FALSE ALARMS

Production Information
Title: 
False Alarms
Studio: Columbia
Short Number: 17
Release Date: August 16, 1936
Running Time: 16:48

“You’ll like me after we get acquainted. I grow on people.” “So do warts.”

Short Take

The Stooges are dim-witted firemen who spend most of their time covering up their mistakes so they can impress their girlfriends by being in uniform. Curly sneaks out while on duty to join the girls, who want him to get his two buddies to come too, so Curly trips the nearest fire alarm. Missing the truck, Moe & Larry take the Captain’s (Stanley Blystone) car and try to beat the truck to the “fire.”

False Alarms Cast & Crew

Directed byDel Lord
Produced byJules White
Written byJohn Grey
StarringMoe Howard
Larry Fine
Curly Howard
Stanley Blystone
June Gittelson
Beatrice Curtis
Beatrice Blinn
John Grey
CinematographyBenjamin H. Kline
Edited byCharles Hochberg

False Alarms Trivia

  • Moe’s father, Solomon Horwitz, is visible as a passerby on the sidewalk. After Moe and Larry arrive at the false alarm called in by Curly, Solomon passes in the background, walking from right to left and wearing a white hat. This occurs while Curly quotes, “I got ya out, didn’t I?”
  • Curly gets in a slap match with a woman in which short: An Ache In Every Stake, False Alarms, and Hoi Polloi. (A: All of them!)
  • When Larry tries to slide down a fire pole and Moe pulls him back up by his hair was also a bit used in Flat Foot Stooges

Production Notes

  • False Alarms was filmed on location in Los Angeles on May 19–22, 1936
  • The following landmarks appear in the film: Fire station: Engine No. 61 and Truck No. 61; Carl X Folsom Modern Motor Service; Ozarks Drugstore; Los Angeles Railway Trolley no. 400