Fire Chief Kelly is the old-fashioned type, preferring horse-drawn fire engines "because there is nothing more thrilling than seeing....blah, blah, blah." I guess looks are more important than putting out the fire, eh Chief?
Anyway, after arguing with a salesman trying to get the old guy to switch to modern machinery, his daughter comes in with a trophy that the boys - Curly, Larry & Moe - won for selling the most tickets to a picnic.
We then get our first glance at the Stooges as firemen. As you can guess, they aren't exactly proficient in their job. We get a corny skit of them trying to put on their duds and then trying to hitch up the horses to get to a fire....only to discover it's an alarm clock ringing, not the fire bell. It's pretty lame stuff, not the greatest of Stooges humor.
The Stooges are told there's a prize for the best-looking horses at the picnic, and since there is no fire, the boys decide to take two horses, Annie and Fannie, to the Turkish baths in town. (Don't ask.) Next, the boys give the horses a rubdown. The horses lie on a table!
All of this silliness is interrupted when, all of the sudden, the scene changes to some crook (that previously-mentioned salesman) holding a can of TNT and trying to get into a building. He's spilling it and a duck following is eating the stuff! Except for cartoons, where else can you see insane things like this?
From this point on - the second half of the story - it gets better, with genuinely funny sight gags, like the duck laying eggs that explode, or the safety net to save a guy jumping from the ledge. It even gets suspenseful with a raging fire - at the firehouse! Overall, however, it's slightly below-average material. It's a little too silly and definitely too loud.
Anyway, after arguing with a salesman trying to get the old guy to switch to modern machinery, his daughter comes in with a trophy that the boys - Curly, Larry & Moe - won for selling the most tickets to a picnic.
We then get our first glance at the Stooges as firemen. As you can guess, they aren't exactly proficient in their job. We get a corny skit of them trying to put on their duds and then trying to hitch up the horses to get to a fire....only to discover it's an alarm clock ringing, not the fire bell. It's pretty lame stuff, not the greatest of Stooges humor.
The Stooges are told there's a prize for the best-looking horses at the picnic, and since there is no fire, the boys decide to take two horses, Annie and Fannie, to the Turkish baths in town. (Don't ask.) Next, the boys give the horses a rubdown. The horses lie on a table!
All of this silliness is interrupted when, all of the sudden, the scene changes to some crook (that previously-mentioned salesman) holding a can of TNT and trying to get into a building. He's spilling it and a duck following is eating the stuff! Except for cartoons, where else can you see insane things like this?
From this point on - the second half of the story - it gets better, with genuinely funny sight gags, like the duck laying eggs that explode, or the safety net to save a guy jumping from the ledge. It even gets suspenseful with a raging fire - at the firehouse! Overall, however, it's slightly below-average material. It's a little too silly and definitely too loud.