Hold 'Em Jail

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

Hold 'Em Jail
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 (1932-09-16)
Running time	66 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$408,000[1]
Box office	$511,000[1]

Warden Edgar Kennedy frames innocent people and blackmails them into playing on his football team in exchange for promises of eventual exoneration.

Wheeler and Woolsey are aware of the racket, but Kennedy treads lightly with them because his spinster sister (Oliver) is in love with one of them.

HOLD 'EM JAIL ad from The Film Daily, 1932

Unusually for the duo, the film is a straight comedy without 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 as Radio Announcer
• Roscoe Ates as Sam
• Edgar Kennedy as Warden Elmer Jones
• Betty Grable as Barbara Jones
• Warren Hymer as Steele
• 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 as Mike Maloney

Box office

RKO records indicate that the film incurred a loss of $55,000.^[1]