Going to Blazes! is a 1948 short film (21 minutes) directed by Gunther V. Fritsch.
It's a documentary short about the fire department. After a witness to a house fire pronounces it "just another fire", the narrator (apparently a real Los Angeles fireman) takes over. The narrator describes how there are 20,000 fires a year and the various branches of the LA fire department are always busy. Scenes show the daily lives of firemen, as well as the pre-digital punch card technology that the fire department uses to dispatch engines. The narrator examines various causes of fires, such as smoking in bed and plugging too many plugs into a single outlet. The film ends by noting how people don't care very much about fires if it isn't their house, but that fires represent an economic cost to everyone.
Tropes:
- The Big Board: Dispatch has a board with the whole L.A. street grid, which lights up to show the particular grid that a fire is on. Firemen use it to send engines, after referencing cards that have fire stations indexed to the map.
- Brick Joke: A fireman is putting a lovingly prepared ham into the oven just as the fire alarm rings and he runs off. Later he comes back, finds that the ham is a piece of charcoal, and serves the guys baked beans from a can.
- Fireman's Safety Net: One scene has firemen training in the use of this, with a bunch of them holding the net as someone jumps from a building.
- Hemisphere Bias: The "Theater of Life" series title card shows a globe, with North America front and center.
- An Insert: The action opens with a shot of a hand entering the frame to pull a fire alarm lever.
- Narrator: After the opening sequence that has a few scenes with people delivering dialogue, an anonymous narrator takes over, talking all about the lives and work activities of LA firemen.
- Off-into-the-Distance Ending: Ends with a fire truck zooming away, headed for a fire.
- Stock Footage: Lots of clips of burning buildings.
- Title Drop: The narration ends by talking about how people don't appreciate the economic impact of fire damage. The very last line says "homes, jobs, lives...everything going to blazes."
