Riot Squad

2630. RIOT SQUAD (1941-USA). With RICHARD CROMWELL, RITA QUIGLEY and SPARKY (the dog). Boyishly handsome heartthrob Richard Cromwell is perfectly cast in this spiffy crime drama as Dr. Tom Brandon, an earnest young ambulance medic who toils long hours for little wages at a large metropolitan hospital. He could not be happier as he proposes to his longtime girlfriend, nurse Mary Davis. “It’s a great life if you’re the right partners,” the lovebirds are told. “We’re the right partners,” they insist. Dr. Tom’s goal is to “hang up a shingle” and establish his own practice. Before he can accomplish this, he finds himself embroiled in a cleverly devised story involving gangsters and murder. It’s Dr. Tom’s night off, and he and Mary go nightclubbing. A policeman is shot to death in a back room of the club by Jimmy Grosso, the hoodlum who owns the joint. Grosso is wounded during the shoot-out, and Dr. Tom is called to care for him. The mobster offers to take Dr. Tom on as his personal physician, a position that will earn him a far greater salary than that of a lowly ambulance doctor or struggling private practitioner, Dr. Tom has no intention of accepting the proposition, but then he learns that the deceased cop is his best friend. So the medic agrees to Grosso’s offer, but with a catch. He will be working undercover for the police in an effort to nail Grosso and his gang. Plenty of plot complications are the result, leading to a slam-bang finale. 57 minutes. Crime-Mystery-Suspense