Hold That Baby!

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 Bowery Boys get involved with the infant heir to a fortune when said infant is left in the laundromat in the backroom of Bernard Gorcey's Sweet Shop where Leo Gorcey and Huntz Hall have begun their latest business enterprise. Gorcey, Hall, and the rest turn out to be unexpected white knights in saving the fortune left to the infant and his mother from a pair of greedy old maid aunts played by Ida Moore and Florence Auer. The two of them are straight out of Arsenic and Old Lace but they do have enough of their marbles to form an alliance with gangsters Frankie Darro and John Kellogg.

Even scene stealers like Leo and Huntz have some competition with the baby in this film. Leo trying to change the diapers is something to see and Huntz Hall does a nice imitation of Ronald Colman talking to a department store 'mannequin'.

Fans of the Bowery Boys will like Hold That Baby and this is a good film for others to get acquainted with their comedy and command of the English language.

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.)

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 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.