If it wasn't for Phyllis Diller, this film would be a complete bomb. Even with pro's like Bob Hope and Jonathan Winters build above the title, there is barely anything funny about it. The second film for Hope and Diller after "Boy, Did I get a Wrong Number!" shows why comedy in the mid-to-late 60s was a mixed bag. Bob Hope is a bank clerk who claims he found $10,000 in a grocery store parking lot, but when $10,000 shows up missing from the bank, he is accused of being the embezzler. so rather than stay and try to clear himself, the widower hope gathers his seven children together and their big dog and gets into a volkswagen bug and goes on the run. School teacher girlfriend Shirley Eaton AKA Goldfinger, joins him and trying to take care of the children while how to prove his innocence.
Hope, who is nearing 70 when he met this film, seems rather odd when paired with the gorgeous 30-something eating. Then his children range from preschool to high school age, another ridiculous element of this unfunny disaster that makes even the worst of the 1960s sitcom's seemed good. Winters is completely wasted as Diller's dumb cop boyfriend who helps her try to find him so they can help clear him. It only gets funny when Diller jumps out of their car in the middle of a Los Angeles freeway and uses the tops of cars to run up the highway so Winters can get through. She's a hoot to watch in her purple skirt and matching boots. Jill St. John appears in a brief part as the mistress of the bank manager.
Of course, there's the inevitable chase sequence at the end that is filled with slapstick, and moments of that are truly hysterical which in addition to Diller up'd my rating. I can envision this playing in drive-in's in the 1960's where large families like mine would gather for a family night out, with mom and dad look into each other in confusion as the kiddies all howled over what day then considered humor. Many of the comedies of this time had similar elements that makes the decade a strange period of film history.
Hope, who is nearing 70 when he met this film, seems rather odd when paired with the gorgeous 30-something eating. Then his children range from preschool to high school age, another ridiculous element of this unfunny disaster that makes even the worst of the 1960s sitcom's seemed good. Winters is completely wasted as Diller's dumb cop boyfriend who helps her try to find him so they can help clear him. It only gets funny when Diller jumps out of their car in the middle of a Los Angeles freeway and uses the tops of cars to run up the highway so Winters can get through. She's a hoot to watch in her purple skirt and matching boots. Jill St. John appears in a brief part as the mistress of the bank manager.
Of course, there's the inevitable chase sequence at the end that is filled with slapstick, and moments of that are truly hysterical which in addition to Diller up'd my rating. I can envision this playing in drive-in's in the 1960's where large families like mine would gather for a family night out, with mom and dad look into each other in confusion as the kiddies all howled over what day then considered humor. Many of the comedies of this time had similar elements that makes the decade a strange period of film history.