Tear Gas Squad

Tear Gas Squad (1940)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Cheap but fun "B" picture from Warner has Dennis Morgan playing a lounge singer who does a routine as a cop, which crosses the line with a beautiful woman (Gloria Dickson) there watching. Soon she invites the singer to her house where he learns that there are all cops in her family and there's another man, also a cop (John Payne), who also has a thing for her. The singer decides to become a cop himself and this here is where the trouble starts. TEAR GAS SQUAD is pretty straight from start to finish and it follows just about every cliché that you'd expect it to but I still thought the film managed to be quite entertaining through its 55-minute running time. The best thing about the picture is that director Terry O. Morse manages to keep it running at an extremely fast pace and he never lets any of the action slow down. There are all sorts of strange things going on here including the non-stop singing from Morgan who is constantly throwing out a song. Even stranger is the entire love triangle as the woman pretty much disappears from the picture and we're just left with two guys who can't stand one another. Of course there has to be "drama" from the poor attitude of the singer, his fall from grace and then the redemption. I thought Morgan and Payne were both very entertaining in their roles. I'd stop short of saying they gave great performances since the material is pretty light but there's still no doubt that they help keep the film entertaining. Dickson was good as the love interest but she really didn't have too much to do. George Reeves has a couple quick but memorable scenes. If you're looking for top-notch entertainment or an Oscar-winner then you're not going to find it here but those who like "B" movies should find plenty of entertainment here.

A bit of history is called for in explaining the misleading title.

Often in B-film productions, the studios would assign the producer only a "power title" with a hoped-for marquee value. From just that pre-assigned title with which to work, the film's storyline would then evolve.

Well, the film attached to the title "Tear Gas Squad" turns out to be a terrific little musical-comedy programmer with a great cast and original songs and music by Jack Scholl and M. K. Jerome (whose biggest fame would come from "Casablanca" two years later).

The great Irish tenor of Dennis Morgan shines. All else is a pleasurable hour of concise entertainment. Recommended!

... 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.

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.

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.