She Loved a Fireman (1937)

Dick Foran--more famous (or infamous) for playing singing cowboys--plays a wise-ass who joins the fire department to show a fireman he doesn't like how easy the job is. Robert Armstrong plays the fireman in question, and he does what he can with it. Ann Sheridan is Armstrong's sister, who Foran is interested in, and Armstrong doesn't want him near her. Sheridan shows the warm, easygoing but sexy personality she used to great effect later in her career, even though she only has a fairly small part here. This is strictly a bottom-of-the-bill quickie, directed by John Farrow who went on to bigger and better things, as did Sheridan. Foran didn't, pretty much staying in the "B" rut for the rest of his career. He's supposed to be a ladies man here, but he just doesn't pull it off, coming across as a conceited, arrogant jackass. Sheridan sparkles in a small part, and Armstrong is always interesting to watch. Unfortunately, the picture isn't. If you're an Ann Sheridan fan you'll want to see this. If you're not, you won't.

Cocky bookie Dick Foran must wake up when he joins the fire department and immediately locks horns with his commander, Robert Armstrong ("King Kong"). No sooner has he slid down the pole for the first time, he's dated the boss's sister (Ann Sheridan), much against Armstrong's will. Foran is ready to call it quits until an accident incidentally caused by him gets him to re-think his future.Formula action/drama has some well-filmed fire sequences and the accident scene where a fireman falls off a speeding fire truck is nail biting. Foran and Armstrong are basically a re-tread of Cagney/O'Brien, Bogart/O'Brien from several other Warner Brothers films (most obviously "The Great O'Malley") with the likable Sheridan as a plucky heroine who always makes the most out of usually meaningless parts like this.

I have to second that first assessment I read. Ann Sheridan IS the only reason to watch this. However, it is also the reason TO watch it. Ann Sheridan might be the most underrated actress in motion picture history. She is always worth watching. Anything and everything she does is worth watching. This was made before she was being given significant roles which all changed with the James Cagney/Pat O'Brien classic, "Angels with Dirty Faces". That performance brought to the attention of Hollywood that she was much more than a pretty face. The three of them teamed up again in "Torrid Zone" and by then she was coming into her own. She had a tremendous off screen brother/sister repoire with Humphrey Bogart from their film "San Quentin". Although the media has consistently reminded everyone of Betty Grable as a pin-up during WWII, Ann Sheridan was right there with her.

The only thing worth watching in She Loved a Fireman is Ann Sheridan, and it's really too bad for this movie's sake that she's hardly in it. Instead we get a too-large dose of Dick Foran. Blah.While watching this movie I couldn't help but think why on Earth would someone like Ann fall for a guy like this? It reminded me of a couple of Priscilla Lane movies where she gets stuck with another Warner Brothers buffoon Wayne Morris.I'm just glad that both Ann and Priscilla got to work with the likes of Humphrey Bogart, Cary Grant and James Cagney. It definitely made doing movies like this more tolerable knowing that better things were on the horizon.