possibly the bad picture crawford ever make and it beg to be see to be disbelieve . despite win charleston contest at the cocoanut grove in her twenty and even vintage early film prove crawford be no dancer . nor could she sing particularly well . so and naturally and she cast in torch song a a huge broadway singing and dance star . ( crawford be 49 at the time . ) in her opening rehearsal number with elli ( actually and torch song director and chuck walter ) and one can practically hear her count and one and two and three and four a she studiously move from one carefully choreograph pose to another . even shirley temple and with bill bojangles robinson and do good than this in the little colonel ( 1935 ) in their still startle and delightful tap dance sequence . there nothing delightful about any of crawford dance sing sequence in torch song . but she consistently startle . her song ( follow me and two face woman ) be mediocre at best represent never to be hear again and or embrace by the music buy public . bad and theyre actually sing by india adam and whose voice doesn not remotely resemble crawford . the show stopper ( and not in a good way ) be two faced woman . crawford and in blackface and descend the staircase ( still silently count her simplistic dance step and pose rather than dance ) . blackface . never explain . perhaps blackface be choose for the shocking moment when she angrily rip off her wig and glare into the auditorium with her enormous eye and red slash of a mouth top with disheveled hair dye a remarkable technicolor red that even lucille ball wouldn not have dare attempt . no one and of course and not even a would be lounge singer like india adam ( whatever happen to . . . oh and never mind ) and can destroy a chestnut like tenderly and whose haunting music and lyric support even the talentless . marjorie rambeau inexplicably win an academy award nomination for her three brief scene a crawford mother . ( she and crawford be longstanding friend . ) adolph deutsch ( composer ) presumably arrange and play the impressive mad piano arrangement of tenderly for blind pianist ty graham ( micheal wilding ) in the final scene . it the single most emotionally honest moment in the entire film and musically capture ty love and anguish and frustration with crawford gypsy madonna . until it completely undercut by one of the most rapid character reversal ( and bad dialogue ) ever conceive for a major film . i finally do it and assert crawford character and attempt to convince ty ( and the audience ) that she be try to break through ty defensive shell all along ( she hasn not represent she just be spout hackneyed bitchy dialogue and lip synching to hackneyed original song and silently count out her game but amateurish dance step all in helen rise gloriously improbable technicolor costume ) . torch song final line and meant to show crawford tender and warmly humorous side and reference ty see eye dog and duchess . say what . this be torch song payoff . be torch song watchable . yes . like a train wreck . be it so bad it good . no . it just bad . the reefer madness of musical .