Hellen I like the storyline of this show,it attract me so much

Robert Joyner The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

Rosie Searle It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Deanna There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

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.

secondtake Torch Singer (1933)A hobbled movie if you expect something naturalistic and moving, but Claudette Colbert is so convincing and terrific she almost compensates. A Depression-era tale of an affair that produced a baby, and then the mother having to struggle alone trying and failing to raise it. It takes off from there, as Colbert as the mother makes good with her life in other ways. The baby of course is still in the back of her mind, and causes a couple of dramatic twists later on.The plot is a huge contrivance, and so you have to jump in and see it as a kind of morality tale, packaged a little too neatly and with some comic and tragic episodes almost too forcefully inserted. It's all interesting and fun, though, and Colbert really is a versatile and heartfelt actress here. The one thing she may not do so well for modern audiences is sing so well, and as the title suggests, this is a key part of the middle of the movie. The orchestras are great, and the parade of side characters rather convincing as we go along, however. The sudden reappearance of the father, and the rather neat coincidences that follow, were way too much for me to swallow, however, especially the patched-on ten second last scene, which could have at least had some honest drama to it. You'll see.It's probably the ending most people wanted to see, however, and a justification of what had happened earlier (all of which is a kind of taboo just a year later when the Hays Code would have made an out-of-wedlock birth a more serious offense). I think it's handled here in a believable way, however, at first, so thank goodness it was finished before the artifice of the later 1930s took over these kinds of themes. The movie also has some nice (if neatly packaged) insights to the crude beginnings of commercial radio, which was always live, and which amounted to some people standing in front of a microphone. This was much like television was in its first years after WWII, with live broadcasts the necessity. And Colbert sings her own songs in this movie, for better or for worse. A total period effort, in tone and in content.

lugonian TORCH SINGER (Paramount, 1933), directed by Alexander Hall and George Somnes, from the story, "Mike" by Grace Perkins, gives indication as a musical drama starring torch singer Helen Morgan, but, while Morgan, best known for her early work in Rouben Mamoulian's APPLAUSE (Paramount, 1929), might have stepped into this particular role with conviction, especially when songs are concerned, the leading role went to none-other than Claudette Colbert, with screen personality most associated with comedy than singing. The finished product, however, is not so much a musical, in spite of songs thrown in, but a Depression era theme of a poor woman's rise to success, unable to forget her past concerning that special someone she hopes to meet again.Following the opening credits with titles over blazing fire, this hot item begins with Sally Trent (Claudette Colbert), a show girl by profession, arriving at St. Ann's Hospital, registering as a free clinic patient, where she soon gives birth to her illegitimate daughter. While there, she befriends Dora (Lyda Roberti), a young Bronx widow who gives birth to a little boy, Bobby. Upon their release, the two mothers help each other by sharing an apartment together and watching each other's babies while looking for work. With Dora finding a new husband after losing her job, Sally struggles on her own after landlady evicts her for non payment of rent. Unable to care for Little Sally, she comes to the rich aunt (Ethel Griffies) of the man who fathered her child for help, but is refused. Sally makes the supreme sacrifice by giving up her child to the sisters of St. Ann's Hospital, with the condition that she'll never see her daughter, again. The next few years finds Sally, now known professionally as Mimi Benton, torch singing in restaurants and night clubs before being discovered by Tony Cummings (Ricardo Cortez), who arranges her new career singing on radio for Andrew Judson's (Charley Grapewin) Pure Food Broadcast. Mimi soon finds further success hosting as Aunt Jennie on a children's radio program telling bedtime stories. In spite of her fame and fortune, and fan letters from children, Sally, a/k/a Mimi, starts yearning for her daughter, using her radio broadcast to regain custody of her, while the father of her child, Michael Gardner (David Manners), who had been away in China during her pregnancy, makes every effort to find her.The supporting players consists of Florence Roberts (Mother Angelica); Mildred Washington (Carrie, the maid); Virginia Hammond (Mrs. Julia Judson); Helen Jerome Eddy (Miss Spaulding); William B. Davidson and Toby Wing in smaller roles. Ricardo Cortez, noted for playing heals or villains, is surprisingly effective as a loyal friend for a change, while David Manners, usually the good guy, as a rich young lad unaware of his child's existence. Appearing 40 minutes into the start of story, Manners is given little to do in the process, as with Lyda Roberti, whose character disappears shortly before the plot gets underway.In a role that might have dramatically suited Paramount's own drama queens as Sylvia Sidney or Tallulah Bankhead, TORCH SINGER is made credible by the casting of Colbert, shortly before reaching super star status in 1934, vocalizing such tunes as: "Here Lies Love," "I'm Waiting For You," "Give Me Liberty or Give Me Love," "Sail, Baby, Sail," "You Can Depend on Me" and the reprise of "Give Me Liberty or Give Me Love." For her introduction during the opening minutes in the hospital, she comes close to becoming recognizable without makeup, especially during her moments of labor pain.When this long unseen drama was selected as part of Turner Classic Movie's spotlight on "Complicated Women" broadcast May 13, 2003, host Robert Osborne, during his after movie profile, mistakenly gave credit to Baby LeRoy as Colbert's long lost son (an error commonly found in other related sources), instead of rightfully naming those who played her daughter, Shirley Christensen (the baby), and Cora Sue Collins (the child). Not broadcast since its TCM premiere, TORCH SINGER was brought back in circulation again when distributed on DVD in 2009 by MCA Universal.With TORCH SINGER being one of the many prime examples on how unwed mothers are portrayed during Hollywood's pre-code era, and this being Colbert's preparation for another self sacrificing mother role in IMITATION OF LIFE (Universal, 1934), the movie itself is basically weakened by unbelievable circumstances taking place after such a fine start. Regardless of its flaws, TORCH SINGER is a worthy rediscovery. (**)

HarlowMGM TORCH SINGER is from 1933 and stars Claudette Colbert just before she broke into superstardom in 1934 with three landmark motion pictures IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT, CLEOPATRA, and IMITATION OF LIFE. This film has, until recently, been seldom seen compared to her later films but this is an emotion-packed, beautifully acted film.I've always considered Claudette Colbert one of the two or three greatest actresses from the golden era of Hollywood and even this early in her career, she was flawless. Colbert stars as a chorus girl whose wealthy playboy of a boyfriend David Manners impulsively skips the country on her, unaware he is leaving her with child. Destitute, Colbert regretfully signs away her rights to the child at the Catholic charity hospital which apparently is affiliated with an orphanage. Now "free" of motherhood, Colbert climbs to metropolitan stardom as a torch singer in nightclubs, earning a bit of infamy as a playgirl via the press. At the radio station managed by her quasi-beau Ricardo Cortez, she stumbles upon a young woman set to star in a new children's show as "Aunt Jenny" who has a bout of enormous mike-fright who panics just before the broadcast. As a lark, Claudette steps up to the mike and wings it, beautifully ad-libbing her way through the fifteen minutes. Claudette as Aunt Jenny is a sensation, bringing in stacks of fan mail from children and high ratings. Initially bemused by her celebrity, she suddenly sobers when she realizes the show may be a means of reuniting with her now five-year-old daughter. And as it happens, her old boyfriend David Manners is back in town, determined to find the girlfriend he left behind.Although packaged in a "pre-code" DVD set, this movie isn't about sex, it's simply a blunt look at one unwed mother's life. It's a soap opera/"women's picture", and an extraordinary one. Other than Manners' cold aunt, there really are no villains here, just flawed people who make mistakes, just like real life. The whole cast is wonderful. I've never seen David Manners more appealing, nor Ricardo Cortez, who plays an atypically mild-mannered role. Lyda Roberti is a hoot as a young widow who befriends Claudette early in the film and there is nice work by a character actress as the compassionate Mother Superior who is in charge of admissions. The kids are adorable in this movie! Baby Leroy is Roberti's child and the little girl who plays Claudette's daughter Sally looks amazingly like one would think a baby of Claudette's would. There's also an enchanting scene in which Claudette meets with one young fan whom she hopes is her daughter who turns out to be a African-American child.I've been a Claudette Colbert fan for decades but have never seen this movie until this year. TORCH SINGER immediately goes on to my list of favorite Colbert films. There's not another actress from her era who could have so beautifully played this young woman so well, from her frightened abandonment to her devastating poverty to her sardonic partying to her bitter reunion with her ex-lover to her loving interaction with the children, Claudette is true and honest every moment and thoroughly believable. Many an Oscar has been given to much less impressive performances. TORCH SINGER is one of the best soap opera films ever made and that's largely due to Claudette Colbert's bravura performance.