MartinHafer Torchy (Glenda Farrell) and her boyfriend, Steve (Barton MacLane) are once again preparing to get married. And, once again, a murder occurs and derails their plans. This is a perennial theme in this series as well as in the Falcon and Bulldog Drummond.The police, naturally, arrest the wrong man and Torchy thinks that the real killer is going on a worldwide race--and she intends to chase him and prove his guilt. However, there are a lot of twists and turns and she isn't exactly right--but of course she saves the day by the end of the film. All of this is very, very ordinary...EXCEPT the location of the final portion of the film. During this worldwide jaunt, the trail leads to Germany...yes, NAZI Germany! And, with the help of the German police, the mystery is solved...ABOARD THE HINDENBURG!!!! For an ex-history teacher like me, it made the film worth seeing--even if the plot really is a bit pedestrian.

gridoon2018 The second Torchy Blane film is relatively short on mystery (there are only 2 real suspects for the crime, which in this case is the murder - and diamond robbery - of a jeweller), but for a "B" production "Fly Away Baby" does a pretty amazing job (through special effects, title cards, and stock footage) of simulating a plane (and zeppelin!) trip around the world. However, at the risk of sounding stupid, I don't understand why this trip is being promoted as a "race" in the movie - the supposed contestants are all traveling together and they don't seem to be competing against each other in any way. Anyway, Farrell and MacLane are fun as Torchy and Steve, and Tom Kennedy gets an expanded role as the poetry-loving and none-too-bright cop Gahagan, who wants to "retire" and start a new career as a private detective! **1/2 out of 4.

Maliejandra Kay A man is murdered in his apartment and thousands of dollars worth of diamonds are stolen. There is little evidence to trace the killer with, although Torchy Blane (Glenda Farrell) does manage to find the murder weapon. She is convinced that Lucien Croy (Gordon Oliver) had something to do with it, although Lt. McBride (Barton MacLane) is not so sure. Croy seems to have an airtight alibi. On top of the investigation, Croy is going on a trip round the world as a publicity stunt for his newspaper. Torchy decides that tagging along is the perfect way to track him in spite of McBride's wishes.A fun movie throughout, this second of the Torchy Blane films is entertaining but unimportant. There is a formula to these movies. Man is murdered, Torchy and McBride team up to solve it, it is solved, they announce their impending marriage. It isn't the story that makes these films rewatchable; it is the vibrant personality of Farrell. A beauty with brains, she is incredibly under-appreciated.

tedg Its rather amazing that this series isn't more widely seen.Superficially, they are B movies and at the cheapy end. They have incredibly uninteresting stories, stuff about the mob.But they're really impressive in a way. I guess it doesn't register today, but these were either important in their day or if you wish reflected something important.For non-US readers, you have to know that women couldn't vote until very late in the history of the US. Blacks first, then women. The time of this movie is five times further away from us than it is from the first national election where women voted.A woman could be a wife, a nurse, teacher, secretary, whore.Or, in movies if she was bright, a newspaper reporter. You have to understand also that the thirties was a period of great experimenting in narrative folding: stories that in some way included the making of stories. One common fold was the newspaper guy who "got the story" just as we are. He was our avatar, our representative in the thing.These experiments from the thirties played with different notions of storygetter, some comic, some inverted.So here you have a bright woman reporter. Feisty. Pretty. She's engaged to an "official" detective, a cop. But she keeps missing the wedding because she goes off chasing the story.Together, they get the crook and solve the case, but always with her in the lead. He protects and she loves him, the "big lug." Though this is black and white, the audience would know (from posters, fan magazines and her name) that she is redheaded.It was a long-lasting sequence of movies, as many as, say, the Charlie Chan ones and with far more than the celebrated "Thin Man." So I invite you to watch this — or any of the series. She's an icon that's all the more fascinating because it has ceased having power. Now that's interesting.Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.