Contractually, Bob Hope left Paramount Pictures in 1957 after a two decade run, but this self-produced/ United Artists release remains all Paramount ‘above and below the line.’ From nearly retired director Norman Z. McLeod to cinematographer Lionel Lindon, costumer Edith Head, even process shot whiz Farciot Edouart. It’s also got some leftover Paramount laughs in it. Arguably, his last.* Bob plays his usual cowardly braggart character, a flop insurance salesman who’s just sold a big policy to Jesse James. Yikes! Now, he’s got to go out West to keep his wily client from getting killed and bankrupting the company. It’s a superb comic idea, and spun out to reasonable effect, but also typically undisciplined Bob Hope, where any old gag will do. There’s no commitment to the idea, to any idea. Still, modestly entertaining in a scattershot way with Wendell Corey showing unexpected comic chops as James and Rhonda Fleming, as the girl between them, dueting nicely in a musical bit. (Hope, such an underrated song plugger.) If it starts to run out of steam in the last act, a shoot-out finale is fun, with every tv cowboy star of the day (plus Gary Cooper and Bing Crosby) popping up for a pot shot at the villain. Painless at worst, with decent yuks along the way. But pretty much the end of the line, Hope-wise.
SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY: *Hope, on film & in tv in the ‘60s & ‘70s, slid from comic decline to pure anti-humor. It all but buried his great gifts in the ‘40s and ‘50s from an entire generation.
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