Gridiron Flash

Gridiron Flash (1934)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Low-budget RKO picture about a college in desperate need of a winning football season so a deal is made with a convicted bank robber (Eddie Quillan). The thief is led to believe that a gang's operation is taking place at this college and by playing quarterback he can be in on the action but soon he begins to like his surroundings. If you're looking for a thought-provoking drama or some sort of laugh-a-minute comedy then you better look somewhere else. If you've got 62-minutes to kill and want some slight entertainment then this film pretty much delivers. There are some major logical issues including the fact that Quillan is way too small to be playing football. This might explain why 98% of the football scenes are nothing more than stock footage. When we finally see Quillan in action, it's easy to see why stock footage was used because it's really not that convincing. WIth that said, I thought the actor was fine playing the "little tough guy" and his fast-talking made for some good lines. I also thought Betty Furness was pretty good in the role of the love interest and Grant Mitchell plays the man who makes the deal. Edgar Kennedy gets a few good moments as a tough cop and Joe Sawyer plays the football coach. There are a few good laughs scattered throughout the picture that helps keep it from becoming boring. I'd also say that it's probably best that this film is viewed by those who just enjoy killing a hour with a "B" movie that you don't have to take serious.

College football scout (Grant Mitchell), for some bizarre reason, is scouting prisons for talent. There he finds Thomas "Cherub" Burke (Eddie Quillan), who is just the most amazing football player ever. There's one slight problem with this plot right away: 5'6" Quillan has the body of a 12 year old boy. He would lose a wrestling match with Don Knotts! To take him seriously as a football player is ludicrous, to say nothing of taking him seriously as a tough con. This plot seems like something that would have made for a funny Bowery Boys movie a decade or so later. I could see Leo Gorcey playing the role of Burke. Anyway, the rest of this movie is a dud full of familiar clichés. There's a girl but who cares. There's a big game but who cares.

A Belford College scout recruits the best player from a prison team, Thomas Burke, arranging for a parole on good faith. When Burke hesitates, he shows him how he could also find potential robbery victims at the college. Rich people. But he gets in trouble during the first practice with a dirty tackle and quits the team. To keep him in school, the scout enlists the help of a pretty coed who happens to be a policeman's daughter. He quits again over a misunderstanding, gets arrested, gets sprung and is rushed to the big game in time to score the winning touchdown. Quillan did not look the part of a star halfback as he stood just 5-foot-6. But he certainly had the look of a jailbird. And also lots of energy.