"Torch Song," or the Lone Arranger

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 Crawford musical?

In this 1953 film, Joan Crawford plays Jenny Stewart ... 


... a Broadway star of such hit musicals as "Evening with
Jenny," "Another Evening with Jenny," "Yet Another Evening
with Jenny," "Oh My God It's Jenny Again" and
"Go Home, Jenny, You're Drunk." 


She is loved by all and is a big star -- so big that
her eyebrows have their own dressing room.



Jenny is a hard-driving pro onstage and off -- she even makes
sure her robe matches the pencils on her nightstand. 
    


But her hard exterior covers a yearning soul of
molten lava, cotton candy 
and unfinished Lisa Frank
coloring books.
 


The only person who can, you should excuse the expression,
penetrate Jenny is Ty, her blind arranger.  


They get along splendidly.

Jenny even starts trying to learn braille until she realizes
she's just turning the radio on and off.


But Ty turns his back on Jenny. He walks out during her
big blackface number, a toe-tapper called
"Staggering Multicultural Insensitivity." 


Still, Jenny can't stay away. She presents herself to Ty with
an outfit that's a stunning salute to autumn, which she
describes to him because he can't see. 


Even an eye massage doesn't help.


Neither does Jenny's attempt to clone herself as a
larger, easier-to-see person.


But in the end it doesn't matter, because as well all know,
love is disabled. I mean blind.








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