The title -- "Two Minutes to Play" -- is a reference to the climax of the movie, in which Franklin College is losing a football game to rival Augusta by three points.
Poor Herman Brix, as Martin Granville, the best player Franklin has, has been suspended from the team for an infraction of the rules -- an infraction of which he is innocent. Then, in the midst of this near-disaster on the gridiron, the truth is revealed to the coach. "Find GRANVILLE, wherever he is, and tell him to get SUITED UP!", bellows the coach. Something like that anyway.
It's a tense moment indeed. The time out is ticking away as Brix hurries into his uniform and rushes out onto the field and the crowd cheers and bells ring. It's a grave disappointment when Brix trips because he's forgotten to change out of his high heels, sprains his lateral pterygoid plate, breaks his coccyx, a wing of his sphenoidals, and both his legs. The crowd moans in anguish. As Brix's broken body is carted off the field, Franklin goes on to lose the final game -- Augusta 3, Franklin negative 6. I'll tell you, the Franklin faces are fallen when they read in the next morning's papers that the coach has done himself in by hugging a red hot stove to death while swallowing a string of lighted firecrackers. Compared to this tale, "Othello" is a romantic comedy.
Of course, you don't believe that. Brix was a fine athlete, something to do with the shot put in the Olympics, if I remember. He seems to have regular enough features for a male lead. I can't tell if he's handsome or not. And if he's not a natural actor, he's at least as good as anyone else in the movie -- somewhere between Ron Carey and Gary Cooper.
There are some running gags that succeed in their own quiet way, and the ending is ironic. Brix doesn't get the girl. Neither does his chief rival on the football field. Instead, she marries Grady Sutton, who looks like Humpty Dumpty but has recently acquired thirty-seven million dollars.
Poor Herman Brix, as Martin Granville, the best player Franklin has, has been suspended from the team for an infraction of the rules -- an infraction of which he is innocent. Then, in the midst of this near-disaster on the gridiron, the truth is revealed to the coach. "Find GRANVILLE, wherever he is, and tell him to get SUITED UP!", bellows the coach. Something like that anyway.
It's a tense moment indeed. The time out is ticking away as Brix hurries into his uniform and rushes out onto the field and the crowd cheers and bells ring. It's a grave disappointment when Brix trips because he's forgotten to change out of his high heels, sprains his lateral pterygoid plate, breaks his coccyx, a wing of his sphenoidals, and both his legs. The crowd moans in anguish. As Brix's broken body is carted off the field, Franklin goes on to lose the final game -- Augusta 3, Franklin negative 6. I'll tell you, the Franklin faces are fallen when they read in the next morning's papers that the coach has done himself in by hugging a red hot stove to death while swallowing a string of lighted firecrackers. Compared to this tale, "Othello" is a romantic comedy.
Of course, you don't believe that. Brix was a fine athlete, something to do with the shot put in the Olympics, if I remember. He seems to have regular enough features for a male lead. I can't tell if he's handsome or not. And if he's not a natural actor, he's at least as good as anyone else in the movie -- somewhere between Ron Carey and Gary Cooper.
There are some running gags that succeed in their own quiet way, and the ending is ironic. Brix doesn't get the girl. Neither does his chief rival on the football field. Instead, she marries Grady Sutton, who looks like Humpty Dumpty but has recently acquired thirty-seven million dollars.
