Hold That Baby!

Ida Moore and Florence Auer almost steal the movie as two sweet looking but actually grasping greedy elderly sisters trying to rob a baby of his rightful inheritance by having his mother committed to an insane asylum. Fortunately, the mother, played by Anabel Shaw, hides the baby in the laundromat attached to Louis' Sweet Shop and run by the ever enterprising (and usually unemployed) Terrence "Slip" Mahoney. The boys are up to their usual antics with Slip getting the best lines and Sach doing the most humorous routines. According to the grandfather's will, the baby or his Mom must be at the reading of the will for him to inherit. So the elderly sisters and their crooked partners want to keep the baby from the reading and the Mom in the asylum while the Bowery Boys want to get the Mom out of the asylum and make sure the baby inherits. The routine in the asylum where Slip gets Sach committed is a highlight. This one is a good entry into a long running series.

Slip and Sach crash their laundry delivery truck. They start a laundromat in the back room of Louie's Sweet Shop. A young mother abandons her baby in a basket. The baby is heir to a large inheritance and there are relatives looking to steal the money. Gangster Cherry Nose Mason is looking to cash in on the reward and he knows the Boys have the baby.

The story is a bit convoluted. The plotting is a little chaotic. I would have the will reading up front and lay out the premise a lot clearer. The will reading can also give a ticking clock to the story. Mostly, it's a Bowery Boys film with Slip and Sach. You get what you expect.

The story finds the gang turning Louie's back room into a laundromat. One of the customers deliberately leaves her baby behind....which, even given her circumstances really didn't make any sense. It seems the distraught woman has a couple nasty old relatives trying to take away her baby's inheritance....and to do this, they'll stop at nothing. They soon arrange to have the mother committed to a mental institution against her will using an evil doctor...but what about the baby? This is where a gang up thugs come into the story...as it's their job to make sure the baby stays lost...at least until the will is read.

The plot, as I mentioned above, didn't make a ton of sense. But I really did like seeing Slip disguised as a doctor...that was pretty funny and surprisingly well acted. Otherwise, it's the standard Bowery Boys stuff...undemanding and silly entertainment.

Hold That Baby! (1949)

** (out of 4)

After getting fired from his third job in seven days, Slip (Leo Gorcey) decides to open up a laundry service in the back of Louie's shop. Everything is going just find under a young mother (Anabel Shaw) leaves her baby there because her two evil aunts are trying to have her locked up so that they can steal the babies inheritance. It's up to Slip and the boys to keep the baby away from some gangsters and make sure the mother is at the will reading. This fourteenth entry in the long-running series isn't one of the better ones so it's certainly for die-hard fans only. The biggest problem is that we get some rather dark drama that really doesn't work and many of the jokes either aren't funny or are just off-putting. One of these jokes happens early on when idiot Sach puts the baby in a washing machine. Not too funny. Another scene happens towards the end of the movie when the boys are throwing the baby around a room. Again, not funny. The darker moments in the film are almost too dark for the type of humor that we're going for here. The scene where the aunts try to convince the police that the mother is crazy is pretty dark as Shaw really goes all out, delivering a strong performance. Most people will remember her from the Vincent Price film SHOCK and she's certainly very memorable here. Gorcy and Huntz Hall are their typical selves, although Hall really does get some good moments here including one scene where he's going around in drag and gets the baby mixed up with another. Frankie Darro and Gabriel Dell are here as well but both are in pretty thankless roles. While there are a few decent moments scattered throughout, in the end there's just not enough energy or originality in the screenplay to make this worth sitting through. Even the 64-minute running time seems a bit too long and that's never a good thing.

10 STARS

Prime Bowery Boys entry, with a terrific mix of drama and comedy. Good acting on the part of Anabel Shaw as Laura Andrews, whose baby is heir to a fortune and may be kidnapped. Anabel really turns on the tears. She had a distinguished career, having appeared opposite Vincent Price in the cult thriller SHOCK, a few years earlier. Her next film was GUN CRAZY (1950), in the role of Ruby.

This time around, Slip and Sach (with the help of Louie, of course) are running a successful laundry business? Laura, who believes her evil aunts will harm her child, leaves the baby with the Bowery Boys! This is really good stuff, and with some fine acting, especially veteran actress Ida Moore as the sinister aunt.

I agree with the last reviewer; Slip gets the best lines, but Sach gets into all the goofy trouble. There's a laugh out loud scene where Slip tries to commit Sach to an insane asylum(!) in order to meet with Laura, who is being held against her will. Slip plays a wacky doctor with thick glasses!

Gabe Dell is back at the detective, and fun to watch. This was the last appearance of Frankie Darro in the series, playing bad guy Bananas.

Best scene is when Slip pulls the baby out of a washing machine and exclaims.... "What'll they think of next!" Also Louie cooks up a hamburger, fries and a drink for the baby?

This story may have actually been influenced by the famous Gloria Vanderbilt custody case at the time, and the homicidal aunts were modeled after the two deadly sisters in ARSENIC AND OLD LACE.

Remastered by Warner Brothers in dvd boxes of 6 to 8 episodes.