Yes, before the great Billy Wilder classic there was this other Some Like It Hot, a minor Bob Hope film done at a time when Hope was still thought of as a B film star. The film had to change title when Wilder's film became an all time comedy classic, I have a VHS copy of it under the title of Rhythm and Romance.
Actually this work has undergone many changes in its life. Someone had some faith in it. It began as a flop Broadway play in 1932 written by the team of Ben Hecht and Gene Fowler. It only ran 11 performances in the winter of 1932 when few people had the price of a Broadway theater ticket.
The property was sold to Paramount which first filmed it in 1934 under the title of Shoot the Works starring Jack Oakie. A very nice song by Harry Revel and Mack Gordon came out of that film called With My Eyes Wide Open, I'm Dreaming that Dean Martin later reprised in The Stooge.
Anyway Paramount did it another version of it five years later this time with Bob Hope and Shirley Ross. I've never seen the Oakie film, but I'm willing to bet that a whole lot of stock footage from that wound up in this one.
Hope is a small time carnival barker who discovers both Shirley Ross and Gene Krupa and his band. He's got a good gift of gab, but that's about all. When the rest see an opportunity to move on, they take it, leaving Hope behind.
Swing music fans will love seeing Gene Krupa and his orchestra doing some of their music. A hit song, not as big as the one from Shoot the Works was written for Hope and Ross called The Lady's In Love With You. They recorded it, but it was far from the success they had with Thanks for the Memory and Two Sleepy People. Burton Lane and Frank Loesser were the songwriters here.
This was the last teaming of Bob Hope and Shirley Ross. Ross seemed to complement Hope's breezy style on screen, but after this her career faded and we all know where his went.
Some Like It Hot under any title was not as good as Hope's debut film The Big Broadcast of 1938 or College Rhythm or his collaboration with Preston Sturges in Never Say Die. Still it does have a few laughs in it supplied by Hope and also wisecracking Una Merkel.
Fans of old scoop nose will like it though.
