The film was still a fun one that will make you laugh and have you leaving the theater feeling like you just stole something valuable and got away with it.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

A Pygmalion theme is present in this episode of our Lower East Side slackers,(Our Bowery Boys)as two distinguished gentleman Billingsly and Stanhope argue over and debate whether an inner city roughian can be molded, transformed into an intellectuals by means of heredity or environment? After searching the bowels of the lower east side of New York these two esteemed colleagues observed Slip Mahoney (Leo Gorcey) and his knucklehead outspoken side kick Satch (Huntz Hall)arguing over some mundane problem of the day.The two gents follow the Slip and Satch and there extended group Butch and Chuck into Louie's Sweet Shop which doubles as a eating establishment and headquarter for our Bowery bunch. The two approach our boys and make them an offer to attend college and whip them into blue bloods. Slip Mahoney our unpolished Leader of the group famous for his obstruction of the English language with his malapropisms at every turn excepts their offer and off to Ivy University for all four infamous freshman. I found this to be personally humorous at the sight of these guys who are pushing thirty to be considered Boys, but it's never to late to learn. Now on to the Ivy Campus where the Boys are matriculating and trying to fit in their unfamiliar surroundings. Their first meeting with a very apprehensive Dean Forrester is very predictable as our boys are acting like bulls in a china shop. Dean Forrester who is handling his pride and joy his beautiful Ming Vase in his marble and mahogany clad office as he calls it, "My beautiful Ming Vace (VAAAAZ) as Satch has a hand in breaking the vase and the Dean's spirit as well. Next they run into football star Biff Wallace (John Broomfield) who looks down upon our uncouth freshman as the girls gravitate towards our Bowery brigade. Some of the classroom scenes are notable for example in Professor Grog's Math class. Satch who's lack of intelligence is questionable at best has the right answers to any math problem that is asked of him. The startled Professor looks in disbelief but Satch has adding machine under his desk which he types with his toes and gets the answers in seconds. On to Chemistry lab as Satch fiddles with chemicals based on the color and taste that suit him. Takes a bold taste and becomes Hurricane Jones with Super human strength. Satch tests his powers on the track and field area as he throws the javelin about a good mile in the air right through the Dean's window.Sadly our Dean was repairing his damaged Ming Vase gluing the last piece together as the javelin pierces the vase. Next you hear a simultaneous crying sound from our devastated Dean. Satch with the help of his super drug still fresh in his system, takes his skills to the Football field and out runs the whole squad into the ground. Each week goes by with huge headlines about Ivy's new star Hurricane Jones beating such and such college or University. By now Satch is making a name for himself as an All-American star player which makes Biff and organized gamblers take notice. Like most previous episodes Louie Dombrowsky joins in as this time he plays a duel role as himself and his cousin Morris who tends the Sweet Shop while our elderly Louie makes up some college credits. The Big game against State is coming up and Biff introduces Satch to Candy who's job is to vamp Satch. Keep him occupied and away from the stadium for the big game. Candy is connected to gambler racketeer Big Dave who has a lot of loot riding on State University. How this all turns out is sheer Bowery Boys comedy. Do I hear ROUTINE OMAHA?

This Ivy University is in a league of it's own when the Bowery Boys come calling. Former seasoned graduates of the esteemed college bet among themselves that it's possible to take a below average student and make them successful given the right environment. This all sounds strangely like the same idea that's gotten underachieving high school grads who can't read or do basic math, into degree programs today some sixty plus years later. Well, at least the Bowery Boys didn't need safe spaces on campus to make the grade, no place was safe once they arrived on the scene.Right around the time this film was coming out, Gloria Winters was about to begin a lengthy series run on TV's 'Sky King', so it was a nice surprise seeing her show up in this flick. She was Kirby Grant's niece Penny King in that show, so one might conclude that her name was borrowed from her character in this movie, Penny Wells. She didn't really have a lot to do here, but managed to be part of the 'in crowd' on campus so to speak, hanging out with the football team's hunky Biff Wallace (John Bromfield), girlfriend Katie (Mona Knox), and second string boyfriend Harold (Bob Nichols).This picture turns out to be Sach's (Huntz Hall) show pretty much all the way, as 'Hurricane' Jones concocts some magical lab potion that makes him a man of steel on the gridiron and Ivy University's newest football hero. To pass a fraternity hazing, the Boys do a drag routine at Louie's (Bernard Gorcey), who we learn after all this time that he has a brother Morris who looks just like him - who would have guessed?Well with a couple of hoods betting on Ivy's big season ending game with State University, Sach gets sidelined by the gang's moll Candy Calin (Veda Ann Borg), but it won't be enough to stop the Bowery juggernaut. Slip (Leo Gorcey) picks up the ball and manages to get tackled into the end zone on the last play of the game to notch a win for Ivy. To Slip's credit, this film offers him the opportunity to utter what might be the longest stream of malapropisms on record in any of the Bowery films, a degree worthy achievement in it's own right.

In a "Pygmalion"-type plot, two cultured, chess-playing college alumni agree to round up some ruffians, and enroll them in an Ivy league school. To wit, they find Leo Gorcey (as Slip) and "The Bowery Boys": Huntz Hall (as Sach), Gil Stratton (as Junior), David "Conden" Gorcey (as Chuck), and Benny "David" Bartlett (as Butch). They set out to answer the question: Can any "boy" make the grade at their "Ivy University", or do you need "blue blood"? "The Bowery Boys" go to college - routine, unimaginative, and... too late.In a "hazing" scene, the "Boys" dress like girls, and go to Louie's. In a sub-plot, Leo Gorcey's father Bernard's "Louie Dumbrowsky" character's brother "Morris" appears, making it four Gorcey characters in one film. The main story involves a chemistry dabbling Mr. Hall inventing, and drinking, a vitamin concoction which makes him a super-strong football star. Some underworld types lure Hall away from the important "big game".*** Hold That Line (3/23/52) William Beaudine ~ Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall, Bernard Gorcey

It was made for a certain audience at a certain time, and the producers, writers, directors and players delivered exactly what was called for...and had no idea that self-pointed critics would surface five decades later and...rate??? and critique it.Against what? This one has two wealthy clubmen, Billingsley (Francis Pierlot) and Stanhope (Pierre Watkin), wanting to test a theory that their old school Ivy, can make blue bloods out of Bowery toughs. They didn't come any tougher and unpolished than the Bowery Boys and they are soon enrolled at Old Ivy.Biff Wallace (John Bromfield), the college football hero wearing a name straight out of the days when only Yale, Harvard and Brown players made the All-American teams named by the Eastern sportswriters, Harold (Bob Nichols), editor of the school paper and determined to keep the hallowed halls pure and no white-trash or Commies allowed, Katie Wayne (Mona Knox), Penny (Gloria Winters), Candy Calin (Veda Ann Borg, evidently doing post-graduate work)and other students, are more than a bit dismayed to find the likes of Slip (Leo Gorcey) and Sach (Huntz Hall)---with lines---and Whitey (Gil Stratton Jr.), Chuck (David Gorcey billed as David Condon, because the producer didn't want more than two people named Gorcey in the cast) and Butch (Bennie Bartlett)---all with no lines but marks to stand on---mingling amongst 'em. The times, they were indeed a'changing at Old Ivy.First rattle out of the box, Sach mixes up some vitamins that make him invincible as an athlete in all sports, and he did this without the aid of Balco Labs. Soon, the football team, thanks to Sach and no thanks to former BMC (Big Man on Campus)Biff, is undefeated and unbeatable. Biff is hacked and he approaches Big Dave (Al Eben) and his sexy girlfriend Candy (aha, she was more than a student)with a proposition. Dolls played by Veda Ann Borg were always open to propositions and sometimes came up with some on their own volition. Anyway, Candy vamps Sach just before THE BIG GAME with STATE, lures him to Big Dave's place, and Dave knocks Sach out with dope, and didn't even tell him it was an arthritis cream to be rubbed on his wrists so he'd be ready for baseball season.Well, as usually the case when a college named Ivy plays one named State in Football, the odds are high that Ivy (even with handsome Biff in the lineup) will soon be getting their clocks cleaned and furrows plowed and this game is no exception. The questions now are will Biff confess so Sach can be rescued, will Sach be rescued and, if Sach is rescued, can he get to the game on time to win it for Old Ivy.If you don't already know, far be it from us, to tell you.But...any film with Mona Knox on the sidelines in a tight sweater, short-shorts two-sizes too small and carrying a megaphone and doing splits is a 10 (TEN)edging toward 11 (ELEVEN)...judged against any movie ever made.