THE FLYING SQUAD - "Our Miss Brooks" (1940)

 

This week's Saturday Night Special is a 1940 British film penned by Dungeon Hero Edgar Wallace called "The Flying Squad."

 

When I first saw the title "The Flying Squad," I immediately thought this was a war film, but it's not. "The Flying Squad" was an independent arm of the law formed in 1919 that was originally called "The Mobile Patrol Experiment." Their job was to conduct surveillance and gather intelligence on known robbers and pickpockets. They were given no boundaries and were attached to no divisions, and basically only answered to themselves.

Mark McGill is a dirty no good, lowdown murderer and dope smuggler played by Jack (Theater Of Blood) Hawkins.

Pretty Phyllis Brooks is a gullible and naive woman named Ann Perryman.

Phyllis was born in Boise, Idaho, and traveled in social circles that included people like John F. Kennedy, who was the Godfather of her oldest son. She was also in two Charlie Chan movies.

Sebastian (Anakin Skywalker) Shaw is Inspector Bradley of "The Flying Squad."

Ann Perryman's brother Ronald is up to his neck in trouble, and Tiser is Mark McGill's henchman.

Sedeman is washed up out of work actor, and Li Joseph is a senile olde man who only knows how to play one annoying song on the violin.

The trap door in the floor is a straight drop into the river. McGill uses it to throw out the trash.

Ronald introduces his sister to McGill.

The olde man Li is driving the gang crazy with his incessant violin playing.

This looks like a shot from some Edgar Allen Poe film.

McGill kills Ronald, and poor olde Li saw it happen, so he has to be disposed of too.

Rat dog McGill convinces Ann that Inspector Bradley was responsible for the death of her brother, even though he was really the one who did it, and she falls for it.

These two are just regular colourful Edgar Wallace characters.

Phyllis Brooks was engaged at one time to Cary Grant, but she ended up marrying Torbert Macdonald, who had been John F. Kennedy's roommate at Harvard University, and went on to become an 11-term Congressman in Massachusetts.

Dumbass McGill blows his cover when he leaves the phone off the hook after talking to Ann.

Before it's over, McGill has Ann moving drugs for him, and she doesn't even know it.

"The Flying Squad" is only 64 minutes long, so it doesn't waste your time with a bunch of fluff and filler! It's a bit droll, but it's worth an hour of your time.