Let's Go Collegiate

Rawley University has never won a national championship in crew rowing. However, a new transfer is expected to make all the difference to the team.... until he's drafted. Crew members Frankie Darrow and Jackie Moran come across Frank Sully, whom they think a truck driver. So they decide to pass him off as their new star. With the connivance of fellow student Keye Luke and whatever role Mantan Moreland plays, they seem to be about to put the hoax over, even though their girls Marcia Mae Jones and Gale Storm each wind up engaged to Sully.

Unlike most movies set at colleges, this one actually has students in class rooms, more than two minutes of time. With Jean Yarborough directing, there's a lot of set-piece comedy at work, and it's all fairly amusing, except for Frank Faylen and Paul Maxey as two alumni. There are three songs, two of them sung by Miss Storm, which are decent if not particularly remarkable.

When the star rower for Rawley University gets drafted, resourceful Frankie Darro (as Frankie Monahan) and student pal Jackie Moran (as Tad) hire husky Frank Sully (as Hercules "Herk" Bevans) to pose as the absent boatman. The plan backfires when Mr. Sully romances his new friends' cute college girlfriends, Gale Storm (as Midge Lawrence) and Marcia Mae Jones (as Bess Martin). Listen for Ms. Storm to sing "Look What You've Done to Me", sidekick Keye Luke (as Buck Wing) to add a little Chinese philosophy, and servile Mantan Moreland (as Jeff) to sing the line "Is you callin' a spade a spade?"

*** Let's Go Collegiate (9/12/41) Jean Yarbrough ~ Frankie Darro, Jackie Moran, Mantan Moreland, Gale Storm

This is a college comedy of the early '40s that has a big race involved. It involves-no, not football or basketball-but rowing. It seems the one who's supposed to help the team win has been drafted so two of the boys get someone to impersonate him. Turns out he's someone who's not very smart and actually gets sick in the sport so one of these boys gives him some pills. I'll stop there and just say this was quite amusing much of the 62-minute running time and there were also some good songs to pad the proceedings, a couple of which were sung by Gale Storm, later known on TV as "My Little Margie". Mantan Moreland and Keye Luke are also pretty amusing enough if not hilariously so. So on that note, Let's Go Collegiate is worth a look. P.S. By the way, I always like to cite when a player from my favorite movie-It's a Wonderful Life-is in another film and here's it's Frank Faylen as one of the alumni coming for a visit.

Tolerable time-waster notable mainly for featuring at least two cast members who went on to conquer better things. The story: the never-seen star rower Bob Terry has been confiscated by the army, and two of his teammates pull the old switcharoo using a random but burly guy they meet (Frank Sully) who, unknown to them, is wanted by the law (he's a safe-cracker). Not only do Frankie and Tad have to overcome this monkey's seasickness (using mothballs?) they also must make the guy smart so he won't flunk biology and get kicked off the rowing team. Helping them is Martan Moreland, who's responsible for much of the film's laughs - "Take it easy, Mr Frankie, you ain't playin' around with no 8-ball!"

Joining the fun are Gale Storm who went on to TV fame with MY LITTLE MARGIE and Frank Faylen from DOBIE GILLIS and Disney's THE MONKEY'S UNCLE. Watch for a scene where Faylen punches a guy in the chin, causing him to fall backwards. TMU features a scene that parallels this one, only it's Annette punching Faylen, causing him to fall backward - accompanied by a hilarious musical sound effect. Other comic scenes of note are where the absent-minded biology prof can't find his frog and wonders if he accidentally ate it for lunch (and this guy has the nerve to flunk students?) - and Moreland explaining "metatarsus" to girlfriend. Keye Luke from the Charlie Chan series adds a multicultural element.

I was torn between giving it a 2 or a 3, I can't see why you'd want to see it in the first place! Even for a cheap B-movie...it's amazingly bad though still watchable.

When the story begins, the new champion rower who is supposed to be coming to a fictional college apparently is NOT coming because he just got drafted. It never was clear why, but Frankie (Frankie Darro) and his friends pick some guy off the street and pass him off as this champion rower. Now the guy looks about 40, is overweight and looks about as athletic as Jabba the Hut...and the entire story continues to make no sense at all. What really makes no sense is that this non-athlete, after just a few times practicing, turns out to be amazing at rowing...as well as...well...you see the film if you really care.

The film is just dumb....and the plot seems as if the writers took a bunch of story ideas, threw them into a hat and picked them out randomly. Honestly...the film is a confusing and silly mess but at least Mantan Moreland is around to provide a few laughs...but only a few!