Suicide Squad

Norman Foster and Joyce Compton are in love, but her father, Robert Homans, doesn't approve. He's the chief of the Suicide Squad, the unit of the Fire Department that goes into burning buildings and brings 'em out alive. Foster's application is finally accepted, but he's one of those guys who can't follow orders inthe heat of the moment, This endangers lives. Worse, his best friend is a newspaper photographer who catches him in heroic poses, so his fellow fire fighters think he's a dangerous publicity hound.

Sounds a lot like a Billy Haines vehicle from a decade earlier, doesn't it? Haines kept playing the star player of the football team or the golf squad or the Marine Corps, who thought well of himself, until taken down a peg by reality, then came back to save the day, having learned his lesson.... until the next movie.

That's pretty much what we have here. Foster had come down in the world from the days when he was playing juvenile leads at Paramount, and Miss Compton had not yet established that she was a comic actress of considerable talents. the rest of it is a cheaply done effort, with a lot of footage shot wild or taken from the archives, and little care taken in matching shots: there's one point at which Foster is cutting a path through a ship's hull with an oxy-acetylene torch, and workers on the other side are doing the same -- and the ones outside have broken through some time before the metal is cut away on Foster's side.

The performers give their all, despite a soundtrack that is very erratic, but it's a rote effort otherwise.