The Third Alarm is a 1922 American silent melodrama directed by Emory Johnson. FBO released the film in January 1923. The film's "All-Star" cast included Ralph Lewis, Johnnie Walker, and Johnson's wife, Ella Hall. Emilie Johnson, Johnson's mother, wrote both the story and screenplay. The Third Alarm was the second picture in Johnson's eight-picture contract with FBO.
Dan McDowell was a veteran fireman and driver of a horse-drawn Fire Engine. The department motorizes the station's equipment. Dan cannot master the driving skills needed to operate the new motorized vehicles. The fire chief retires Dan with a small pension. Johnny, Dan's son, is studying to become a doctor. Dan supported his son's ambitions but could not keep his family and Johnnie's schooling. He takes a job digging ditches. Circumstances befall Dan, and he lives through various misfortunes. Johnnie, no longer able to afford medical school, works as a fireman. All storylines converge as a three-alarm fire breaks out. This Melodrama has a predictable happy ending.
__TOC__
Plot
The action starts when someone trips a remote Fire alarm call box. Then, the Fire station alarm bell clangs, and a fire dispatcher shouts, "We roll - third and western." All the firefighters jump into action, the doors swing wide, and the two horse-drawn fire engines race down the street to battle the fire. We pay particular attention to engine number seven, a steam pumper operated by an aging firefighter - Dan McDowell. McDowell has been a member of the force for two decades and drives engine number seven. He also maintains the fire station's five fire horses.
Mother McDowell is frosting Dan's birthday cake with the couple's daughter at the McDowell house, which stands caddy-corner from the fire station. Johnny McDowell joins the group. Johnny is studying to become a doctor and has only a year left. We meet Johnny's sweetheart, June Rutherford. Dan attends the party later in the day, but looks very downcast.
The battalion chief travels to the station house and informs the boys they intend to motorize the station. All the men applaud except Dan, who does not look too pleased. The day of the changeover arrives, and the fire crew watches as the new motorized steam pumpers drive in. Dan must learn to drive the motorized pumper truck but struggles to master basic driving skills. Unable to drive the new rig, the chief retires Dan McDowell on a small pension. Later, the chief sells the five fire horses.
Dan's foremost concern now is Johnny's medical career. Dan tells Johnny he has not saved enough money to support his medical studies. Johnny tells his father not to worry because his sweetheart is the daughter of a famous surgeon - Dr. Loren Rutherford. Dan tells Johnny that his brother got ill when he was a young father. The boy's physician told Dan that only one man could save the boy - Dr. Loren Rutherford. Dan storms into Dr. Rutherford's office and pleads with the Dr. to save his boy. Dr. Rutherford says he cannot save Dan's son because he must save another life first. Dan tells Johnny he will never forget that Dr. Rutherford let his young brother die.
To make ends meet, Dan takes a job as a ditch digger. While working one day, he feels Bullet nuzzling against him. Bullet had been pulling a dirt wagon but, upon catching sight of his old handler, paid a visit. Bullet's overseer sees what his horse is doing. He walks over to the animal and starts mishandling the poor horse. Dan attempted to stop the supervisor's abuse, but the supervisor overpowered him. Johnny chances upon the altercation and thrashes Bullet's handler. He then warns the supervisor about further abuse and suggests that Dan seek a new job. Johnny realizes there is one way to ease Dan's financial burdens. He drops out of medical school and applies for a job at the fire station. The chief knows Johnny and makes him a firefighter. The next day, the police arrive at the McDowell household. They claim a fire horse is missing and blame Johnny. The police have a search warrant and find "Bullet" in Dan's shed—the police demand to know where Johnny is. To save his son the embarrassment, Dan confessed to the crime. They promptly sent him to jail.
A fire breaks out in the Rutherford apartment building where June Rutherford lives on the top floor. She evacuates the building with the other residents but discovers her dog is missing. She rushes into the burning building to rescue her dog, but becomes trapped by the flames. Johnny is at the fire station when the fire bell clangs. He discovers the fire is at the new Rutherford apartments. The dispatcher says they only respond if it becomes a third alarm. Freddie is selling newspapers when he reads about Dan's arrest as a horse thief. He rushes to the fire station, tells the fire chief he found Bullet on the street, and locks him up in Dan's woodshed. The chief says he will go to jail and have Dan released.
Meanwhile, at the fire scene, they issue a third alarm. Johnny and his fire company rush to the location of the fire. June is still seeking an escape when she finds an open balcony. She scurries to the balcony and starts screaming for help. The nearest fire truck approaches the deck and raises its ladder to rescue her, but the ladder is too short. Suddenly, a lone firefighter scrambles up the ladder–it is Johnny trying to save his beloved June. The apartment walls start collapsing, so the battalion chief orders his men to safety. Then the wall supporting the end of the ladder collapses, but at the last moment, Johnny hooks a Scaling ladder to the balcony. He climbs the ladder to the balcony, rescuing June and her dog. Now they must escape to safer ground. While June and the dog hold tight to him, he drops to the balcony below.
Dan has secured his release from jail and rushes to the fire scene, helping fellow firefighters handle the hoses. While the fire blazes, a loud thunder is heard, and a massive safe crashes through several apartment floors. The crumbling floors pull Johnny and June down, but somehow, they endure the fall. The safe now blocks their escape route.
Meanwhile, Dr. Rutherford finds Dan and begs him to save his daughter. Dan has flashbacks about his adolescent son, but he brushes them aside. Working the night shift, Bullet hears the fire alarm, breaks free of his reins, and heads toward the flames. Dan is struggling with a way to save Johnny and June when Bullet arrives. Dan has an idea and thinks he has a way to save the couple. He mounts Bullet, rides through the flames, comes to the spot where the safe has fallen, and throws ropes around the safe. Dan then urges Bullet to pull the safe free. Bullet obliges and frees Johnny and June. They finally bring the fire under control.
The scene switches to a farmhouse in the country. Dan discovers that Dr. Rutherford has bought a small farm with enough pasture to care for all the fire horses. Dan will become the caretaker. It fades out with Dan holding Bullet and Johnny holding June.
Cast The cast of this film used several of the same actors who appeared in In the Name of the Law.
ActorRoleRalph LewisDan McDowellJohnnie WalkerJohnny McDowellElla HallJune RutherfordVirginia True BoardmanMother McDowellFrankie LeeLittle JimmieWilbur HigbyFire Chief AndrewsRichard MorrisDr. Loren RutherfordJosephine AdairAlice McDowell
Production
Film Booking Offices of America (FBO) was an energetic, independent American silent era film studio. The company released around 110 features and shorts a year. The company focused on producing low-budget films emphasizing first-class westerns, action films, romantic melodramas, and comedy shorts. The company mainly distributed its pictures to small-town venues and independent theater chains, which changed their pictures three times a week. FBO would make their pictures appeal to every member of the American family.Film Booking Offices of America
The average cost per production was $50,000 to $75,000 equivalent to $ to $ in 2021 compared to the Major film studios which could spend five times as much to produce a movie.
also produced and distributed a limited number of big-budget features labeled "Gold Bond" or "Special" productions.
Pre production
A real estate dealer's misfortune allowed Emory Johnson to purchase a five-story apartment building on the outskirts of Los Angeles for a reasonable price. The city had condemned the building as a fire trap. To film the burning-building sequences in The Third Alarm, the building was set ablaze. The fire was under the Los Angeles fire department's supervision and used a dozen companies of professional firefighters and scores of equipment.
Emory Johnson would shoot this movie on location in Los Angeles, California. The studio location, coupled with the fact that LAFD was the largest fire department globally, had a sizable contingent of retired fire horses and would allow the use of scrapped steam engines in the movie to lend itself to a symbiotic relationship. In 1911, the LAFD had 25 horse-drawn steam fire engines and 163 horses. 1911 was the last year they remained in service and the first year of motorized apparatus on the LAFD. The phase-in of motorized equipment would continue until the previous fire horse was retired in 1921.
Development While standing on a street corner in downtown Los Angeles, Emory Johnson and his mother watched the annual Elk 's parade. Apart from the parade, the pair was struck by the appearance of the LAPD 's fire horses. This parade would be the fire horse's last appearance in public. The horses had all been replaced by motorized vehicles. All were retired from service and put out to pasture. But the fire horses represented a small part of a broader canvas to the Johnsons.
It occurred to them; the horses symbolized a changing of the guard. The idea for a motion picture took root.
Casting Ralph Lewis (1872–1931) was born on October 8, 1872, in Englewood, Illinois. The year-old actor landed the leading man role in this production. He played a rugged middle-aged Firefighter, Dan McDowell. He was previously the leading man in the Johnson production – In the Name of the Law. He would have future starring roles in Johnson vehicles, including The Mailman and The Last Edition. The Last Edition was Lewis's fifth and final film in a Johnson production.Ralph Lewis American Film Institute Retrieved April 29, 2023 Lewis's film debut came in 1911. Lewis appeared in 160 films between 1912 and 1938. Lewis will always be remembered for his role as abolitionist U.S. Representative Austin Stoneman in D. W. Griffith's The Birth of a Nation (1915) and the governor in Intolerance (1916). The June 5, 1923, edition of the Poughkeepsie Eagle-News observed: "Ralph Lewis, is especially good in parts built upon strength of character ..." Lewis stated after the completion of the movie "I wouldn't go through it again for love nor money. If I did it once, I risked my life a dozen times. I had to duck flying debris, blazing timbers, hurling bricks, and whatnot. After that job, I hope the folks enjoy it when they see it on the screen." FBO rewarded Ralph Lewis for his work In the Name of the Law, The Third Alarm, and The West~Bound Limited by placing him under a long-term contract in April 1923.