Arson, Inc.

Fire fighter Robert Lowery is tapped for the arson squad. He starts to investigate a series of suspicious fires and the death of his predecessor, while wooing school teacher Anne Gwynne. He goes undercover to join mysterious Douglas Fowley's gang, working with firebug Edward Brophy.

Since it was a Lippert film, I went in without particularly high expectations, and thus wound up enjoying this mediocre B movie, directed by William Berke. Despite its 61-minute length, it seemed to drag for sizable sections, although players like Marcia Mae Jones, Maude Eburne, and Byron Foulgar did their best to keep me entertained, and the final efforts of the fire company to get there before the place burned down was something that D. W. Griffith would have been content with. Perhaps editor Edward Mann deserves some blame, but what could he have cut to speed up the pace without reducing it to a three-reeler?

An eager young fireman played by Robert Lowery suspects arson in a store fire and he's got good reason to think so. His suspicions are confirmed and he gets a promotion to the arson investigation squad. The job gets doubly dangerous when a previous arson investigator is killed and his briefcase containing all his investigation notes go missing.

The trail leads to insurance investigator Douglas Fowley who has a sweet little kickback racket going about his insured clients kicking back money from their settlements to Fowley.

Fowley even supplies his own torch in the person of roly poly character actor Edward Brophy. Usually Brophy played good natured mugs in films and he starts out that way here. But he's far more dangerous than Lowery originally thinks.

In its short running time Arson, Inc. does deliver the entertainment goods. There's not a frame of film wasted and it's nicely edited, unusual for film from a poverty row studio like Lippert Pictures. Look also for a nice performance from Maud Eburne as the wise cracking grandma for Lowery's girlfriend Anne Gwynne.

But it's Brophy who really steals the show. It's a side of him rarely seen on screen.

Director William Berke knew how to deliver the goods in low-budget action films, crime films, westerns, and Jungle Jim vehicles. A fast-moving plot, a colorful and enthusiastic cast of veterans, interesting camera angles to cover what can't afford to be shot, clever little details to the characterizations and situations that make them seem realistic, and (mostly--not in the most hard-boiled films)a light touch to make the whole thing go down more smoothly (see my review of his 1935 David Sharpe short WILD WATERS). Looking at Mr. Berke's filmography, I've seen over 30 of his films and I've enjoyed every one of them! During his period working for Lippert Pictures, he made some excellent westerns and some fine detective-crime films with Hugh Beaumont (the Denny O'Brien series) and others (see my review of FBI GIRL, with Cesar Romero).This film stars the reliable and amiable Robert Lowery as a fire investigator who goes undercover to break the arson/insurance fraud ring led by Douglas Fowley, who is in great sneering form. In one scene, Berke has a low angle shot of Fowley barking orders to someone, and I thought to myself, "this is the model b-movie! These people KNOW what they are doing!" The fine cast also includes former Universal star Anne Gwynne as a schoolteacher who is moonlighting as a babysitter, and who becomes friends with Lowery. In the scene where they meet, Gwynne is grading papers on the dining room table while babysitting, and when Lowery chats her up and mentions that he did well in history class in school, she throws half of her pile of ungraded papers on the table in front of him and says "work on these!" Little touches like that make this film special. Marcia Mae Jones does a convincing job as Fowley's secretary, someone who is lonely and who is attracted to her boss while knowing what a sleaze he is, but Fowley knows she likes him and takes advantage of that fact. It's a dysfunctional relationship and it's played out very accurately. Once again, the kind of detail that makes this film special. Jones' facial expressions in the final scene in the car with Fowley are quite convincing also. There's a lot of action, and even though no viewer for a moment has any doubt how things will turn out at the end, the filmmakers manage to make it all seem fresh as it is happening, and by distinctive character touches and particulars in the script (the seedy backroom gambling den, for instance) they get us involved in a story that is so "Classic" in its details that the cynic could call it cliché-ridden. There are a number of b-movie gems hidden in the Lippert catalog waiting to be rediscovered. There's nothing noir about this film--Lowery is a hero, Fowley is the bad guy, and there's no grey area or corrupt world. It's just a well-done crime programmer that I pull out every few years and enjoy. Considering how many bad and pretentious films are playing right now on TV and in theaters, films like ARSON INC. are a breath of fresh air.

William Berke directs a very brisk 61' flick, to the extent that characterization is a tad flat. That said, Lowery comes across as an undercover fireman - an unusual situation in that profession - who is constantly ogled by the women in the film.

Maude Eburne, as the babysitting grandma, and Douglas Flowley as top villain Fender, have remarkable parts but it is Edward Brophy as the incendiary arsonist, that steals the show.

The script is rather contrived, and some parts seem much too put together, but it grabs your attention throughout and even has some funny moments, provided mainly by Eburne and Brophy.

Pretty Anne Gwinne looks set for an important part as the love interest but surprisingly disappears, and by the end I hardly remembered her.

Ultimately, it was designed as a support piece to the main film, and it certainly delivers as short entertainment in a quasi-doc noir atmosphere.

Very well shot with a good mix of angles, this is also pretty fast paced, but whilst it's interesting to see the fire services in action, this doesn't really go anywhere. The film is book-ended with very poorly delivered fire chief statements about how every has to do their best etc and whilst the main body of the film is better, the acting seems rather lacklustre. Robert Lowery just seems to coast along but Edward Brophy puts in a spirited characterful performance alongside him. Even Anne Gwynne outshines the lead even if she seems not to notice any of the danger or worry at all about what's going down. Maybe it's because she's had more terrifying jobs, like working with Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi and Lon Chaney Jr. Not a total waste of time but it would have to be a very rainy Sunday afternoon.