An amiable Bob Hope comedy with a seasonal flavour based on a Damon Runyan character. It's years since I've read the original story but I'm assured that the plot here is very different to that penned by Runyan. To be fair though, the situations and characterisations here are still identifiably Runyonesque with Hope's Kid a real fly-by-night, living from scam to scam, stringing along his pretty but obviously long-suffering girl-friend Marilyn Miller in the process.
However, when he flim-flams the wrong guy, i.e. A big-shot gangster, at the race-track, our hero has to find $10000 before Christmas Eve, which is only a matter of days away, otherwise his fate is as cooked as a Christmas Day goose. So he comes up with an idea to fleece the general public into stumping up donations for a fake charity to house a group of elderly women, or dolls as they're ungraciously termed, which he'll use to pay off his debt, but it's not long before it all gets complicated and at least two rival gangs are out for the Kid's head. But it's a Bob Hope movie and set at Christmas time so do you really doubt the final outcome...?
I won't say the movie delivered major belly-laughs but Hope well knows how to carry off this stuff, even if it's a bit of stretch to imagine him stringing along the lovely Miller, especially as her character's name is actually "Brainy". Meanwhile, he gets in his trademark jibes at Crosby as well as Milton Berle plus the usual stream of self-deprecating gags we've come to know and expect over the years. There's also the bonus of the introduction of the popular seasonal "Silver Bells" sung by Hope and Miller.
I think I still prefer old Bob when he's out on the road with Bing, but this light Chritmassy comedy goes down as nicely as a lemon-drop although I must confess I speak as someone with a decidedly sweet tooth!
However, when he flim-flams the wrong guy, i.e. A big-shot gangster, at the race-track, our hero has to find $10000 before Christmas Eve, which is only a matter of days away, otherwise his fate is as cooked as a Christmas Day goose. So he comes up with an idea to fleece the general public into stumping up donations for a fake charity to house a group of elderly women, or dolls as they're ungraciously termed, which he'll use to pay off his debt, but it's not long before it all gets complicated and at least two rival gangs are out for the Kid's head. But it's a Bob Hope movie and set at Christmas time so do you really doubt the final outcome...?
I won't say the movie delivered major belly-laughs but Hope well knows how to carry off this stuff, even if it's a bit of stretch to imagine him stringing along the lovely Miller, especially as her character's name is actually "Brainy". Meanwhile, he gets in his trademark jibes at Crosby as well as Milton Berle plus the usual stream of self-deprecating gags we've come to know and expect over the years. There's also the bonus of the introduction of the popular seasonal "Silver Bells" sung by Hope and Miller.
I think I still prefer old Bob when he's out on the road with Bing, but this light Chritmassy comedy goes down as nicely as a lemon-drop although I must confess I speak as someone with a decidedly sweet tooth!