Smart Blonde

Torchy Blane, Glenda Farrell, a sharp-eyed reporter for the Morning Herald, chats with Tiny Torgensen, Joseph Crehan, on a train as Tiny plans to buy the Million Club and other gambling ventures from his friend Fitz Mularkey, Addison Richards. Fitz Mularkey, Addison Richards, is gearing up for a wedding to Marcia Friel, Charlotte Wynters, and wants to leave the racket behind. Just as they reach Union Station, Tiny is shot and killed, and Torchy immediately reports the murder to her paper.

Torchy and her detective ally Steve McBride, Barton MacLane, head to the Million Club to break the news and push for answers. Fitz, a longtime friend of Tiny, longs to trap the killer himself before the police arrive, but Steve counsels restraint and proper procedure. Steve’s gut tells him the motive isn’t simple bid-rigging; Torchy leans toward Chuck Cannon, Max Wagner, the club’s security man who resented losing his job, though other bidders remain in the frame.

Back at the club, Torchy learns from the hat-check girl that Dolly Ireland, Wini Shaw, the club’s singer, was secretly in love with Fitz, and that Chuck had a dangerous edge about him. Dolly’s entanglement with Fitz complicates the puzzle, and Steve begins to stitch together alibis and motives as he questions those around Tiny’s business interests. He also starts to track down the connections between the bidders and the murder, while Torchy pushes for a closer look at Chuck and Dolly.

As the investigation unfolds, Chuck is found dead in his hotel room, and Steve suspects Fitz may be hiding something. Fitz denies it and escapes a direct confrontation, but the forensic report shifts the focus: Chuck’s gun did not kill Tiny. Steve presses Marcia, who confesses that Chuck had threatened her, making her fear that Fitz might be the killer protecting her. Yet Torchy’s instincts grow sharper as she notices inconsistencies in Marcia’s story and the way her supposed siblings, Lewis Friel, Robert Paige (and Marcia themselves), spin their parents’ tale.

To get to the bottom of it, Torchy, Steve, and Gahagan, Tom Kennedy head to Marcia’s apartment to confront Fitz directly. There, Torchy lays bare the truth: Marcia and Lewis are phonies—con artists out to steal Fitz’s money. The discovery points squarely at Lewis, who emerges as the killer behind Tiny and Chuck. He pulls a gun, but Fitz shoots him first, ending the immediate danger and clearing Fitz for now. Marcia is arrested, and the path toward resolution widens.

In the final turn, Fitz decides to keep the business alive and secure, recognizing his future with Dolly as a new kind of partnership. Steve’s big moment comes when he proposes to Torchy, signaling a hopeful future for the couple as they continue their journalism-and-investigation partnership amid a city that never stops turning.

Last Updated: October 09, 2025 at 09:18