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6/10
Senior Film Conservator
A definitive 6/10 rating for a film that redefined the boundaries of cult cinema. Rescue Squad remains a cornerstone of transgressive art.
Skip Rescue Squad if you want deep thoughts or high art, but if you have an hour to kill and love cheap 1930s thrills, it is actually a fun ride. People who love fast-paced vintage melodramas will have a blast, while anyone looking for modern pacing will probably fall asleep in five minutes. 🚒
The plot is paper thin, even for 1935. A special firefighting squad has to find some guys who keep setting fires for insurance money, and that is pretty much the whole deal.
What makes this one work is how fast it moves. It has that frantic, early-sound energy you also find in films like Treating 'Em Rough where nobody seems to stand still for more than ten seconds.
Leon Ames is in this, looking so young it is almost distracting. He has this one scene where he stares at a burning wall with so much intensity you would think he was looking at a masterpiece in a museum.
And the sound design is just hilarious. The fire alarms sound like a dying cat, and they play it constantly during the first twenty minutes.
There is also a weird romance subplot that goes absolutely nowhere. Verna Hillie is there to look worried, which she does very well, to be fair, but her character has zero actual things to do.
Some of the fire footage is clearly stolen from other, bigger movies. You can tell because the grain on the film suddenly gets twice as thick during the wide shots of the burning buildings.
It reminds me of watching old double features like The Fighting Sheriff where the budget was basically five dollars and a ham sandwich. But Rescue Squad does not overstay its welcome, and sometimes that is all you need.
It is a messy little film. But it has a lot of heart, and the stunts with the actual fire trucks look incredibly dangerous for the actors involved.