Stellead Don't listen to the Hype. It's awful

Contentar Best movie of this year hands down!

Maidexpl Entertaining from beginning to end, it maintains the spirit of the franchise while establishing it's own seal with a fun cast

Gutsycurene Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.

JohnHowardReid All told, Torchy Runs for Mayor would have made a brilliant close to the series. But it was not to be, for Warner Bros already had another in the works, Torchy Plays with Dynamite (1939). This one was also titled Torchy Bame...Playing wth Dynamite. This time, Jane Wyman, who essayed a minor role as a hat-check girl in in the Torchy's "Smart Blonde" entry, played the lead - opposite Allen Jenkins as Steve McBride! The mind boggles. Jenkins often played cops. Inept, stumblebum, custard-pie cops. True, on a few occasions he did venture into a rare straight role - notably in The Case of the Howling Dog (1934) in which his Sergeant Holcomb emerges as a particularly vicious and vindictive adversary for Perry Mason - but Torchy...Dynamite marks his only excursion as the hero lead. Actually, despite his plug-ugly face, Jenkins comes over surprisingly well. But audiences refused to accept his transformation. Not even a crisp script and Noel Smith's pacy direction could rescue this movie from what was perceived by both critics and moviegoers as ridiculous miscasting. Torchy Blane had penned her last headline.

pronker pronker Since Glenda and Barton went on to other things, their roles were played by Jane and Allen to great effect. It's the character work that makes the series shine, with Tom Kennedy and so many familiar faces all doing their thing for The Cause. It was likely the Cause Of Supporting Oneself, but who cares? Fast talking and sprightly handling of tough guy dialogue gets me every time and since Torchy Blane is a series dependent on each of those factors, it's not a bad thing to be entertained for about an hour while we viewers try our darndest to follow the plot. Tom and Allen share a room and I guess a double bed with the same sitch deployed by Jane and the gal she's befriended, Sheila Bromley, all in the hopes of capturing Sheila's boyfriend on the lam when they finally rendezvous. He's got a dilly of a disguise to throw off the cops: sunglasses. Add to the mix a fun professional wrestling ending, and you've got the premise of this entertaining entry in the series. It was the last one. As someone here wrote, Allen "gets the girl" for one of the few times in his decades-long career and is endearingly bashful as Jane hugs his neck and kisses his cheek at the ending. "Nix," he says.

Michael_Elliott Torchy Blane... Playing with Dynamite (1939)** (out of 4) The ninth and final film in the series finds Glenda Farrell and Barton MacLane being replaced by Jane Wyman and Allen Jenkins. This time out Torchy has herself thrown into jail so that she can get close to a gangster's girlfriend (Sheila Bromley). The plan is for the two to get close and Torchy hopes that the girlfriend will then lead her to the gangster where Lt. McBride and Gahagan (Tom Kennedy) will arrest him. TORCHY BLANE... PLAYING WITH DYNAMITE really isn't all that bad when you consider it's the ninth film in a series but there's still no question that the only ones who need watch it are those who watched the previous eight and just want to say they've seen everything in the series. I think there are some good moments scattered around but even at just 59-minutes there's just not enough going on to keep you fully entertained. I thought both Wyman and Jenkins were good in their roles and I thought their chemistry and back and forth nature made for some entertainment. Bromley was also attractive in her part as is Eddie Marr as the gangster. Kennedy doesn't get as many poems to read but that's okay because it's still nice seeing him appear for his ninth time. The story itself has quite a few plot holes and there are many logical issues but these here shouldn't be taken too serious. After all, this is a "B" picture that was probably made in a week or two.

Neil Doyle The trouble with all those Torchy Blane movies were that they were all too similar in plot and style. In other words, if you've seen one, you've seen them all.Once again, Torchy finds a way to nab a criminal for her policeman pal Steve McBride, with the roles now played by JANE WYMAN and ALLEN JENKINS. Needless to say, they're not a convincing match. Wyman does all of her cutesy tricks that she employed during her early days at Warner Bros., and Jenkins plays a dumb cop in his usual style, for laughs. TOM KENNEDY is still on hand as the bumbling helpmate of the two, this time involved in a wrestling match that spins the film toward its finale.Fast moving entertainment, it's a B-film that played the second half of a double feature in 1939. Apparently, it didn't catch on as well as the series did with Glenda Farrell in the lead, so it became the last film of the Torchy Blane series.