Arson, Inc.

Interesting little film offering an unusual topic, a firemen story, a fire fighter also a lead invesigator about an arson case. Arson is not new in thriller category, but this one is really fast paced, thrilling, a good William Berke's flick, better than many othets he made in the past and even later. Solid story, above average production for this kind of stuff, yes, a very good little gem. I guess only a handful of movie buffs know this film. Robert Lowery is a bland actor who shines here, compared to what he did in most of the other films he played in. A good gem to discover, it is worth watching.

Fire fighter Robert Lowery is tapped for the arson squad. He starts to investigate a series of suspicious fires and the death of his predecessor, while wooing school teacher Anne Gwynne. He goes undercover to join mysterious Douglas Fowley's gang, working with firebug Edward Brophy.

Since it was a Lippert film, I went in without particularly high expectations, and thus wound up enjoying this mediocre B movie, directed by William Berke. Despite its 61-minute length, it seemed to drag for sizable sections, although players like Marcia Mae Jones, Maude Eburne, and Byron Foulgar did their best to keep me entertained, and the final efforts of the fire company to get there before the place burned down was something that D. W. Griffith would have been content with. Perhaps editor Edward Mann deserves some blame, but what could he have cut to speed up the pace without reducing it to a three-reeler?

Simplicity is the secret to vintage B movies like Lippert's "Arson, Inc.". Watching it almost 75 years after release I wondered the obvious: is there something missing here?

Movies cover a wide range of subjects and are generally designed to entertain and at least provide escape from the mundane, the routine of everyday life. With a B movie, aiming at just an hour or so in length and nothing pretentious in content, the diversion can come from colorful characters, amusing situations or novel plot twists. Of course, exploitation subject matter, whether it be sex, drugs or "forbidden" topics, is a sure-fire way of interesting the viewer.

Too many Bs like "Arson, Inc." are mundane and ordinary, almost reveling in their generic nature. (Sometimes this was on purpose: I remember as a drive-in and grindhouse enthusiast in the '70s watching some features, often dubbed foreign films, that existed as "chasers" -boring junk designed to empty the theater or drive-in parking area as few people would want to sit through them a second time.) I suspect "Arson, Inc." was tolerable when released, as a simple story, easy to follow, and easily consumed, to be forgotten immediately. Decades later there's a tendency to put such simple artifacts on a pedestal, whether for nostalgic reasons or simply to magnify the contrast between the old & standard cultural norm with current gimmicky entertainment. I try not to fall into that trap.

"Arson, Inc." is relentlessly uninteresting, presenting the story of a profession that is dull -basically a fireman acting as a specialized insurance investigator. Watching it, my mind quickly wandered to the current psa commercials broadcast about disability insurance fraud - a real-life problem, but trivialized in the tv pitch of how we should all be vigilant (in the 9/11 style of "if you see something, say something") to report miscreant employers or employees cheating the government and thereby us taxpayers out of many millions of dollars annually. Methinks these psa appeals to the public will not make the slightest dent in the problem.

So stalwart (say, wooden) hero Robert Lowery working undercover is a boring way of introducing the captive viewer to a boring subject. Sure, fires and arson are potentially exciting -as witness the current hit tv series "Fire Country", a procedural broadcast show generating more interest than many a big-deal gimmicky cable miniseries. But with a dependable hack William Berke directing this movie goes nowhere, not even the usual car chase and shootout scene perking things up -soon we're right back to cliches a mile a minute, and nominal villain Douglas Fowley playing "Frederick P. Fender" up to his old dastardly tricks.

More mind-wandering: was it a coincidence that singer Freddy Fender, born in 1937 so the right age to have watched "Arson, Inc." on a Saturday afternoon double feature, came up with that catchy stage name? I hadn't thought of him in ages.

Director William Berke knew how to deliver the goods in low-budget action films, crime films, westerns, and Jungle Jim vehicles. A fast-moving plot, a colorful and enthusiastic cast of veterans, interesting camera angles to cover what can't afford to be shot, clever little details to the characterizations and situations that make them seem realistic, and (mostly--not in the most hard-boiled films)a light touch to make the whole thing go down more smoothly (see my review of his 1935 David Sharpe short WILD WATERS). Looking at Mr. Berke's filmography, I've seen over 30 of his films and I've enjoyed every one of them! During his period working for Lippert Pictures, he made some excellent westerns and some fine detective-crime films with Hugh Beaumont (the Denny O'Brien series) and others (see my review of FBI GIRL, with Cesar Romero).This film stars the reliable and amiable Robert Lowery as a fire investigator who goes undercover to break the arson/insurance fraud ring led by Douglas Fowley, who is in great sneering form. In one scene, Berke has a low angle shot of Fowley barking orders to someone, and I thought to myself, "this is the model b-movie! These people KNOW what they are doing!" The fine cast also includes former Universal star Anne Gwynne as a schoolteacher who is moonlighting as a babysitter, and who becomes friends with Lowery. In the scene where they meet, Gwynne is grading papers on the dining room table while babysitting, and when Lowery chats her up and mentions that he did well in history class in school, she throws half of her pile of ungraded papers on the table in front of him and says "work on these!" Little touches like that make this film special. Marcia Mae Jones does a convincing job as Fowley's secretary, someone who is lonely and who is attracted to her boss while knowing what a sleaze he is, but Fowley knows she likes him and takes advantage of that fact. It's a dysfunctional relationship and it's played out very accurately. Once again, the kind of detail that makes this film special. Jones' facial expressions in the final scene in the car with Fowley are quite convincing also. There's a lot of action, and even though no viewer for a moment has any doubt how things will turn out at the end, the filmmakers manage to make it all seem fresh as it is happening, and by distinctive character touches and particulars in the script (the seedy backroom gambling den, for instance) they get us involved in a story that is so "Classic" in its details that the cynic could call it cliché-ridden. There are a number of b-movie gems hidden in the Lippert catalog waiting to be rediscovered. There's nothing noir about this film--Lowery is a hero, Fowley is the bad guy, and there's no grey area or corrupt world. It's just a well-done crime programmer that I pull out every few years and enjoy. Considering how many bad and pretentious films are playing right now on TV and in theaters, films like ARSON INC. are a breath of fresh air.

William Berke directs a very brisk 61' flick, to the extent that characterization is a tad flat. That said, Lowery comes across as an undercover fireman - an unusual situation in that profession - who is constantly ogled by the women in the film.

Maude Eburne, as the babysitting grandma, and Douglas Flowley as top villain Fender, have remarkable parts but it is Edward Brophy as the incendiary arsonist, that steals the show.

The script is rather contrived, and some parts seem much too put together, but it grabs your attention throughout and even has some funny moments, provided mainly by Eburne and Brophy.

Pretty Anne Gwinne looks set for an important part as the love interest but surprisingly disappears, and by the end I hardly remembered her.

Ultimately, it was designed as a support piece to the main film, and it certainly delivers as short entertainment in a quasi-doc noir atmosphere.