Tear Gas Squad

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.