View source for Hold 'Em Jail

{{short description|1932 film}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=December 2020}}
{{Infobox film
| name           = Hold 'Em Jail
| image          =File:Hold 'Em Jail.jpg
| caption        =
| director       = [[Norman Taurog]]
| producer       = [[Harry Joe Brown]] (associate producer)<br>[[David O. Selznick]] (executive producer)
| writer         = [[Walter DeLeon]] (screenplay)<br>[[S.J. Perelman]] (screenplay)<br>Eddie Welch (screenplay)<br>[[Mark Sandrich]] (screenplay)<br>[[Tim Whelan]] (story)<br>[[Lew Lipton]] (story)<br>John P. Medbury (radio dialogue)<br>[[Albert Ray]] (continuity)
| starring       = [[Wheeler and Woolsey]]<br>[[Edna May Oliver]]<br>[[Edgar Kennedy]]<br>[[Betty Grable]]
| music          = [[Max Steiner]]
| cinematography = [[Leonard Smith (cinematographer)|Leonard Smith]]
| editing        = [[Arthur Roberts (film editor)|Arthur Roberts]]
| distributor    = [[RKO Pictures|RKO Radio Pictures]]
| released       = {{Film date|1932|09|16}}
| runtime        = 66 minutes
| country        = United States
| language       = English
| budget         = $408,000<ref name="rko">Richard Jewel, 'RKO Film Grosses: 1931-1951', ''Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television'', Vol 14 No 1, 1994 p57</ref>
| gross          = $511,000<ref name="rko"/>}}
'''''Hold 'Em Jail''''' is a 1932 American [[Pre-Code Hollywood|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.
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.
[[File:HOLD 'EM JAIL ad - The Film Daily, Jul-Dec 1932 (page 326 crop).jpg|thumb|364x364px|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==
* [[Bert Wheeler]] as Curly Harris
* [[Robert Woolsey]] as Spider Robbins
* [[Edna May Oliver]] as Violet Jones
* [[Robert Armstrong (actor)|Robert Armstrong]] as Radio Announcer
* [[Roscoe Ates]] as Sam
* [[Edgar Kennedy]] as Warden Elmer Jones
* [[Betty Grable]] as Barbara Jones
* [[Warren Hymer]] as Steele
* [[Paul Hurst (actor)|Paul Hurst]] as Butch
* [[G. Pat Collins]] as Whitey
* [[Stanley Blystone]] as Kravette
* [[Jed Prouty]] as Warden Charles Clark
* [[Spencer Charters]] as the Governor
* [[John Sheehan (actor)|John Sheehan]] as Mike Maloney
==Box office==
According to RKO records the film recorded a loss of $55,000.<ref name="rko"/>
==References==
{{reflist}}
==External links==
* {{IMDb title|0023013}}
* {{TCMDb title|78167|Hold 'Em Jail}}
{{Norman Taurog}}
[[Category:1932 films]]
[[Category:1930s sports comedy films]]
[[Category:1930s prison films]]
[[Category:American black-and-white films]]
[[Category:American sports comedy films]]
[[Category:American football films]]
[[Category:American prison comedy films]]
[[Category:1930s English-language films]]
[[Category:Films directed by Norman Taurog]]
[[Category:RKO Pictures films]]
[[Category:1932 comedy films]]
[[Category:1930s American films]]
[[Category:English-language crime films]]
[[Category:English-language sports comedy films]]
{{1930s-comedy-film-stub}}