# Joan Crawford in "Torch Song" (1953 musical) - Anyone see this on TCM?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joan-crawford-in-torch-song-1953-musical-anyone-see-this-on-tcm/442572>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [March 24, 2008, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joan-crawford-in-torch-song-1953-musical-anyone-see-this-on-tcm/442572 "2008-03-24T19:02:04Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![tarragon918](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d26b3c/32.png) [@tarragon918](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tarragon918)\
**Post date:** [March 24, 2008, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joan-crawford-in-torch-song-1953-musical-anyone-see-this-on-tcm/442572/1 "2008-03-24T19:02:04Z")

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I watched some of it … I don’t know why, though! It was awfully bad, even though I do like many of Joan’s performances, this one was atrocious. She was supposedly a Broadway star who both danced and sang. I don’t know much about dancing, but I knew that wasn’t Joan’s voice (it was dubbed by a studio singer). Her character was a vindictive bitch. It was horrible, very bad. I must admit, though, that I did enjoy the early-50’s style of the sets as well as some of the clothes. Michael Wilding played her love interest; he was injured during WWII and had been blinded. He was a pianist and his seeing eye dog was a boxer … who growled whenever Joan’s character was near her. LOL

At any rate, it was on TCM last night, right after they showed Mildred Pierce (LOL … Joan was great in that movie and definitely deserved the Oscar she got).

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**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\
**Post date:** [March 24, 2008, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joan-crawford-in-torch-song-1953-musical-anyone-see-this-on-tcm/442572/2 "2008-03-24T19:37:58Z")

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That’s the one where she’s in blackface with the orange fright wig, right? I saw that years ago and have mercifully blocked out most of the details.

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**Author:** ![tarragon918](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d26b3c/32.png) [@tarragon918](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tarragon918)\
**Post date:** [March 24, 2008, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joan-crawford-in-torch-song-1953-musical-anyone-see-this-on-tcm/442572/3 "2008-03-24T21:23:37Z")

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[QUOTE=Otto]  
That’s the one where she’s in blackface with the orange fright wig, right? I saw that years ago and have mercifully blocked out most of the details.  
[/QUOTE]

So I read on the [imdb.com](http://imdb.com) site, but fortunately for me I had quit watching the movie by then. Whew! It is a relentlessly awful movie. 😃