Customer Reviews

Fire Alarm (aka Flames)

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Monogram Pictures presents "FIRE ALARM" (30 May 1932) (63 mins/B&W) (Fully Restored/Dolby Digitally Remastered) -- Johnny Mack Brown was an All-American college football player and film actor --- Born and raised in Dothan, Alabama, Brown was a star of the high school football team, earning a football scholarship to the University of Alabama --- Playing the halfback position on his university's Crimson Tide football team, Brown helped his team to become the 1926 NCAA Division I-A national football champions --- In that year's Rose Bowl Game, he earned Most Valuable Player honors after scoring two of his team's three touchdowns in an upset win over the heavily favored Washington Huskies.

His good looks and powerful physique saw him portrayed on Wheaties cereal boxes and in 1927, brought an offer for motion picture screen tests that resulted in a long and successful career in Hollywood --- He appeared in minor roles until 1930 when he was cast as the star in a western movie entitled "Billy the Kid" and directed by King Vidor, the film also features Wallace Beery as Pat Garrett.

Brown went on to make several top-flight movies under the name John Mack Brown, including The Secret Six (1931) with Wallace Beery, as well as the legendary Lost Generation celebration of alcohol, "The Last Flight" (1931), and was being groomed by MGM as a leading man until being replaced on a film in 1931, with all his scenes re shot with Clark Gable in his place --- Rechristened Johnny Mack Brown, "Fighting Kit Carson" (1933) he returned to making exclusively westerns and eventually became one of the screen's top B-movie cowboy stars, making 127 western films during his career, including "Ride 'Em Cowboy" (1942) with Abbott and Costello --- Brown also starred in four serials for Universal Studios (Rustlers of Red Dog (1935), Wild West Days (1937), Flaming Frontiers (1938) and The Oregon Trail (1939) and was a hero to millions of young children at movie theaters and on their television screens --- Altogether, Brown appeared in over 160 movies between 1927 and 1966, as well as a smattering of television shows, in a career spanning almost forty years --- In recognition of his contribution to the motion picture industry, Brown was given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6101 Hollywood Blvd --- In 1969, Brown was inducted into the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame.(From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

Under the production staff of:
Karl Brown (Director/Adaptation/Story)
I.E. Chadwick (Producer/Adaptation & Story)
Archie Stout (Cinematographer)
Carl Pierson (Film Editor)

Our story line and plot -- This low budgeted melodrama has a mixture of romance, comedy, and adventure with some visual energy --- While fireman Charlie (Johnny Mack Brown) along with his firefighting pal Fishey (George Cooper), assist in rescuing from atop a telephone pole a stranded cat that belongs to an attractive blonde, Pat Burke (Noel Francis), following this the two men begin double date with her and her roommate Gertie Martin (Marjorie Beebe) --- Patricia finds herself fending off advances from her employer, Mr. Garson (Richard Tucker) wanting her to work overtime at his home --- some great scenes from cinematographer Archie Stout who provides filming street action of firemen from a large city at work, including human rescue techniques commonly in use at the time of filming --- Alpha Video has a clean and crisp copy for viewing, glad to see this finally surfaced.

the cast includes:
Johnny Mack Brown ... Charlie
George Cooper ... Fishey
Noel Francis ... Pat Burke
Marjorie Beebe ... Gertie Martin
Richard Tucker ... Mr. Garson
Russell Simpson ... Jake
Patricia Caron ... Miss La Rue, Garson's Fiancée
Kit Guard ... Pete, photographer / fireman
Fred Parker ... Henderson, Garson's Butler
Fred 'Snowflake' Toones ... Janitor

SPECIAL FEATURES:
BIO:
1. Johnny Mack Brown
Date of Birth: 1 September 1904 - Dothan, Alabama
Date of Death: 14 November 1974 - Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California

Bobby J. Copeland's book published by Empire Publising on "Johnny Mack Brown: Up Close & Personal" is chuck full of answers to all the questions his fans had from early on --- when you went to see him on the big screen, you got exactly what the marquee said...plenty of thrills, adventure and loaded with action --- Johnny Mack was a natural for the western, his riding abilities and fight scenes were of the the same caliber as Buck Jones and Bob Steele --- Johnny Mack sets the saddle better than Duke Wayne --- seems Johnny got better with the more films he made and the scripts were always top notch --- he was one of the best-liked people in films, what you saw on the screen is what he really was, a great human being.

Hats off and thanks to Les Adams (collector/guidelines for character identification), Chuck Anderson (Webmaster: The Old Corral/B-Westerns.Com), Boyd Magers (Western Clippings), Bobby J. Copeland (author of "Trail Talk"), Rhonda Lemons (Empire Publishing Inc), Bob Nareau (author of "The Real Bob Steele") and Trevor Scott (Down Under DVD Com) as they have rekindled my interest once again for Film Noir, B-Westerns and Serials --- order your copy now from Amazon where there are plenty of copies available on DVD --- all my heroes have been cowboys!

Total Time: 63 min on DVD ~ Monogram Pictures ~ (7/27/2010)