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Torch Song Overview:

Torch Song (1953) was a Drama - Drama Film directed by Charles Walters and produced by Sidney Franklin, Charles Schnee and Henry Berman.

Academy Awards 1953 --- Ceremony Number 26 (source: AMPAS)

AwardRecipientResult
Best Supporting ActressMarjorie RambeauNominated
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Torch Song BlogHub Articles:

Screen Capture Theatre: "Torch Song," or the Lone Arranger

By David on Jan 21, 2022 From The Man on the Flying Trapeze

OK, I think we can all agree it's been a tough couple of weeks months years. But buck up! If there's one thing we understand here at Screen Capture Theatre, it's that nothing puts a positive spin on the world like a ... Joan Crawford musical?In this 1953 film, Joan Crawford plays Jenny Stewart ... .... Read full article

Musical Monday: Torch Song (1953)

on Aug 27, 2018 From Comet Over Hollywood

It’s no secret that the Hollywood Comet loves musicals. In 2010, I revealed I had seen 400 movie musicals over the course of eight years. Now that number is over 500. To celebrate and share this musical love, here is my weekly feature about musicals. This week’s musical: Torch Song (1953) – Mu... Read full article

"Torch Song," or the Lone Arranger

By David on Nov 11, 2016 From The Man on the Flying Trapeze

OK, I think we can all agree it's been a tough week. But buck up and ditch those silly thoughts of impending fascism! If there's one thing we understand here at Motion Pictures Told Through Still Pictures with Goofy Captions, it's that nothing puts a positive spin on the world like a ... Joan Crawfo... Read full article

"Torch Song," or the Lone Arranger

By David on Nov 11, 2016 From The Man on the Flying Trapeze

OK, I think we can all agree it's been a tough week. But buck up and ditch those silly thoughts of impending fascism! If there's one thing we understand here at Motion Pictures Told Through Still Pictures with Goofy Captions, it's that nothing puts a positive spin on the world like a ... Joan Crawfo... Read full article

Torch Song (1953) ~ Crawford's Return to Dancing

By Bonnie on Jan 6, 2016 From Classic Reel Girl

Part of 10 for 2015 From the first number, Torch Song gets off on the wrong foot. While Joan Crawford's legs are exquisite, they dance to a song, "You're All the World to Me," already covered by Fred Astaire's feet two years earlier in Royal Wedding (1951). It's not likely audiences would have f... Read full article

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Torch Song Quotes:

Jenny Stewart: Well, I happen to *like* it unorthodox, arbitrary, and abrupt!
[first lines]
Jenny Stewart: Hold the record.
[last lines]
Jenny Stewart: Believe me, Duchess has her limitations.
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Torch Song Facts
In her mother's apartment, Jenny Stewart (played by Joan Crawford) is listening as the phonograph plays one of her greatest hits: "Tenderly" (music by Walter Gross, lyrics by Jack Lawrence), which, in reality, was a great hit for Rosemary Clooney, via her 1952 Columbia single. As Jenny's platter spins, the voice of India Adams is heard, while Jenny reminisces about her early show-business career to her mother (portrayed Marjorie Rambeau). In Miss Crawford's own singing voice, she offers phrases of the classic ballad while the record plays.
MGM's ad campaign erroneously boasted that this was moviegoers' first chance to see Joan Crawford in Technicolor. Actually, Crawford had appeared in a Technicolor sequence in same studio's Ice Follies of 1939, some 14 years earlier.
In the song-and-dance number, "Two-Faced Woman," (music by Arthur Schwartz, lyrics by Howard Dietz), Joan Crawford performed in blackface. Miss Crawford's singing voice was dubbed by India Adams, whose prerecording was originally intended for Cyd Charisse in The Band Wagon. The song-and-dance performance by Miss Charisse (with Oscar Levant on piano) was dropped from this movie, but the footage appears on the DVD release from Warner Home Video. In That's Entertainment! III, the Charisse and Crawford versions are compared via split screen.
This film marked Joan Crawford's return to MGM after a ten year absence. She was previously under contract to MGM from 1925-1943.
The music used for the opening dance sequence between Joan Crawford and Chuck Walters was recycled from the previous MGM film Royal Wedding. It was Fred Astaire's dance music for "You're All the World to Me" (i.e., the "dancing-on-the-walls-and-ceiling" sequence).
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