Hold 'Em Yale
Cast & Crew
Sidney Lanfield
Patricia Ellis
Cesar Romero
Larry "buster" Crabbe
William Frawley
Andy Devine
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
Sunshine Joe, leader of a group of racketeers whose current occupation is ticket scalping, sends Georgie, the Chaser, so named for his love of women, to procure some fight tickets. Also in the gang are Benny South Street, Liverlips and Sam, the Gonoph. On the train to Philadelphia, Georgie reads about an heiress, Clarice Van Cleve, whose penchant for men in uniform has cost her father thousands of dollars. In order to prevent his daughter from eloping a fourth time, Van Cleve accompanies Clarice to Lonesome Pines, New Jersey, for a rest cure along with his best friend, Mr. Wilmot, and Wilmot's bookish son Hector, whom both fathers hope Clarice will marry. Georgie arrives at the retreat in a plane wearing a uniform and makes love to Clarice, claiming to be Captain Mario Valdez of the Foreign Flying Corps. Clarice falls for him immediately and accepts his proposal. Hector stops her from eloping, however, and Van Cleve places her in a girls school. Georgie, meanwhile, explains to the gang that he has invested $400 in an heiress whom he plans to marry. When the fight for which Georgie got tickets is cancelled, Joe and the gang decide to secure tickets for the Yale-Harvard football game. Georgie is about to leave for New Haven when Clarice arrives at the gang's apartment, having run away from school and been disinherited because she wants to marry Georgie. When he learns she is penniless, Georgie abandons her but promises to return to marry her after completing a secret mission for the "king." When Joe and the mugs return home, they find Clarice, who is determined to learn to run a house in Georgie's absence. After daily doses of Clarice's bad cooking and persistent discipline, Joe receives a telegram from Georgie saying he has skipped town with the Yale-Harvard profits and has found a new girl. When the mugs realize who their housemate is, Benny decides to reveal her whereabouts to Van Cleve and collect a reward. Van Cleve, convinced the mugs are the only people who can reform Clarice of her spoiled temperament, hires them to convince her to marry Hector, who is on the football team at Yale. The mugs take Clarice to the Yale-Harvard game, but Hector is such an incompetent athlete he isn't even on the bench. Liverlips forces the coach at gunpoint to put Hector in the game, and at the last minute, Hector gets the field goal Yale needs to win. He and Clarice then marry.
Director
Sidney Lanfield
Cast
Patricia Ellis
Cesar Romero
Larry "buster" Crabbe
William Frawley
Andy Devine
George Barbier
Warren Hymer
George E. Stone
Hale Hamilton
Guy Usher
Leonard Carey
Grant Withers
Garry Owen
Ethel Griffies
Kendall Evans
Theodore Lorch
Oscar Smith
Stanley Andrews
Reed Howes
Phillips Smalley
Edward Gargan
Arthur Housman
Crew
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
According to a news item in Daily Variety, the female lead in this film had been a "toss-up" between Bette Davis and Frances Dee before the role went to Patricia Ellis, who was borrowed from Warner Bros. Daily Variety also reported that Cedric Worth was engaged to write the script, although apparently he was later replaced.
