Torchy Blane in Panama (Warner Bros.) (1938)

HIDE THE CANAL, BOYS!... TORCHY JUST BLEW INTO PANAMA! And it’s a brand new Torchy Blane who gives Uncle Sam a headache in the / Canal Zone...and her boy friend a pain in the neck! with _/ LOLA LANE ~ PAUL KELLY Directed by WILLIAM CLEMENS A First National Picture Presented by WARNER BROS. --er r= Pa ~ ~ This 3-Col. Mat No. 301 o are 267 lines—45c A a TORCHY > Also available in 2-Col. Size Mat No. 207—120 lines—30c o Screen Play by George Bricker oe es ee a Vitagraph, Inc. From the Story by Anthony Coldeway Based upon the characters created by Frederick Nebel At all Vitagraph Exchanges New ‘Torchy’ Film Coming To Strand With Lola Lane (Advance ) Familiar Panama Scenes Duplicated on Studio Lot Extra! Extra! Big Bank Hold-Up! Oddest bank stickup ever staged, in which the fleeing bandit successfully utilized a Virtually an entirely new east of principals is the frosting on the very tasty cake of entertainment represented by “Torchy Blane in Panama,” which will be offered to the public Friday by the Strand Theatre. In this, the fifth picture of the Warner Bros.’ series about the exploits of the breezy, selfreliant girl reporter who always gets everything but her man, the attractive and smartly tailored Lola Lane replaces The ‘script said sock Paul Kelly with all her force and so Lola Lane did. Result, Kelly was treated in Warner Bros.’ studio hospital for a lip that was _ split clear through by the girl star’s fist and for inner lip cuts caused by the _ actor’s teeth. Miss Lane was playing the title character in “Torchy Blane in Panama.” Kelly was playing opposite her. In the scene, she was supposed to hit Kelly in fun because he bragged he could dodge any punch he could throw at her. When the actress actually connected, Kelly, unfortunately, was dodging the wrong way! Glenda Farrell as the heroine, and Paul Kelly, hard-boiled and yet suave, takes the place of Barton MacLane as Detective Lt. Steve McBride, who has accompanied Torchy into many dangerous places—but not as yet, into the matrimonial noose. Other important newcomers to the cast are two handsome young men, both making their debuts as motion picture actors, who are regarded by the studio as the two most promising youngsters placed under contract within the past couple of years. They are Anthony Averill, who makes a romanticlooking villain in the role of Stanley Crafton, the bank bandit whom Torchy trails to Panama, and Larry Williams, who plays Bill Canby, Torchy’s reportorial rival. The only important link with the old casts is that reliable comedian, Tom Kennedy, again playing Gahagan, the big, dullwitted cop who serves Steve as chauffeur and generally unreliable stooge. It was certainly not because the public was in any way dissatisfied with the principals in the previous Torchy pictures that the cast was changed—the success of those pictures is proof enough of that. The studio was merely following a _ well-established axiom of showmanship in introducing new faces and new personalities—the idea being to give freshness to characterizations to prevent them from becoming stereotyped. Though the cast is new, the pattern of the latest of the Torchy series is the reliable one followed in all its predecessors —stimulating, fast-moving alternation of melodramatic excitement and uproarious amusement. As indicated by the title, “Torchy Blane in Panama” has a new and colorful locale. The direction by William Clemens extracts full value from the hair-raising and ribtickling incidents that pack the screen play which George Bricker fashioned from the original story authored by Anthony Coldeway. passing lodge parade to obscure his trail, was filmed in “Torchy Blane in Panama,” which comes to the Strand Theatre next Friday. Anthony Averill, as the bandit, timed his raid to occur when the members of the Loyal Order of Leopards, in convention assembled, were passing the bank. He then made his escape in the crowd while the Leopards milled about in great confusion. Even a U. S. Army engineer would be hard put to it to decide where the real Panama Canal merges with the studiocreated one in the Warner Bros. picture, “Torchy Blane in Panama,” which comes to the Strand Theatre next Friday. The reason, of course, is that the studio went to extravagant lengths to duplicate the Canal, the Gatun Locks and lake for those shots which had to be taken at the studio rather than TORCHY CHUTES THE WORKS! A parachute jump is all in the day’s work for that snappy, snoopy news sleuth, Torchy Blane, now played by Lola Lane in “Torchy Blane in Panama,” coming to the Strand. Mat 201—30c on the Panama location. No effort to obtain accuracy in every detail was spared, for the very good reason that the Canal is known to so many Americans who annually visit it on tour. Chances of fault-finding simply could not be taken. Not alone, however, were Canal settings duplicated. Streets, stores and dwellings in the native quarters of Colon and Panama were required as settings. In some cases, the “Torchy” company on location in Panama with Lola Lane, Paul Kelly, Anthony Averill, Tom Kennedy and Betty Compson could make use of the actual scenes and surroundings. But for other sequences, settings had to be duplicated on the studio lot. One touch, in particular, appealed to Lola Lane. When in Panama, sightseeing one day with an eye out to find the odd and unusual, Miss Lane spotted a watering trough in the side of an adobe dwelling. “That,” she said, “would be something to tumble into when I’m standing on a second story ledge and trying to overhear what the plotters inside the house are saying.” So it was agreed. And written into the script, too. Miss Lane, playing Torchy Blane, the adventurous girl reporter who pursues a bank bandit to Panama in the hope of unmasking him and getting a scoop for her New York paper, was to take such a fall as she envisioned. And, lo, when she got back to Hollywood, there stood the house and the watering trough. So there was nothing for her to do except to tumble into it.