Tear Gas Squad

Oddball quickie from Warner Brothers, which is part musical, part romance, part police story, and almost no tear gas.

Dennis Morgan plays a singer (surprise) who does a "singing cop" act. He decides to join the force to impress Gloria Dickson, much to the dismay of her current suitor and cop John Payne. The only action, including the tear gas, occurs in the final ten minutes or so. Morgan is so appealing that you can put up with most of the nonsense that occurs for most of the film (like his singing in the police glee club). There are plenty of familiar faces, including Perry White as the Police Chief (and Morgan does get to call him "Chief"), Superman as Morgan's brother, Paul Drake in a bit part, Dennis the Menace's father, and Uncle Joe (movin' mighty slow) from Hooterville. Speaking of which, Gloria Dickson was one hot babe.

... and the most tear gas associated with this film was probably when the police were called in when the people who bought a movie ticket found out they were going to be watching a musical full of Irish singing and stereotypes rather than a crime film and began to riot. But I digress.

I had low expectations going in, but this thing actually works pretty well. A hot head singer (Dennis Morgan as Tommy McCabe) who parodies cops in his act gets fresh with one of the patrons, one of two girls who came to the club alone. Tommy picks the one who is not as pretty IMHO and who is less perky and has tons of attitude (Gloria Dickson as Jerry Sullivan) . She agrees to let him come over to her house for supper to meet the family. They turn out to be a family of Irish cops who don't like his nightclub act. So McCabe joins the police force to try to win a girl who doesn't like him and already has a beau (John Payne as Bill Morrissey). Not exactly a cunning plan.

This thing turns out to be part musical, part romance, part buddy picture, part gangster picture, and part police procedural. And although it doesn't do any one of these things very well, the whole thing fits together to make a pretty entertaining film. The only genres you probably could not fit into this film are horror and sci-fi.

Of course, the police training part of the film makes it also part comedy. Payne's character is the officer in charge of McCabe's training, and at one point he makes McCabe stand out on the firing range with a cigarette in his mouth so that shakey recruit Piney Jones (Herbert Anderson) will have incentive to aim better! Oh the paperwork and the dismissals that would be required if that happened today! Probably then too! Well, Payne was probably angry not only about the girl problem but also because he doesn't get to sing a note in this film.

There are quite a few future stars of TV in this film. Note that both George Reeves of 50s Superman fame and his boss at the Daily Planet, John Hamilton, costar in this film, but never say a word to one another and are never even in the same scene! Great Caesar's Ghost! Not a bad way to spend an hour.

I love this one-- it's the little film that could. It is easily my most favorite B-film. It has some great Irish music, some fast-paced action scenes (especially at the end), and appealing lead performers (like Dennis Morgan, John Payne & Gloria Dickson) to sustain our interest. But what impresses me most is the way this story deftly combines several different genres-- it's a musical, police procedural, romance, mystery and gangster drama all rolled into one. It tries to be all things to all viewers, and since the cast is so versatile, it succeeds. And to think they packed it all into a film that doesn't even run a full hour! Great entertainment.

Nightclub crooner Dennis Morgan joins the police academy to impress pretty blonde policeman's daughter Gloria Dickson. Cop John Payne is also sweet on Gloria and, as movie luck would have it, he winds up as Morgan's trainer at the academy. Nice little B movie with a misleading title. There's no tear gas squad, although tear gas does play a part in the final minutes of the picture.

Morgan's somewhat miscast but does get to sing some songs, which is primarily what they paid him for. Poor John Payne has to play O'Brien to Morgan's Cagney. Nice supporting cast includes many future TV stars: Edgar Buchanan (Petticoat Junction), William Hopper (Perry Mason), Herbert Anderson (Dennis the Menace), George Reeves and John Hamilton (Adventures of Superman). Director Terry O. Morse would go on to direct the American footage for the first Godzilla. Not a bad movie of its type and a decent way to kill an hour.

During the 1930s, 40s and 50s, thousands of B-movies were made by Hollywood. However, these second features weren't always bad AND they weren't always made by tiny film studios. In the case of "Tear Gas Squad", it's a film from Warner Brothers...but it's clearly a B as it only runs 55 minutes and features the studio's second-string actors.

The film features two brothers--Tommy and Joe McCabe. When the film begins, the druggist, Joe (George Reeves) becomes a hero when he captures two criminals. His brother, Tommy (Dennis Morgan), is quite different. He's brash and pretty obnoxious. However, when he meets a cute lady whose family consists of cops, he impulsively joins the service to impress her. However, during his time in the police academy, Tommy is a know-it-all....and his instructor (John Payne) is NOT impressed. To make things worse, they both are in love with the same woman.

Despite only clocking in at 55 minutes, there is tons of singing in the film...too much for such a short film. I guess I can't blame Warner too much...Morgan had a lovely voice. But sometimes the film loses its direction with all these numbers....and one or two less would have improved the picture AND made the story more believable. Plus there is a scene involving a cigarette on the gun range that, frankly, is stupid and never would occur in real life. Because of these things, despite the film being very slickly made, it's only an okay movie. It easily could have been better...but it is watchable as a time-passer.