A loud crash disturbs the next door neighbor, who immediately thinks a murder is happening so he calls the sheriff. But when the lawman finds the whole thing is beyond his control he thinks it's better call the help of other authorities, who later on will get a strange surprise.
Walt Hoban
United States

A door slams. Somewhere, dignity falls flat on its face. There’s a special alchemy to early-century slapstick: take a mundane noise, inflate it with paranoia, and let the balloon ricochet until the room looks like a thought balloon in a Tex Avery cartoon. Walt Hoban’s A False Alarm distills that formula into twelve el...


Comparing the cinematic DNA and archive impact of two defining moments in cult history.

Vernon Stallings

Lloyd Ingraham
Community
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" A door slams. Somewhere, dignity falls flat on its face. There’s a special alchemy to early-century slapstick: take a mundane noise, inflate it with paranoia, and let the balloon ricochet until the room looks like a thought balloon in a Tex Avery cartoon. Walt Hoban’s A False Alarm distills that formula into twelve electric minutes, proving that runtime is irrelevant when panic is the star. The film’s genius lies not in sophisticated plot machinery but in how cavalierly it strips civic authorit..."
Comedy, Animation, Short

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