Hold That Line (1952)

Save your money for something good and enjoyable

Don't listen to the Hype. It's awful

Beautiful, moving film.

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

The Bowery Boys made an average of four movies per year for 12 years. So it was that Hold That Line was the 25th in the long-running series. Perhaps borrowing from an old Three Stooges short, the story line involves two old time alumni of Ivy University, who bet pro and con whether uneducated social misfits could succeed as well as "blue bloods" at college. Stopping by Louie's Sweet Shop, the two alumni see and choose the Bowery Boys, even though they are by now in their mid-thirties. The boys consist of Slip, Sach, and three others, but minus Gabe and Whitey, who are long gone from the series. They are all enrolled for one semester (or "siesta"). The boys commit their usual shenanigans in their various classrooms, and do provide a few howls. Sach prepares a TNT formula in Chemistry lab, and nearly blows up the class. But he also concocts a vitamin formula that temporarily strengthens him, and allows him to become a hit at football practice. He even surpasses local football hero, Biff Wallace. Meanwhile the boys join a fraternity, and for their initiation must dress like girls.The football season begins unusually well, and Ivy U. wins games by scores of 52-0 and 63-0, with Sach (now "Hurricane Jones") standing out. But, it all comes down to the annual game with State U. Of course big time gamblers are involved, and on the day of the big game, an attractive lady (Candy) lures Sach away from the playing field. He is held in the gamblers' apartment, and the game goes on without Sach. Biff has to leave the game because of an injury, and State has a 13-7 lead with time running out. Meanwhile there is a confession and the hideout is discovered; Sach, drugged, is picked up and rushed into the game. Slip tries unsuccessfully to make up a fresh batch of vitamins for Sach. So it is Slip who must become the hero and save the game for Ivy U.The Bowery Boys films, which do not age well, evoke the witticisms and pretensions of a bygone era. Watching them today is like comparing Oh Johnny, Oh Johnny, Oh! (1917) with Satisfaction (1965). In Hold That Line the aging boys still hang out at an ice cream parlor (!), while some of the jokes are old and are suggestive of Harold Lloyd (see one of his truly great films: The Freshman, 1925). Take a look at the outfits the boys wear during their first days at college. See those Bowery boys' football uniforms, which are reminiscent of the 1920s: leather helmets without face masks, light shoulder padding, a sweater. And yet, even though the boys here may be getting old, along with their gags, they still have some appeal. Slip's malapropisms abound. So, for film buffs, the younger set, and for those who remember how it was in the old days, the movie is worth checking out.

It's the later Bowery Boys at the top of their game in this well-paced and satisfying comedy farce. Two elderly rich men make a bet that the classless Slip, Sach, and the rest of the group can be enrolled in a well-to-do college and still make the grade. While in chemistry class, Sach (Huntz Hall) then develops his own secret formula which transforms him into a powerhouse with super-strength, becoming a new football hero rivaling the All-American Football champ of the campus.A recommended entry in this everlasting series which stands out a bit from most of the films.**1/2 (of four)

***SPOILES*** The "Bowery Boys" end up in the ivy league collage Ivy University on a full scholarship not because of their soring IQ's but for the exact opposite reasons. There not even qualified to attend grade school much less kindergarten.Diuring a boring session of chess two Ivy U alumnus' A,J Billingsley & Morgan T. Stanhope made a bet that anyone can attend and graduate from Ivy U if just given the chance even a borderline moron. And it's there where the boys, Slip Sach Junior Chuck & Butch, come in. Checking the poor and uneducated side of town, The Bowery, Billingsly & Stanhope come upon Louie's Sweet Shop and see the boys, acting like a bunch of jerks, in action and realize that they found what they were looking for. At collage things don't go quite right for the "Bowery Boys" in them making complete buffoons, which isn't that hard, of themselves. That's until Sach, who's known as test tube head, starts to play with chemicals in the collage's chemistry department. Mixing a batch of goodies and gulping them down Sach soon becomes superhuman to the delight of the frustrated collage's football team's coach Rowland. Putting Sach on the team he becomes its star running back getting Ivy U into the collage finals against the hated State University who had beaten it the last 15 straight times that the two teams met.***SPOILERS*** As you would have expected in films like this the local mobsters get involved in the big game in trying to fix it that the under dog State U who's a 1-3 in the betting wins with then putting a bundle of cash on it! The one thing that can make that happen is that Sach is somehow not able to get in the game. More or less average "Bowery Boys" movie with the exception of the ending that comes straight out of left field. In not that the person, Sach, whom you would have expected to come out of the bleachers or clubhouse and save the day for Ivy U but the person whom you would have expected to lose it!

In a "Pygmalion"-type plot, two cultured, chess-playing college alumni agree to round up some ruffians, and enroll them in an Ivy league school. To wit, they find Leo Gorcey (as Slip) and "The Bowery Boys": Huntz Hall (as Sach), Gil Stratton (as Junior), David "Conden" Gorcey (as Chuck), and Benny "David" Bartlett (as Butch). They set out to answer the question: Can any "boy" make the grade at their "Ivy University", or do you need "blue blood"? "The Bowery Boys" go to college - routine, unimaginative, and... too late.In a "hazing" scene, the "Boys" dress like girls, and go to Louie's. In a sub-plot, Leo Gorcey's father Bernard's "Louie Dumbrowsky" character's brother "Morris" appears, making it four Gorcey characters in one film. The main story involves a chemistry dabbling Mr. Hall inventing, and drinking, a vitamin concoction which makes him a super-strong football star. Some underworld types lure Hall away from the important "big game".*** Hold That Line (3/23/52) William Beaudine ~ Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall, Bernard Gorcey