False Alarms

Once again the Stooges are firemen. While this isn't the first time they've been in these roles, this isn't one of the best due to a plot and jokes that just don't seem to have a lot of energy or zip. Fortunately, while this is a problem, the mindless violence that many enjoy in their films is present--with some of the most painful-looking gags I've seen. Larry really has a tough time of it and I don't know how they did the one scene with Moe holding him by the hair as he dangled on the fire pole--could this have been real? Also, although it may offend some, I liked where Curly and the lady at the end of the film slap each other around--especially since in the 1930s you almost never saw a guy slap a lady--unless he's a Stooge! Overall, it's an amiable time-passer and not a lot more. Fans of the team will no doubt love it, while others will probably find it all a tad tiresome.

In this short the stooges are firefighters that always get into trouble and are never on time when the alarm rings. There are some funny moments in here like when Moe locks himself and Larry in a room so they won't leave work early and go to a house where Curly and some girls are and Moe drops the key down the sink and there trying to get it, also Curly says some good stuff ex: woman: Curly sit down take a load off your feet. Curly: its not my feet that hurt. A funny short.

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!

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 .