User Reviews

Prison, football, a jewel robbery and a surprise comical birthday party mix together for this amusing "B" programmer. Young Eddie Quillan looks like the all-American boy, but acts like one of the Dead End Kids. Released from prison, he gets a college football scholarship, but hates the humiliating rituals for Freshmen pledges and plots to get out. Along the way, he meets charming Betty Furness and slowly, his plans change. Shady Grant Mitchell wants him to throw the big game and plot the robbery of wealthy Margaret Dumont's jewels. Will a sudden bout with honor prevent him from going through with this?

Enjoyable for its many different themes, this succeeds massively in its comic moments, particularly a birthday party for Furness's campus cop papa (Edgar Kennedy) who minimizes his famous slow-burn for more of an amusingly annoyed persona. He's a man who can take a joke, not revealing to his party guests that the watch which Quillan gave him as a birthday gift was actually his in the first place. He also does a brief Sherlock Holmes impression years before Basil Rathbone spouted, "Watson, The Needle!"

Dumont is amusing in her one scene as the less-than-befuddled matron charmed by Quillan and totally oblivious to the fact that he's only interested in her massive jewelry collection. Hawk-beaked Clarence Wilson gets Kennedy's usual slow burn as the small town sheriff who holds Quillan while the campus searches for him. If these character performances aren't enough, there's also Grady Sutton as the portly freshman who literally holds onto the football at all times after the coach tells him never to put it down, even taking it to the shower with him!

You know that it can't be a great football movie when 5'6" and 125 pound Eddie Quillan is playing the lead. No matter how good they claim he is in the film, he simply couldn't have survived playing this game with full grown college boys! To make it all the more ridiculous, he was discovered while playing for a prison football team! As for Quillan, he plays a role that might have been played by Jimmy Cagney or a few years later by Leo Gorcey. You know, a pugnacious little guy who won't take nothing' from nobody (though they would have been killed if they acted like their personas in real life). To convince Quillan to go to college, college scout Grant Mitchell pretends that he's a gang leader and the college was their base of operations. This is a funny gag, but they seem to have forgotten about this part-way through the film.

At the end of the film, the usual clichés are all there though how they did them was strange. Some idiot sheriff arrests Quillan although there are no specific charges. Apparently he was just picked up because he seemed like he COULD be a gangster and this is all perfectly legal on other planets, though it clearly violates the US Constitution (a minor consideration, I know). When the mistake is discovered, Quillan is rushed to the stadium where the home team is losing 6-0 with only seconds left. Surprise, surprise, surprise when Quillan manages to not only score the tying touchdown but kick the game winning extra point as time expires--not that this hasn't occurred in 184 other football films!! Overall, very watchable and reasonably well made for what is clearly a B-movie. However, to truly enjoy the flick you need to turn off your brain--otherwise all the plot problems might just give you a headache!!

A couple final notes. In one scene showing the cheering crowd, it's clearly a military academy game, as there are tons of cadets in military uniforms--even though the game is between Bellford and State!! Also, while set in college, it's interesting that not only do they never show Quillan in class, but never even mention it!!!