Police in Fife raced to the aid of a woman who had been lashed to a railway line after she was spotted by a passer-by, but the damsel in distress turned out to be part of a movie melodrama.
The Glenrothes Amateur Musical Society was recreating a 1920s silent-movie scene when a passing motorist witnessed the players - complete with moustachioed villain and Chaplin-esque hero.
The police were informed, but as officers rushed down the embankment they noticed the presence of movie cameras.
Director Ron Nicol said: ''They arrived right in the middle of filming.
''We must have been doing a very realistic portrayal because we certainly had someone convinced it was the real thing.''
The group is staging a story about silent movie director Mack Sennett, who directed the Keystone Cops, and his most famous screen star, Mable Normand.
The scene was set on a remote stretch of disused track near the village of Kinglassie, near Glenrothes, and it never occurred to the actors to tell anyone about the filming because of its relative isolation.
Sergeant Craig Dobbie said: ''We don't get too many calls like this.''
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