Hold That Line

It's the later Bowery Boys at the top of their game in this well-paced and satisfying comedy farce. Two elderly rich men make a bet that the classless Slip, Sach, and the rest of the group can be enrolled in a well-to-do college and still make the grade. While in chemistry class, Sach (Huntz Hall) then develops his own secret formula which transforms him into a powerhouse with super-strength, becoming a new football hero rivaling the All-American Football champ of the campus.

A recommended entry in this everlasting series which stands out a bit from most of the films.

**1/2 (of four)

Very funny Bowery Boys movie (twenty-fifth in the Monogram series) has the boys going to college! How can our favorite morons get into an ivy league school, you ask? Well, because two elderly alumni make a bet over whether the boys can succeed at their prestigious university. From there the movie goes a bit sideways and Sach takes a potion that makes him into a football star but, hey, it's still a better plot than most movies in the series. Huntz Hall gets the spotlight in this one, rubberfacing and acting like an idiot throughout. Lots of good slapstick with Huntz. Leo Gorcey is funny as ever, providing many great malapropisms, including a monologue in class that's quite a mouthful even for Leo. Bernard Gorcey is adorable as Louie the Sweet Shop owner (and, in a hilarious bit, as his mustachioed brother Morris). It's interesting to notice as the series wore on how much bigger his role got and how much more he brought to the table than most of the non-Slip or Sach Bowery Boys. David Gorcey and Bennie Bartlett are both around. Future sportscaster Gil Stratton joins the gang in this entry. He would only appear in two Bowery Boys films, including this one. He basically does nothing in the whole film. Veda Ann Borg, Gloria Winters, and Mona Knox provide the pretty. It's not my favorite Bowery Boys flick but it is a fun one. I can't imagine fans of the series not liking it.

It's a pity that How To Succeed In Business was a decade away from its creation. The song Grand Old Ivy would have made a perfect theme for this Bowery Boys comedy as the boys sample a bit of higher education in Ivy College. They probably could have used a bit of lower education before sampling Ivy.

Slip and Sach and the rest go to school on a bet by two older alumni of Ivy as to whether a bit of learning smooth the edges out in the roughest kind of material. Well they certainly picked the roughest material out there.

While there Huntz Hall plays around in the chemistry lab and discovers a formula that makes him super strong. Where else to use this new found ability but the gridiron.

I think you can figure the rest. This is Bowery Boy hijinks as usual but also with the added attraction of Veda Ann Borg as the gambler's moll trying to seduce Sach. No film with her should ever be missed.

It might have been interesting if Leo Gorcey had ever learned in college the real meanings of the words he mangles in every picture. But if he did half the comedy of the Bowery Boys would be gone.

74/100. Exceptionally good Bowery Boys entry. A professor bets another professor that he can can make anyone a good student, and one professor insists that he gets to pick the person. Well, you guessed it, he picked some tough subjects, the boys themselves. This is sort of a distant twist of Pygmalion. Well, Ivy University has know idea what they are in for! Sach makes a mixture in chemistry that makes him very strong, and soon enough he is on the football team. The climax football game is quite similar to that of Harold Lloyd's The Freshman. Leo Gorcey does an exceptional job butchering the English language! Very funny, great pace and the boys are at their best.

In "A Chump at Oxford", Laurel & Hardy are both sent to Oxford by a beneficiary who does this to thank them for capturing some bank robbers. And, in "Trading Places" many decades later, two rich jerks take a man out of the gutter and make him over into a rich and successful stockbroker...just to see if clothes make the man! Both films are much like "Hold That Line" from the Bowery Boys.

The story begins at a rich gentlemen's club. Two of the members have made a bet. One insists that you could take a poor guy and place him in a top university and he'll be a success....the other disagrees. So they both go in search of a poor, undereducated soul to test the theory. In the process, they meet the Bowery Boys and decide to send all five to college!

At first, Sach nearly gets them thrown out of school when he accidentally creates dynamite in chemistry class. Later, Sach plays around with chemicals again...and he thinks he's created vitamis. Instead, he's made a formula that gives him phenomenal strength...and soon this boob is the star athlete of the school! And, when it comes to the big game, the film becomes a bit like "Horse Feathers"....when Chico and Harpo are kidnapped so they cannot play in (once again) the big football game!

As you may have noticed, there are quite a few story elements in "Hold That Line" that are very familiar. And, in a surprising twist, a newer film, "Trading Places", sure seems to be based, in part, on this Bowery Boys movie.

So is this any good? Yes, surprisingly so. While it's no classic, it had good momentum, a few laughs and kept my interest.