Sadly Over-hyped

Good concept, poorly executed.

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

I am about to spoil this film completely along with "Here Comes the Navy", just to warn you.Dick Foran played almost exclusively singing cowboys or he was a supporting player and usually a likable guy at that. I was watching this one that I taped a long time ago for the first time this morning when I quickly noticed that this film was almost a carbon copy of "Here Comes The Navy" except a few details have been changed.Basically, Foran as Red Tyler is James Cagney's character, Robert Armstrong as Capt. Smokey Shannon is Pat O'Brien's character, Eddy Acuff as skillet is Frank McHugh's character, and Ann Sheridan as Margie is Gloria Stuart's character in "Here Comes the Navy".Instead of the navy, Red and Smokey are in the fire department, and originally Red was a gambler rather than a riveter. But plot point by plot point everything is basically the same. Red has it in for Smokey after he knocks him out cold at a dance and wins a dance contest with Red's girl, Red joins the fire department to find a way to get even with Smokey and winds up assigned to his firehouse, Red mistakes the affection between Margie and Smokey to be romantic, not realizing they are brother and sister, Red tries to romance Margie and that does rile Smokey because he doesn't want his sister anywhere close to the guy.Even the small scenes are the same. Eddy Accuff as Red's buddy is saving money to buy his mother false teeth, Red finds out Margie is "not that kind of girl" when he makes an unwanted pass at her in her apartment, and Red finds himself ostracized by the other firemen after a serious incident until he finds out the value of teamwork.So why was this movie so much worse than "Here Comes the Navy"? For one, none of the actors employed can hold a candle to the cast of the original as far as intensity and chemistry goes. Foran was always the good guy, and here he is just not believable as a heel. Foran and Armstrong have zero chemistry, the same for Ann Sheridan and Dick Foran. Eddy Acuff seems to be sleepwalking through his lines as Foran's long suffering buddy. He is not nearly as interesting as that human Pillsbury doughboy Frank McHugh. I will say Ann Sheridan pops out as the only actor of interest, but not even she can save this material, plus this was her first year at Warner Brothers and she had not achieved star status yet, so I'm sure she just took the roles she was given.So why is it even worthwhile? It is full of historic fire apparatus and a view of real life in the fire service in 1937. Also this is an awesome look at the Los Angeles Fire Department and the famous Hollywood Engine House 27, which is now a museum. Coincidentally, "Here Comes The Navy" is partially remembered because it was shot on and around the U.S.S. Arizona which sank at Pearl Harbor. How strange that both films would end up having historical significance.So why did Warner Brothers remake this film? Warner Brothers was famous for recycling scripts in the 30s and 40s, but they usually came out better than this. They sometimes recycled stories because the original was an early talkie and they could redo it with better technology a few years down the road or the original was a precode and the story had to be sanitized after the production code came in. Neither of these reasons apply here. But one thing is true - this was made while James Cagney was fighting it out with Warner Brothers over his contract. Perhaps Jack Warner was saying - "Look Cagney, you can easily be replaced by Dick Foran - you may dance, but he can sing!". If so, for the price of a movie ticket James Cagney could easily find out he had nothing to worry about.If you are into the history of firefighting or you are interested in Ann Sheridan's early career, I'd recommend it. On the whole it is a take it or leave it proposition.

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.

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.