Purity Squad

Purity Squad (1945)

*** 1/2 (out of 4)

45th film in MGM's "Crime Does Not Pay" series looks at the FDA and their attempts to break a drug company from selling a pill to diabetics, which is suppose to be better than insulin but no tests have been done on it. This episode here really packs a nice little punch due to some very good performances and a couple great villains. This was one of the last from the series and the production values have fallen quite a bit from when the series started but the film still packs a nice little punch.

Frank Fenton and Dick Elliott plan to push their new drug, despite the warnings of Doctor Byron Foulger. Their plans might result in the deaths of the users, but the FDA is on watch to make sure that CRIME DOES NOT PAY.

THis entry in the long-running MGM crime series tries to bring it into the post-war world. In the 1930s, it was all about criminals and how their nefarious dealings brought them misery and death. During the War, episodes concerned the Feds fighting spies and saboteurs. Now it was concentrating on rapacious businessmen and their quest for profits, no matter the cost in human lives. It's a rather dry episode, with men showing each other papers.

This episode of the Crime Does Not Pay series is about the work of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). It begins with an announcement that a dangerous drug has been sold, Diabulin, and it should be destroyed immediately.

Following this introduction, the story of how such a harmful drug came to the market is explained through a flashback. A researcher has created Diabulin to treat diabetes. However, it's not been thoroughly tested and he is horrified to see that his bosses are planning on selling it anyway. And, their marketing campaign is even worse--with fake testimonials and a media blitz that make it SEEM like it is a miracle drug. But, it soon becomes obvious that the drug is dangerous--and the manufacturers couldn't care less and their number one concern is making money! This film was both very informative AND very entertaining--a difficult balancing act for a film. Well worth seeing, it's unusual for the Crime Does Not Pay series--but a worthy installment nevertheless.

One of MGM's short films made during the 30s and 40s was presented by TCM recently. These one reel movies were done, in part, to present new talent, or like in this one, to inform the public about a new drug. The emphasis of this short film is to show how the Food and Drug Administration, the government agency that deals with the approval of medicine prescribed in the United States, works in dealing with careless individuals that try to do their own version of a drug being tasted to combat diabetes.

Diabulin, was being tested in the form of a pill to replace insulin shots. When people begin dying after taking the drug, brings the FDA into action. The problem is there are some unscrupulous individuals doing illegal things at the laboratory where the experimental drug is being tested on rabbits.

The film, which is done documentary style, was informative in warning audiences of the time how vigilant the agency was in getting bad medicine from ever reaching patients. As directed by Harold Kress, and based on the screen treatment by Charles Royal, the film served its purpose by alerting the American public of the dangers of taking the tainted product.

Just watched this Crime Does Not Pay short on the DVD of the Spencer Tracy-Katharine Hepburn film Without Love. It tells of how a couple of crooked men-with reluctant help from the doctor who works for them-sell this doc's medicine called diabulin which is supposed to cure diabetes but this doc says it's not ready and shouldn't be sold yet but, well, of course his superiors think differently...Quite dramatically compelling for a 19-mimute short with enough time for the tense climatic end. So that's a recommendation for Purity Squad.