User Reviews

John Barrymore, George Murphy and Joan Davis star in "Hold that Coed," a 1938 film about politics and football. Murphy plays a football star turned coach of a state university, which has no funding and no equipment for its football players. Governor Gabby Harrigan (John Barrymore) is running for a Senate seat and has slashed the school's funding even further. The students, led by the coach, head for his office to protest. Harrigan refuses to see them; a horrendous fight breaks out when the police arrive. The governor's secretary (Marjorie Blake) and his advisors warn him that his decision to cut funding and refusal to meet the students is going to cost him votes. He decides to do a switch - to pour money into the school and build a huge stadium which will also serve as a place to champion his election to the Senate.

Of course, the school has to play only the biggest college teams. Just one problem - this team is a big loser. So a female (Davis) who is an amazing kicker is drafted, and two professional wrestlers who quit school are given government positions and put on the team.

"Hold that Coed" is a funny satire with the kind of wild performance by John Barrymore that one expects by 1938 when he was well in his cups. Like his fellow politico, Ronald Reagan, George Murphy was an attractive, light leading man, but he could also sing and dance. Though the music in this movie isn't much, it's pleasant, as is Murphy, who never tried to move out of his range or go over the top. Joan Davis is funny as the tomboyish kicker - before she kicks, she does mincing type movements. Someone complained about the finale, which includes problems with strong winds; I didn't mind it.

The film, of course, belongs to Barrymore. You can never take your eyes off of him, and even when he hams it up, he's great. I never thought he was a hammy actor unless it was called for - and as the governor, he could be nothing else. Certainly his performances in "Bill of Divorcement," "The Great Man Votes" and dozens of his other films prove his brilliance as an actor.

Recommended; very enjoyable.

By this time in Barrymore's career you couldn't be sure if you were going to get a completely on target performance out of him or if he was going to sleep-walk through his role. Let me assure you this is a good film for Barrymore enthusiasts to watch in which the Great Profile is spot-on as Governor Gabby Harrington who never goes wrong by taking the cynical approach when dealing with the voters.

The film starts out with Rusty Stevens (George Murphy) taking over the football coaching duties at State University. Unfortunately the team has no equipment, only one football, and no budget to do anything more about it since the governor has defunded the team. Rusty storms the governor's mansion with his team in tow and demands to see the governor about this problem. At first the governor is not at all interested - after all college students don't vote (you still had to be 21 at the time). However a romance blossoms between the governor's aide and Rusty, and she soon has the governor seeing things Rusty's way by phrasing things in terms of votes. Not only does Harrington restore funding to State U. in general, he builds the team a new stadium, convinced this will win him votes in his upcoming race for senator.

This is an entertaining yet goofy little film. There is a windstorm in the finale that looks like some comic device out of a Wheeler and Woolsey film, a senate race decided by a football game between rival schools, and musical numbers that are passable but overall suffer from what I can only call Fox-itis and are unmemorable and oddly placed. What is very memorable besides Barrymore is Joan Davis who - long before Title 9 - plays a girl who has managed to get a spot on the football team. Also of note is Jack Haley as the governor's aide who gets abused by the governor and chased by Joan Davis' character.

The players keep stating that they are in the south, and this satire is obviously aimed at Huey Long. However, just to keep you off track, nobody here has a southern accent. Plus, it is specifically mentioned that the state has no canals or zoos - so this could not be Louisiana. I'd recommend this one just to see Barrymore in a good performance late in his career in a movie in which his presence is pivotal to its success. I can't see it having worked without him.

Hold That Co-ed (1938)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Political and sports satire about a Governor (John Barrymore) running for a seat on the Senate who comes up with a scheme to get more votes. He decides to pump money into a low class college and turn their football program into one of the best in the nation. This film is rather hit and miss but Barrymore is right on the target with his maniac-style performance. He's certainly over the top but he doesn't go too far out there and he manages to bring several laughs to the rather standard screenplay. A special note must also go towards his wickedly funny looking hair cut. The supporting cast includes George Murphy, Joan Davis, Jack Haley and Donald Meek. The satire works just fine but there are a couple really horrid moments in the film including a couple musical sequences, which just stop the film dead in its tracks. One of these sequences is perhaps the worst musical number I've seen in any film. Another problem is the final football game, which uses wind as a major factor but this comes off very unhappy and ends the film on a rather sour note. George Marshall directs.

While running for governor, the politician is helping a poor college by planning to secure a victory for his football team. Although it would be a parody of Huey Long and his machine.

A wooly-headed governor lifts his sad-sack state school's football team into the front rank in order to boost his sagging senatorial campaign.

The movie bears more than a passing resemblance to 1936's Pigskin Parade, a much better movie. How you respond to this particular parody likely depends on Barrymore's wacko performance. I'm a minority, but I found his relentless eye-rolling spastic moves off-putting rather than funny. I thought great actors calibrated their performances. Here, his turn as the governor is anything but calibrated. It's like he doesn't want to steal every scene; instead, he wants to stomp on it. Too bad, because the antics detract from Joan Davis's genuinely humorous brand of comedy and Murphy's likable if sober-sided coach. In fact, I thought the highpoint of the cinematic stew-pot was Murphy's charming little soft-shoe shuffle near the beginning. Anyway, in my book, the film's for hardcore Barrymore fans only.