Hold That Baby!

The habitually unemployed "Bowery Boys" are losers at the laundromat; so, entrepreneurial Leo Gorcey (as Slip Mahoney) decides to "take in" laundry, using the spare room at father Bernard (as "Louie")'s Sweet Shop". As usual, Mr. Gorcey is amusingly assisted by Huntz Hall (as Sach De Bussy Jones), who fantasizes about "Cynthia", his department store wax dummy girlfriend. William "Billy" Benedict (as Whitey), Benny "Bennie" Bartlett (as Butch), and David Gorcey (as Chuck) are also on hand. During the expected washing machine mishaps, a mysterious woman (Anabel Shaw) leaves a baby at "Mahoney Enterprises"...

"Hold That Baby!" finds the comedy team of Gorcey & Hall in fine form. Hall's scenes with "Cynthia" are a highlight, along with the entire "Midvale Sanitarium" sequence - watch as quick-thinking Gorcey passes Hall off as a nut-house hopeful, and poses as a bumbling doctor. The Charles R. Marion & George Schnitzer screenplay is excellent; and, each Jan Grippo performer is perfectly cast, with the entire production running very smoothly. It's ably directed by Reginald Le Borg, and features particularly outstanding appearances by Ida Moore and Florence Auer (as Faith and Hope Andrews), a delightfully greedy old duo.

******** Hold That Baby! (6/26/49) Reginald Le Borg ~ Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall, Ida Moore, Florence Auer

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.

"Don't interrupt my strain of thought"

The Bowery Boys open up a laundry service in the rear of Louie Dumbrowski's sweet shop and come across a bundle of joy that's been left there by its mom. Turns out the kid is the heir to a fortune and a group of greedy folks would love to get their hands on him. This is a typical entry in the series with most of the good lines and jokes coming in the first half of the picture. Contains a morbid moment where a doctor tries to convince authorities that the mother's crazy and gives her an unnecessary injection.

Standard Bowery Boys fare.

It's a Bowery boys. Made right about in the center of the collection of the Bowery Boys films, 1949. co-starring his brother and his dad, of course. and Huntz Hall. in this one, Slip run a laundry out of the back in the soda shop. first, someone abandons a baby, and then the washers explode. another typical bowery boys story. this one is a little sillier than usual, if that's possible! the boys get caught up in a kidnapping scheme, and could end up in big trouble! Anabel Shaw (only 26 credits, on imdb) is Laura, who brings the baby to the laundromat. they actually put blackface on a baby. oh my. this one is over the top. not their best. Slip (Leo Gorcey) died quite young at 51. these show on Turner Classic now and then. directed by Reg LeBorg. he only directed three of the bowery films. LeBorg had also directed a bunch of the Joe Palooka films. this one is okay, but nothing earth shattering.

The Bowery Boys movies are a hit or miss kind of thing. Because of their short running time most of their movies are pretty watchable. "Hold That Baby!" fits into the watchable category. Everything about the movie is fine. There aren't that many laughs but there are a few. As usual, Louie gets most of the laughs. All in all, "Hold That Baby!" was an easy way to kill and hour (and four minutes) on a lazy Sunday morning. (IMDB has a six hundred character minimum. Usually that's not a problem. But with a movie like "Hold That Baby!", it gets a little tricky. You can only say so much about a movie like this.)