Tonight's Movie: Fly Away Baby (1937)

A month ago I watched SMART BLONDE (1937), the first film in the Warner Bros. Torchy Blane series starring Glenda Farrell and Barton MacLane.

I've now watched the second movie, FLY AWAY BABY (1937), which I found equally enjoyable.

The film begins as police detective Steve (MacLane) stands up reporter Torchy (Farrell) at the marriage license bureau due to investigating a murder case.

Torchy isn't particularly upset, as she's equally interested in murder cases, and we're off and running on a case involving murder, diamond smuggling, and an around-the-world race, culminating in Torchy and Steve solving the murder while on a Europe-to-U.S. zeppelin trip.

At the end Steve and Torchy are on the way to get a marriage license...but this time Torchy has to stop off first and check out a story!

There's nothing especially noteworthy about the series, other than Farrell's energetic performance as Torchy, but I've liked both films and look forward to more. I find it relaxing to sit down with familiar characters and have them in and out of a story in an hour flat.

I've sometimes discussed enjoying when movies inspire additional reading and research, and the zeppelin setting gave this film an interesting angle. I started down the rabbit hole reading about zeppelins and discovered that the Hindenburg disaster had occurred only a little over a month before this film was released, so that tragedy would have been very fresh in contemporary viewers' minds.

It's interesting that just as this film was first being seen by audiences, the era of trans-Atlantic zeppelin travel, which took roughly four days from Europe to New Jersey, had come to a close. Historical details such as that so often make a seemingly innocuous little film all the more interesting.

The FLY AWAY BABY cast includes Harry Davenport, Gordon Oliver, Marcia Ralston, Hugh O'Connell, Tom Kennedy, Raymond Hatton, and Carlyle Moore Jr.

The film was directed by Frank McDonald and filmed in black and white by Warren Lynch. The script by Don Ryan and Kenneth Gamet was based on an idea by Dorothy Kilgallen, perhaps best known today for her appearances on TV's WHAT'S MY LINE?

FLY AWAY BABY is available in a nice DVD print as part of the Warner Archive's nine-film Torchy Blane Collection.

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