Hold 'Em Jail

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Hold 'Em Jail
Hold 'Em Jail.jpg
Directed by Norman Taurog
Written by Walter DeLeon (screenplay)
S.J. Perelman (screenplay)
Eddie Welch (screenplay)
Mark Sandrich (screenplay)
Tim Whelan (story)
Lew Lipton (story)
John P. Medbury (radio dialogue)
Albert Ray (continuity)
Produced by Harry Joe Brown (associate producer)
David O. Selznick (executive producer)
Starring Wheeler and Woolsey
Edna May Oliver
Edgar Kennedy
Betty Grable
Cinematography Leonard Smith
Edited by Arthur Roberts
Music by Max Steiner
Distributed by RKO Radio Pictures
Release date
September 16, 1932
Running time
66 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$408,000 [1]
Box office$511,000 [1]

Hold 'Em Jail is a 1932 American pre-Code comedy film starring Wheeler and Woolsey. They play a couple of boobs who are wrongfully convicted for firearm possession and sent to prison, where they somehow end up playing on the warden's football team.

Contents

Warden Edgar Kennedy is not above framing innocent people into prison and blackmailing them into playing on his football team in exchange for being eventually proven innocent.

Wheeler and Woolsey are wise to the racket, but Kennedy has to treat them with kid gloves because his old maid sister (Oliver) is in love with one of them.

HOLD 'EM JAIL ad from The Film Daily, 1932 HOLD 'EM JAIL ad - The Film Daily, Jul-Dec 1932 (page 326 crop).jpg
HOLD 'EM JAIL ad from The Film Daily , 1932

Rare for the duo, the film is a straight comedy with no musical numbers. It is also noteworthy for giving Betty Grable her first substantial role after appearances as a Goldwyn Girl and in bit parts. The title is a pun on the then-popular college football cheer, "Hold 'em, Yale."

Cast

Box office

According to RKO records the film recorded a loss of $55,000. [1]

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References

  1. 1 2 3 Richard Jewel, 'RKO Film Grosses: 1931-1951', Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, Vol 14 No 1, 1994 p57