*** (out of ****)
The comedy team Wheeler & Woolsey score a touchdown in RKO's "Hold 'Em Jail" (1932).
"Hold 'Em Jail" is really two different movies combined into one. It is half prison comedy and half college sports comedy. Both genres provide interesting material for comedians and comedy teams as seen in movies such as the Marx Brothers comedy "Horse Feathers" (1932), the Laurel & Hardy comedy "Pardon Us" (1931) and the Harold Lloyd classic "The Freshman" (1925).
One can see why a prison setting would serve as comedy inspiration for the right comedian. A prison is known for having rough and tough inmates. Violent killers. A prison is built on order as the guards discipline the inmates. Now imagine a comedian talking back to the guards, dishing out wisecracks. Imagine the comedian afraid of the other inmates, who would be stronger. Finally imagine the comedian getting accidentally mixed up in a prison break. It would all be funny and a lot of it is in "Hold 'Em Jail".
You can make the same case for sports. Athletes are thought to be very masculine. Certain sports can be dangerous. Throw in a wimpy, cowardly comedian and again you can imagine opportunities a good comedian can get laughs.
However one wouldn't think the two genres are easily combined and to a certain extent they are correct. "Hold 'Em Jail" isn't a great movie. It isn't Wheeler & Woolsey's best comedy. I can't even pretend the movie makes much sense. But, I did laugh. Wheeler and Woolsey are funny in this. The movie has a devil-may-care attitude that works to its advantage and is able to easily slip into a football sports comedy even though it starts off as a prison comedy.
The movie takes place in Bidemore Prison where the warden, Elmer Jones (Edgar Kennedy) is more concerned about the prison's football team than the prison itself. The main concern of Elmer is the big game against Lynnwood, a rival prison, and a $1,000 bet he made with that prison's warden. Elmer needs some good football players. But, how does a prison get good football players? According to the football captain, the prison needs to arrest a better class of people.
In an effort to help the prison, a gangster and former inmate, has one of his henchman frame two men he believes know a lot about football, Curley (Bert Wheeler) and Spider (Robert Woolsey), two salesmen who sell novelty gags and know nothing about football.
Oddly enough neither Curley or Spider show much fear when entering the big house instead they proceed to engage in as much mischief as possible as Curley instantly finds himself attracted to the warden's daughter, Barbara (Betty Grable) and Spider flirts with the warden's sister, Violet (Edna May Oliver).
This causes the movie to miss out on several opportunities for laughs. No one intimidates Wheeler and Woolsey. Elmer doesn't object strongly to his daughter falling for an inmate nor does Violet. And Violet doesn't seem to mind Spider's advances towards her. This all allows the movie to find laughs in different ways. Now Barbara and Violet gang up on Elmer to be nice to Curley and Spider. Curley and Spider act like they are running the prison.
All of this slips into a football comedy when the prison's star quarterback is released from jail after the governor pardons him when new evidence proves his innocence. What will the prison do now? Naturally recruit Curley and Spider to play on their team.
We get a football practice sequence which reminds us of Lloyd's "The Freshman" but never quite reaches those heights of comedic brilliance. But, it should be good enough to get some laughs out of an audience, especially fans of classic comedy, whom I assume would be the only ones watching this movie.
One thing that makes "Hold 'Em Jail" stand out compared to other Wheeler & Woolsey comedies is the absence of frequent co-star, Dorothy Lee, who would play Wheeler's love interest. She would also not appear in the next two movies the comedy team starred in, though one was made at a different studio, Columbia. The role she would normally have played went to a very young Betty Grable, who isn't given much to work with. When Dorothy Lee would co-star, she and Wheeler would often sing and dance a duet together. In "Hold 'Em Jail" there are no musical numbers.
The lack of musical numbers however allows more time for comedy which isn't just provided by Wheeler and Woolsey. Veteran Edgar Kennedy, known for his frustrated slow burn, starred in several of his own comedy shorts and played foil to Laurel & Hardy, the Marx Brothers and Charley Chase. Edna May Oliver was a funny character actress who had also appeared in Wheeler and Woolsey's comedy "Cracked Nuts" (1931).
Unfortunately the movie doesn't provide much of a courtship between Spider and Violet to exchange witty insults and double entendres to each other in the tradition of Groucho Marx and Margaret Dumont. Though there is one good sequence with Spider and Violet playing the piano.
The funniest moments may come during the big football game with Spider and Curley causing mishap after mishap and creating new ways to play the game. Although other good sequences involve a character trying to serenade his love while a prison breakout is going on and the boy's unknowingly destroying the warden's office.
The movie was directed by Norman Taurog, who had never directed a Wheeler and Woolsey comedy prior nor would he direct any of their future comedies. Taurog did have a long career in comedy and may be best known for directing a few Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis comedies such as "The Stooge" (1951) and "Living It Up" (1954). He was also twice nominated for a best directing Academy Award, both were for dramas he directed including "Boys Town" (1938).
More notably, one of the movie's co-writers was the great American humorist, S.J. Perelman who wrote Marx Brother comedies; "Horse Feathers" and "Monkey Business" (1931) and had several short pieces published in the New Yorker magazine.
"Hold 'Em Jail" isn't as funny as "Diplomaniacs" (1933), for me the funniest comedy Wheeler & Woolsey appeared in, "Peach-O-Reno" (1931) or "Hips, Hips, Hooray!" (1934) but is funnier than "The Rainmakers" (1935) and "Silly Billies" (1936).
Posts
