Hold 'Em Jail

The humour of Wheeler and Woolsey takes some getting used to. As a comedy team, they are like the proverbial marmite: you either love them or loathe them. I'm split between the two. "Hold 'Em Jail" has a few mildly amusing moments and it's good to see comic Edgar Kennedy. He plays the decidedly cantankerous prison warden, which makes him a sympathetic character when you think about it. Wheeler and Woolsey are sentenced to his prison, where they undermine Kennedy's authority, cause general chaos and somehow are made trustees. I'm glad the film is brief. 60 to 75 minutes goes a long way with this particular comedy team! The climactic football scene is quite a lively affair, featuring some impressive stuntwork. From the same year, "Horse Feathers" with the Marx Brothers also featured a football sequence for their climax. It is far superior to that of "Hold 'Em Jail." Another plus for the film, is the absence of any musical interludes.

In the 1930s, football comedies were pretty common. The Marx Brothers made their brilliant "Horsefeathers" and the Three Stooges and Joe E. Brown also took a stab at the genre--not to mention all the cartoons about the subject. So it's not at all surprising that Wheeler & Woolsey would make a football film...though the locale for this game is pretty unique!! This film is about a football game...in prison! So is it any good? Well, for Wheeler & Woolsey it is.

So how do Wheeler & Woolsey end up in jail anyway? Well, they have some fake guns that look very realistic...and a crook switches them with the real thing. The boys are naturally arrested and end up in prison-- where the warden (Edgar Kennedy) and his family (Edna May Oliver and Betty Grable) are on hand for laughs. The film is VERY unusual because there are no song and dance numbers and the big football game at the end is about as stupid and nonsensical as most football games in 1930s comedies! None of it is brilliant or will make you prefer it to "Horsefeathers" but it is harmless and entertaining.

When the warden needs a couple bigger, better players for his football team, he recruits Harris and Robbins (Wheeler and Woolsey). They are tricked into committing a crime, and hauled into jail ! It starts pretty slow and awkward... Peach O Reno was so much better! Wheeler and Woolsey had started in vaudeville, and made two dozen films together. This one was about halfway through the list. Edna Oliver is in here as the straight laced aunty. And a very YOUNG Betty Grable, in one of her earlier roles. A couple of the bits they do are like three-stooges bits. Lots of slapstick, physical comedy. All leading up to the big football game. This one is pretty good. Some funny bits along the way. Directed by Norman Taurog, who had just won the oscar for Skippy. The beautiful Betty G will die young at 56, but she was amazing in How to Marry a Millionaire.. catch that one for sure.

This film really displays the differences in style between Wheeler and Woolsey and Laurel and Hardy. In "Pardon Us", Stan and Oliver are sent to prison, and in every situation where they try to be helpful, they end up with the short end of the stick. When Bert and Bob are sent to prison, they end up running the place after a short time. Wheeler and Woolsey certainly did not possess Stan Laurel's comic genius, but they are optimistic and make us feel that the underdog can triumph. We do not sympathize with Bert and Bob the way we do with Stan and Oliver. Bert and Bob are too arrogant and too aggressive for our sympathy, but we do get a special delight in seeing them triumph.

Edgar Kennedy is very funny as the warden and teen-age Betty Grable is as cute as can be as the warden's daughter. The football sequence is not as funny as the Marx Brothers' "Horse Feathers", but it is amusing. Edna May Oliver and Roscoe Ates add their brands of insanity to the mixture. I only wish there were some musical numbers to spotlight the abilities of Bert, Bob, and Betty Grable. For low comedy fans, this film is certainly worth viewing.

Hold 'Em Jail finds Wheeler&Woolsey neatly framed and sent to prison for something they didn't do. Never mind though, they make jail seem like fun, except for all around them.

Though Bert and Bob have the spotlight and do their usual monkeyshines, what I like best about Hold 'Em Jail is the incredibly good cast that RKO and director Norman Taurog assembled in support of them. When you've got such scene stealers as warden Edgar Kennedy and his wife Edna May Oliver and convicts like Paul Hurst and Warren Hymer doing their usual thing, Wheeler&Woolsey would have been hard pressed to keep up. Pay close attention to Edgar Kennedy in his scenes with the boys, he really makes them work.

I also liked the fact that the script got Bert and Bob to star on the prison football team giving the film a great opportunity to satirize two genres, prison films and college rah-rah football games. Edgar Kennedy has a $1000.00 bet with the warden of another prison team and he's depending on these two to win it for him. The football game at the climax is even funnier than what the Marx Brothers did in Horsefeathers.

Betty Grable is also in Hold 'Em Jail as Kennedy and Oliver's daughter if you can believe she sprung from that gene pool. She would have an decade long climb to top box office in the Forties as America's girl next door with the million dollar legs. Robert Armstrong also has a nice bit as the radio announcer of the inter prison football game.

This is one of Wheeler&Woolsey's best films and holds up very well for today's audience.