Reviews of silent film releases on home video. Copyright © 1999-2026 by Carl Bennett and the Silent Era Company. All Rights Reserved.

The Fourth Alarm! (1926)

This short comedy film, directed by Robert F. McGowan, features Joe Cobb, Jackie Condon, Mickey Daniels, Johnny Downs, Allen Hoskins, Jannie Hoskins, Mary Kornman, Mildred Kornman, Scooter Lowry, Billy Naylor, Jay R. Smith, Clifton ‘Bobby’ Young, Charles A. Bachman and Ed Brandenburg.

Joe has to feed his baby sister her medicine every fifteen minutes. The local fire chief has adopted the neighborhood kids and does what he can to take care of them. When a fire catches in the kitchen of a neighborhood home, the gang sees this and jumps into action, grabbing an extinguisher and putting out the fire before the firemen arrive. Impressed by their quick thinking and resourcefulness, the chief makes the gang honorary firemen. Not only do the young firegang do their best to excute their duty, Joe still manages to give his sister her medicine. When a big fire breaks out near a cache of explosives, the gang pitches in to help put out the fire. Even Pal, the dog, pitches-in in the end.

— Carl Bennett

The film is accompanied by a music score composed and performed by Ben Model.

For information about other films is this collection, see our The Our Gang Collection, Volume Two on home video page.

Sight unseen, this is our recommended home video edition of the film.

This Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition is available directly from REEL CLASSIC DVD through . . .

This DVD-R edition has been transferred from a poor to fair 16mm reduction print, with a lot of highlight details blasted-out to a featureless white. Dust, speckling, scratches, and other print flaws are present. Easily the worst-looking film in this collection.

The film is accompanied by a soundtrack compiled from preexisting jazz music recordings.

For information about other films is this collection, see our Hal Roach’s Rascals on home video page.

This review was updated in 2026.

This Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition is available from ALPHA VIDEO through . . .

This DVD edition has been prepared from a poor to fair 16mm reduction print, with the main title and the intertitles intact. The print is quite contrasty, with washed-out whites and plugged-up shadows and a moderate amount of greyscale detail in between. Much of the time, the film is too contrasty to see facial expressions on the kids. The cropping of the transfer cuts off the intertitles and picture on the right side while the left side clearly reveals the left edge of the print’s frameline. The print has been transferred at sound speed, which means the action is presented too fast. Despite the 5.5 average video bit rate, the resolution of the video transfers are lower than usual, producing a coarse and blocky picture (as any still frame will reveal).

The film is accompanied by a cobbled-together soundtrack of vintage 78rpm jazz recordings. Easily, this is the worst presentation in the collection.

Supplemental material includes a brief history of the Our Gang series and “Rascal-ographies” of six of the best-known male Our Gang members. They also include a worthless ‘Hollywood Hall of Fame’ documentary on Hal Roach’s Rascals, with footage mostly culled from the films in the two-volume collection.

For information about other films is this collection, see our Hal Roach’s Rascals on home video page.

This review was updated in 2026.

This Region 0 NTSC DVD edition has been discontinued and is . . .

The films are likely accompanied by soundtracks compiled from preexisting music recordings.

Supplemental material includes an introductory montage of advertising materials, film fragments, stills and toy projector reels (20 minutes).

For information about other films in this collection, see our Roach, Volume Three on home video page.

Note that some international customers have experienced long delays in the shipping of their orders and are being charged very high unannounced shipping costs.

This Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition is also available directly from . . .

Other SHORT COMEDY FILMS of the silent era available on home video.