If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

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

Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

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

I think that for today's audiences a little clarification is needed as far as terms used. James Dunn is described as 'skip tracer'. He is most definitely not someone who goes after dangerous criminals who break bail. Today what Dunn does would be better described as a Repo-Man. He just takes items bought on credit that buyers are late in paying for.He's in some trouble at work because Dave O'Brien is the fairhaired boy of the boss because he repossesses more than the rest. And Dunn also is having woman trouble, his potential father-in-law who is a cop doesn't think he's the right sort for his daughter Frances Gifford. But in a light and breezy paced comedy/drama Dunn gets himself an assignment to repossess a radio from Rita LeRoy who happened to stash some stolen jewels in it. She's the brains behind the mob and she's plenty smart and no one to mess with.Dunn did this one for poverty row PRC Pictures and considering what a no frills outfit they were this one is pretty good.

In "Hold That Woman!" you hear the term 'skip-tracer' a lot and because it's such a seldom used term, it would be best if I explain it before getting to the review. Like the words say, this is a person that looks for someone who has skipped out of town and is in hiding. The skip-tracer can be doing this for a variety of reasons, such as bounty hunting, process serving (court notices) and, in the case of this movie, it's someone who is looking to repossess items for which the owners did not finish making payments. Making such a person the hero in your story is a bit odd to say the least.The skip-tracer in this film is Jimmy Parker (James Dunn). When out collecting a radio from a very unpleasant woman, he gets himself into trouble by breaking into her apartment. Sure, she's a crook but legally you cannot just break in to repossess the radio. The lady is very indignant and insists on pressing charges against him. But this is a ruse...she doesn't want him to have the radio because there is something hidden inside and she cannot let him have it. What is it and who else is looking for the radio?This film was made by tiny little PRC Studio--one of the crappier small-time outfits of the day. Most of their films are very forgettable--with lousy stories, directing and acting. Here, however, PRC actually created, accidentally, a decent movie which still contained a few of the usual clichés (such as the leading guy who knows MUCH more than the dopey cops). Overall, this is a mildly entertaining mystery movie--with both a bit of comedy and some gritty violence (I like the drill sequence).

Jimmie Parker, an easy going, affable, likable guy is just not very good at his job as a skip tracer. Skip tracers either get the cash owed on a product or repossess the product and return it to the store. Parker's completion rate is very low and he is in danger of losing his job. His boss likes to point out how very good Miles Hanover (Dave O'Brien) is as a skip tracer. Given how smug and smarmy Hanover is, the audience can eagerly anticipate his being given his comeuppance by Jimmy. In addition to being a nice guy, Jimmy also has incredible good luck. In one afternoon he gets married to a beautiful woman (who is fortunately also easy going), buys a house, buys furniture, moves into the house, catches jewel thieves and helps a colleague repossess a car. There are a couple of snags along the way like getting arrested and buying the furniture from a crooked old lady who sold it (cheap) to Jimmy right before the skip tracers came for it. Somehow this convoluted plot works and is actually entertaining and a pleasant way to spend an hour.

Originally titled SKIP TRACER. this very entertaining, briskly paced comedy adventure features James Dunn, cast as Jimmy Parker, an agent for Skip Tracers, Ltd., who with his girl friend Mary (Dunn's real life wife Frances Gifford) find themselves embroiled in the midst of a burglary case concerning diamonds stolen from a movie star, bringing about their being arrested, shot at and chased by the thieves, yet finding opportunity to be wed and set up housekeeping, all during one frenetic day, thanks to a snappily penned script that neatly ties together disparate plot elements. A small budgeted production from producer Sigmund Newfield's PRC studio, the work is ably directed by his brother Sam, an old hand at such poverty row action pieces, assisted here as often by Holbrook Todd, editor, and cameraman Jack Greenhalgh who is accustomed to thinking quickly for this type of film, the trio joining to create smooth montage effects. That aspect of acting called "business", prominent from the 1930s into the 1950s, particularly in U.S. cinema, benefits this production, especially that employed by Dunn (who ad libs effectively) in conjunction with beautiful Gifford whose natural graces earn for the future star of serials the acting laurels here, although her native athleticism is sublimated for her role, while able turns are to be appreciated from Rita LaRoy, Paul Boyar and George Douglas as members of the gem thieving gang, and from Dave O'Brien as a skip tracer in competition with Parker. The DVD release from Alpha offers adequate sight and sound, with no extras.