The Flaming Urge

The Flaming Urge tells an unusual story but is moderately entertaining. The town it is set in is a slice of small town America, somewhat similar to the town of Mayfield in Leave It to Beaver; in other words, it is the perfect town, and one that doesn't exist in reality. The setting is upset by the arrival of a stranger, and soon fires break out all over town. This turns the story into a detective tale, and leads to a suprising ending.

The film is worth watching for the portrayal of the townspeople, whose sources of entertainment seem to be limited to going to the beach and chasing firetrucks; this latter activity leads to some funny moments.

Lots of black humor abounds.

The Flaming Urge is pretty much a forgotten film today, but worth watching if you get the chance to see it.

Wow, what an usual subject matter---fire bugs. Never seen a movie dealing w/ this subject before. I liked the innocence of it: the small homey town and some of the friendly caring people in the town, and the un-chain dept. store, and the lakeside picnic, and Robbie the dog---who is also a fire bug and sits atop fire hydrants at the scene of the fires he runs to. It's all so innocent and cute.

This classic was a mirror of male homosexuality in the late 1940's. Written by 'Ray Pierson' and directed by 'Harold Ericson' of Miramar productions. Neither ever directed or wrote another film.

Almost every line and image comes with double meaning - fire-chasing and homosexual urges.

Filmed in Monroe, MI - it depicts a very nice young gay man (Harold Lloyd Jr. - who was openly gay in real life) chasing his urges. If you catch all the double meanings, it is a very funny film.

Watched it again 7/2023 with a friend from Monroe, MI. He recognized some of the landmarks. It is much deeper than I realized in my first viewing. It covers much more about male homosexuality than I earlier realized. If you carefully follow each line's double-meaning, it is even deeper and funnier in the second viewing.

Watched it again 3/2024 with a group and got even more out of it. Notice that leading man Mr. Smith only gets the "flaming urge" when a new man comes to his tie counter. It is both groundbreaking and so entertaining in how it depicts the perception of male homosexuality in 1949 USA. Favorite lines: "Go and see Mr. Chalmers, he's probably planning a fire sale and wants your advice" and "I was watching you the other day at the fire, and you were not enjoying it"

9/2024 did much research on this gem. Released in 1953, it was actually filmed on location in Monroe, MI late 1949 - could not find the reason for the release delay. According to Michigan newspapers, it was financed by one Mr. Greening of the Monroe area. A few short months after the 1949 shoot, the director and producer were extradited and transported from California to Michigan for passing bad checks. Mr. Greening bailed them out.

Brilliantly written - both inciteful and belly-laugh funny at the same time. Worth seeing if you can find. This film is slowly gaining recognition as ground-breaking, but is not yet categorized as humor, satire, coming out, or whatever. The writing is a masterpiece of a masterful not-so-behind-the-scenes story travelling behind the front story.

Harold Lloyd Jr. Shows up in town, gets a room to stay at Florence Lake's house, and a job at Jonathan Hale's department store. He's worried about keeping his job. He has an irresistible urge to chase fires. He chose this town because it didn't have any fires, but now there's a rash of them, and suspicion falls on him.

Lloyd isn't very good, especially when talking with old pros like Pierre Watkins, whose daughter, Cathy Downs, has a crush on him, store manager Byron Foulger, fire chief Herbert Rawlinson, and Johnny Duncan, who runs the store's stock room, when he isn't singing. They provide most of the interest in this movie, with their images of small-town eccentricity. But someone there is a fire bug. Who can it be?

This movie uses the pyromaniac urge as an extraordinarily transparent metaphor for homosexuality. While it's really not worth watching strictly on its merits as a film, as part of the history of hidden homosexuality and as an example of a "coded" film (easily translated), it's stupendous.