

Torch Blane always gets her man...in trouble (original poster)

Plot:

Marvin Spencer, of the Bon Ton Department Stores, is missing, and Torchy knows how to find him. When she does...

Plot Keywords:

Headline | Department Store | Police | Trial | Scoop

Cast

  (Cast overview, first billed only)

Glenda Farrell	...	Torchy Blane
Barton MacLane	...	Lt. Steve McBride
Tom Kennedy	...	Gahagan
Rosella Towne	...	Louisa Revelle
Donald Briggs	...	Maitland Greer
John Ridgely	...	Police Officer Regan
Betty Compson	...	Blanche Revelle
Thomas E. Jackson	...	Det. Parker
Frank Shannon	...	Capt. McTavish
Jean Benedict	...	Miss Hilton - Salesgirl
Carole Landis	...	Carol
Suzanne Kaaren	...	Olive
Theodore von Eltz	...	District Attorney (as Theodor Von Eltz)
Charles Richman	...	Judge Wilson
Robert Middlemass	...	Boylan - Editor

Runtime:

63 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

USA:Passed (National Board of Review) | USA:TV-G (TV rating) | USA:Approved (PCA #3792) (original rating)

Company:

Warner Bros. Pictures

Trivia:

Several cast members in studio records/casting call lists did not appear or were not identifiable in the movie. These were (with their character names): David Newell (Bridegroom), Minerva Urecal (Fashion Editor), Jack Mower (Sergeant) and Loia Cheaney (Operator)

Movie Connections:

Follows Smart Blonde (1937)

Soundtrack:

Untitled

Scooped!

**SPOILERS** Coming up with scoop after scoop for her newspaper The Star hot-shot woman reporter Torchy Blane, Glenda Ferrell, is told by her boyfriend and fiancée Police Let. Steve McBride, Barton MacLane, to lay off the latest murder case that he's handling. As it turned out the murder victim department store tycoon Martin Spencer, Kenneth Harlan, was seen by Torchy being escorted into a cab by his friend Maitland Greer, Donald Briggs, just moments before he was found dead, in his room at the Park Plaza Hotel, from a stab wound.

With Torchy's latest scoop, Spencer's murder, hitting the front pages Steve's boss Capt. McTavish, Frank Shannon, orders him to keep away from Torchy, suspecting that he's providing her with secret police information, or else he'll end up pounding a beat in Staten Island. We soon realize that Capt. McTavish isn't really playing cricket in his concern about Torchy getting her hands on top secret police matters. Capt. McTavish is secretly working for Torchy's rival newspaper-The Daily Express-who frustrated editor-in him always being out-scooped by Torchy-Boyland, Robert Middlemass, want's him to cut off Torchy's access to top secret police investigation files.

With Greer, who was last seen with him alive, arrested in Spencers murder it looks like an open and shut case for the D.A's office and jury with Torchy, who somehow knows better, being the only dissenter! Getting the drop on the Greer murder jury, by listening in from a nearby supply closet, Torchy out maneuvers both Capt. McTavish and the Daily Express into thinking that the jury verdict is going to be innocent.

***SPOILERS*** To both Capt. McTavish and the Daily Express' surprise Greer is in fact found guilty in Spencers murder which has the newspaper's editor Boylan ending up with egg on his face in his jumping the gun on a breaking story that he never really had the facts for. And at the same time Torchy ends up behind bars for contempt in her manipulating, by planting false facts, the Greer verdict in order t screw-The Daily Express-her competition. As things soon turned out Torchy was in fact right in feeling that Greer was innocent, Spencer's killer later confessed, but by being behind bars she didn't have the time to write the story and have it make the front pages. It's there where Steve McBride came to Torchy's rescue in, after having Torchy released from jail, filing the story for her and at the same time giving Torchy all the credit!