Misfortunes of Imaginary Beings: 02/09/25

A blog formerly known as Bookishness / By Charles Matthews

"Dazzled by so many and such marvelous inventions, the people of Macondo ... became indignant over the living images that the prosperous merchant Bruno Crespi projected in the theater with the lion-head ticket windows, for a character who had died and was buried in one film and for whose misfortune tears had been shed would reappear alive and transformed into an Arab in the next one. The audience, who had paid two cents apiece to share the difficulties of the actors, would not tolerate that outlandish fraud and they broke up the seats. The mayor, at the urging of Bruno Crespi, explained in a proclamation that the cinema was a machine of illusions that did not merit the emotional outbursts of the audience. With that discouraging explanation many ... decided not to return to the movies, considering that they already had too many troubles of their own to weep over the acted-out misfortunes of imaginary beings."
--Gabriel García Márquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude

Sunday, February 9, 2025

Torch Singer (Alexander Hall, George Somnes, 1933)

Cast: Claudette Colbert, Ricardo Cortez, David Manners, Lyda Roberti, Baby LeRoy, Charley Grapewin, Sam Godfrey, Florence Roberts, Virginia Hammond, Mildred Washington, Cora Sue Collins, Helen Jerome Eddy, Albert Conti, Ethel Griffies. Screenplay: Lenore J. Coffee, Lynn Starling, based on a story by Grace Perkins. Cinematography: Karl Struss. Costume design: Travis Banton. Film editing: Eda Warren. Music: Ralph Rainger.

Claudette Colbert displays a contralto singing voice athrob with vibrato in Torch Singer. She also runs the gamut from suffering unwed mother forced to put her infant daughter up for adoption to hard-bitten nightclub singer who sins her way to success. It's not a great performance either vocally or dramatically -- Colbert seems to be channeling Mae West's attitudes and mannerisms -- but it's fun to watch. The plot hinges on whether she will reunite not only with her daughter but also with the man who done her wrong. What do you think?