Love classic film. Love musicals (or sort of a semi-musical in 'Torch Song's' case). Consider Joan Crawford a great actress, who gave a lot of great, and more in many cases, in a number of good and more films, 'Mildred Pierce' springs to mind. There was talent in the cast and Charles Walters was a more than capable director.
So 'Torch Song' could have been a recipe for success. Despite its not particularly good, to put it lightly, reputation, actually wanted to like it. Sadly, what could and should have been a success instead turned out to be a misconceived and "to be seen to be believed" misfire of fairly big proportions. Have certainly seen far worse films, recently and ever, of the genre and of the golden/classic era, but 'Torch Song' is down there as one of the weirdest, most bizarre, most uncomfortably camp and most overblown films seen recently, of the 50s and overall.
Certainly there are a few salvageable elements. Parts are nicely shot and there is some nice use of colour that are like their own characters. Walters directs ably considering what he had to work with.
Also thought that the supporting cast, with one exception, were pretty good. Michael Wilding underplays beautifully as the most, and only for that matter, sympathetic character in the whole film, while Marjorie Rambeau gives it her all. Walters himself makes a nice brief appearances.
On the other hand, 'Torch Song' has a lot of faults. One of its biggest faults, sad to say, is a too old Crawford overacting to a wild and quite dreadful degree, quite possibly a career worst in one of her worst films. The supporting cast exception is Gig Young, his role is pointless and he never was this much of a jerk or this colourless. The characters are cliché ridden in a film that piles clichés on whenever it possibly can, only Wilding's being halfway likeable, and mostly the film looks over-saturated and artificial.
The songs are forgettable, blandly staged and awkwardly danced. The singing is okay but the dubbing for Crawford is obvious. The exception to the forgettable songs/musical numbers being forgettable is "Two Faced Woman", not for the song itself but for the staging which makes one cringe and feel uncomfortable for obvious reasons and is difficult to take seriously.
Furthermore, the script is ridiculously hammy, some real howlers here, and provides laughter and chortles for all the wrong reasons. The barely existent story plods badly, with an atmosphere that has campy and overblown all over it, giving off a bizarre-ness that most likely was not intended. The ending was not buyable for a second, very contrived, too pat and like the rest of the film didn't happen with character behaviours really not making sense.
In conclusion, not a complete mess but didn't work for me. 4/10 Bethany Cox
So 'Torch Song' could have been a recipe for success. Despite its not particularly good, to put it lightly, reputation, actually wanted to like it. Sadly, what could and should have been a success instead turned out to be a misconceived and "to be seen to be believed" misfire of fairly big proportions. Have certainly seen far worse films, recently and ever, of the genre and of the golden/classic era, but 'Torch Song' is down there as one of the weirdest, most bizarre, most uncomfortably camp and most overblown films seen recently, of the 50s and overall.
Certainly there are a few salvageable elements. Parts are nicely shot and there is some nice use of colour that are like their own characters. Walters directs ably considering what he had to work with.
Also thought that the supporting cast, with one exception, were pretty good. Michael Wilding underplays beautifully as the most, and only for that matter, sympathetic character in the whole film, while Marjorie Rambeau gives it her all. Walters himself makes a nice brief appearances.
On the other hand, 'Torch Song' has a lot of faults. One of its biggest faults, sad to say, is a too old Crawford overacting to a wild and quite dreadful degree, quite possibly a career worst in one of her worst films. The supporting cast exception is Gig Young, his role is pointless and he never was this much of a jerk or this colourless. The characters are cliché ridden in a film that piles clichés on whenever it possibly can, only Wilding's being halfway likeable, and mostly the film looks over-saturated and artificial.
The songs are forgettable, blandly staged and awkwardly danced. The singing is okay but the dubbing for Crawford is obvious. The exception to the forgettable songs/musical numbers being forgettable is "Two Faced Woman", not for the song itself but for the staging which makes one cringe and feel uncomfortable for obvious reasons and is difficult to take seriously.
Furthermore, the script is ridiculously hammy, some real howlers here, and provides laughter and chortles for all the wrong reasons. The barely existent story plods badly, with an atmosphere that has campy and overblown all over it, giving off a bizarre-ness that most likely was not intended. The ending was not buyable for a second, very contrived, too pat and like the rest of the film didn't happen with character behaviours really not making sense.
In conclusion, not a complete mess but didn't work for me. 4/10 Bethany Cox