Hold Tight

Today, hardly anyone has heard of the screen comic Joe Rock. Heck, I know a ton about movies and I only learned about him after seeing this film. It's a shame, as while "Hold TIght" is not a hilarious comedy, it is extremely high energy and entertaining....mostly because of its seemingly insane stunts.

The story finds some rich mine owner demanding that he be sold a local mine...that or else! He's ordered his lacky to blow up the rival mine if needed and so Joe Rock and his girlfriend go at breakneck speed to the mine. Along the way, they fly in a plane that falls apart and take all sorts of dangerous falls--all in an attempt to stop the baddies.

There really isn't a lot of plot...just crazy good stunts and energy...and sometimes that is good enough.

The baddies want Alyce Ardell's mine, which they know -- but she doesn't -- has just struck a rich vein. They will stick at naught, but she is protected by Bobby Dunn in this good thrill comedy directed by Marcel Perez.

Miss Ardell was a pretty young girl whom producer Joe Rock decided to produce as a comedy star. Unfortunately, she had no ability in the slapstick style that Joe specialized in, so he dealt with this by co-starring a good second-rank comic with her, hoping that people would notice that she was in those funny short subjects. This was the first and Bobby Dunn had spent most of the last decade toiling in the States Rights market. His timing was sharp and here, out of his usual worn-down Chaplin costume of bowler and mustache and wearing evening clothes, he is as good as he should have been. For the comic villain, Joe chose the best comic he knew: himself.

Director Marcel Perez had been a leading European comic. Toiling under an assortment of names, like Robinet and Tweedledum, he had emigrated to the US during the First World War and had turned out some fine work, again under an assortment of names for smaller, poorly capitalized studios. He had lost his leg to cancer and was now working solely behind the camera, but had not lost his ability to turn out a fine comedy.