False Alarms

Larry, Curly, and Moe are incompetent firemen. The Captain is furious that they missed the fire. He gives them their last chance but the boys keep screwing up. Curly sneaks out to visit his girlfriend. She has two friends who need boyfriends. Curly makes a false alarm to bring in his firemen friends.

Incompetent, idiotic, and selfish is the best of the ugly Stooges. This is one of the best ugly Stooges. One still roots for them despite themselves. I love Curly fighting the girl although he could lose worst. When he slaps her, he should act like he hurts his hand. I also love that this is one story and not disjointed. This is loads of fun.

This one finds The Three Stooges as firemen – though, of course, they prefer to sleep their way through work…or else attempt to keep appointments with their girls (one of whom is obese and highly irritating)! Many a film or cartoon has dealt with this theme, poking fun at a serious subject via the mayhem caused by either incompetent firemen or the engine's various equipment – such as water-hoses and ladders. As always, The Stooges manage to fall foul of their boss – especially when, at the climax, they borrow and wreck his brand-new automobile! In essence, this vehicle – like much of The Three Stooges' work (at least, from what I've seen so far) – is harmless but, at the same time, unsympathetic…and, besides, has little rewatchability value for me.

Early movie comedians, from Charlie Chaplin to the Little Rascals, played roles as firemen. The Three Stooges were no exception. In the trio's 17th episode, August 1936 "False Alarms" our heroes are firefighters who cause mayhem inside and outside the firehouse.

Del Lord resumed directing the Stooges after Black White relinquished the chair after a few shorts. Lord favored filming outside, a departure from White's more interior studio settings. Moe and Curly's father, Solomon, who made a spot appearance in the Stooges previous film, makes his cameo at about the 15 minute mark standing on the sidewalk towards the right in a striped suit with a light-colored hat. Another exterior scene contains the three unwinding a couple of fire hoses to clean them. Trouble was as they lay out the hoses, they fail to recognize the street car tracks. When the train slices the hoses in three, Curly picks up each piece separately and gives them girl names, Marie, Yvonne, Annette. Those names were part of Canada's Dionne quintuplets, born a year before "False Alarms," and were the first quints to have survived infancy, all living to be adults. Contemporary viewers would have been familiar with those names Curly used.

"False Alarms" also contains a rare Larry and Moe sequence without Curly, who was busy wooing three ladies. When Moe tries to squeeze Larry down a sink pipe to retrieve a room key, they end up breaking down a door of a closet, causing a seamless chain of events where the two slide down the fire pole. Larry lands on his head, compacting his head deep into his torso. Moe reaches inside Larry's fireman's uniform and grabs him by the hair to straighten him out. Many Stooges' experts claim Moe and Larry should have been just a duo after Shemp's death in the mid-1950s, instead of filling in the third role with Curly lookalikes.

Sleeping on the job, aye? Moe, Larry and Curly manage to get jobs as firemen, but they're lazy. Then again, between fires there's not much to do, right? Their boss, Captain Ashe(?), played by rough & tough Stanley Blystone, gives them one more chance -- and you know what means. TOTAL CHAOS. I agree with the last reviewer, this is a take-off on many other films and cartoons that make firemen look bad (really bad), or with hose malfunctions, which is common in real life. The Stooges take it to the next level.

A terrific comedy that also finds Curly with a gal pal, Maisie (played by Beatrice Curtis). Never mind the fires, Maisie wants Curly to find her "plump" pal Minnie (June Gittelson) a date? That's where Moe and Larry come in? Gittelson was a staple in the Stooge comedies, always trying to latch onto a guy, any guy. She was best paired with Curly, for obvious reasons.

Director Del Lord keeps this rolling, and that's the secret, non-stop action, including the Stooges wrecking the captain's new car. Surprisingly, the film must have had a higher budget to be able to wreck a new car, or at least a car that looked new? By the way if you're thinking Our Gang/Little Rascals, you are right. The kids also played goofy firemen (HOOK AND LADDER, 1932) and may have inspired this film.

Always on Columbia dvd, generally released by decades, 30s, 40s, 50s episodes or theme boxes. Thanks always to METV for running these oldies every Saturday, making our weekend.

The Three Stooges has always been some of the many actors that I have loved. I love just about every one of the shorts that they have made. I love all six of the Stooges (Curly, Shemp, Moe, Larry, Joe, and Curly Joe)! All of the shorts are hilarious and also star many other great actors and actresses which a lot of them was in many of the shorts! In My opinion The Three Stooges is some of the greatest actors ever and is the all time funniest comedy team!

This is a very funny Three Stooges short. Its extremely hilarious. Curly is so different in this one. Stanley Blystone is very good in this one and his fire chief character is a good one. The scenes with Curly and the women is very funny. There is another fire fighter Three Stooges short called Flat Foot Stooges which it is pretty good. I recommend this one!