False Alarms

Curly, Larry and Moe are with the fire brigade. They mess things up and almost get fired. They get one last chance. Later that day are suppose to go to a birthday party with some girls but are not allowed to leave. Only Curly sneaks out and arrives at the party. He must find a way to get his friends there as well and therefore he sets off the alarm. You can imagine what can go wrong.

This is a pretty funny short with some very nice physical jokes as well. By watching too much Three Stooges shorts the violence, especially from Moe, gets a little irritating. There are also very funny violent moments so I am not really complaining. It is just that after one punch in the eyes it is enough, in my humble opinion. Still, this is a very entertaining movie.

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.

This is one of those "classic" Three Stooges shorts that is funny no matter how many times you view it. You get some good sight gags, a few hilarious lines of dialog, a Keystone Kops-type wild ride in the city and the usual assortment of Stooge jokes and slapstick.

The boys are pretty new at being firemen but, of course, they are pathetic and are "fired" for sleeping on the job (among other sins, such as never helping to put out a fire). They plead with the chief, played by Stanley Blystone, to give them one more chance.

The ironic part of the story is that there never is a fire to be put out, only at the very end when the boys drive away in a big truck with the contents on fire in the back! Unfortunately, the contents happen to be the chief's brand-new car.

Much of the story centers around Curly trying to find a "fella" for fat girl "Minnie" who is one of three girls at a birthday party the Stooges were invited to, but only Curly could attend. (Why that was, you'll have to watch).

June Gittlelson, who plays the big woman, is very good. Every man she runs into, she asks, "Will you be my fella?" To Curly, she adds, "You know I grow on people." Curly answers, "Yeah, so do warts!"

Minnie wants a man in the worst way, or she wants to go somewhere and eat. I suppose fat people will be insulted with movie. Near the end, she and Curly take turns slapping each other. It's wonderful stuff you'd never see today! The goofy antics at the fire hall, at the birthday party with the women and the mayhem in the streets all make this a very entertaining Stooges film .

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.