Movie Review: Fly Away Baby (1937)
Synopsis: After being stood up while trying to obtain a marriage license, reporter Torchy Blane finds her fiancé, Lt. Steve McBride, investigating the murder of jeweler Milton Devereux. After forcing her way into the crime scene and discovering the hidden murder weapon, Torchy begins to suspect Lucien "Sonny" Croy, the son of a rival newspaper publisher, but has no evidence. Believing Croy is participating in an across-the-globe race so he can hide the evidence, Torchy joins the race too and is soon flying across the world to prove she's right.
Who's in it? The movie stars Glenda Farrell, Barton MacLane, Tom Kennedy, Hugh O'Connell and Gordon Oliver.
Review: Since I already had Fly Away Baby in my movie library, I decided to continue the Torchy Blane series and give the second installment a try. So far, this one is my favorite.
While Smart Blonde and The Adventurous Blonde both were enjoyable, this film, which is bookended by those two movies, is the one that does the best job of establishing Torchy (Farrell) as an independent, intelligent woman, brushing off McBride's (MacLane) attempts to convince her investigating a murder was "a man's work," and conducting an embarrassingly better investigation into the crime than her future husband.
While the film remained upbeat and was clearly a comedy, there was also a bit of suspense involved since Torchy was traveling around the world with a man (Oliver) she suspected of murder and that meant he had plenty of opportunities to get rid of her in a variety of foreign lands. At the same time, while Torchy was certain Sonny was the killer, and he was doing more than his part to make it seem like she was right, there was still the question of if she'd be able to find the evidence to prove it or if she was even after the right guy.
Another thing I liked about this movie was the extended screen time given to Gahagan (Kennedy). He's a character that always makes me laugh and, in this case, there was even a bit of mystery surrounding him since he quit the police with little warning then joined the race too. I was beginning to wonder if maybe he knew who the killer was and was trying to prove his case before Torchy did.
My only real complaint about the movie is I was a little confused about how that race was supposed to be won when all the people competing in it were traveling on the same planes, blimps, etc. It seemed like the only way someone could lose is if they dropped out of the race or were murdered. I know it wasn't technically the main story, but it would have been nice if the movie would have clarified the rules.
Final Opinion: I was already becoming a Torchy Blane fan, but this film sealed the deal for me. It's worth taking the time to watch.
My Grade: A
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Here are some reviews of other 1930s murder mysteries:
Movie Review: Murder on a Honeymoon (1935)
Movie Review: Murder in the Private Car (1934)
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