Here Come the Girls

Unlike the typical Bob Hope film, "Here Come the Girls" is a musical--with only a bit of comedy here and there. So, for me the film was a bit of a disappointment--mostly because I was expecting laughs, not song and dance numbers.

Hope plays a not particularly talented member of the chorus. His prospects to move beyond that are nil--mostly because he's not all that good. However, when a homicidal maniac begins stalking the lead in the play (Arlene Dahl), the cops and theater owners get the bright idea of putting Hope in the lead--that way, if Hope is killed due to the psycho's jealousy, at least he's easy to replace! While a normal guy would soon suspect something, Hope's character is his typical fat-headed guy who soon begins believing it when everyone begins trying to convince him he's brilliant in the part--and he is truly terrible. Rosemary Clooney's character cares about Hope and tries her best to convince him of the truth--but he's just too self-absorbed to believe her.

Throughout this clever idea for a plot, there are LOTS of musical numbers--LOTS! None of the music is particularly memorable and I felt it all bogged down the film--making the comedy come to a grinding halt again and again. Not a terrible film...just not a particularly enjoyable one.

Bob Hope plays the tanglefooted chorus boy who constantly fouls things up for producer Fred Clark and stars Tony Martin and Arlene Dahl in this film set in the gaslight era in New York. Clark, who had the best slow burn in film next to Edgar Kennedy, finally has had enough. He gives Hope the royal boot, but then a big problem happens. Arlene Dahl has attracted the unwanted attentions of a psychopathic killer played by Robert Strauss. He attacks and nearly kills her co-star and boyfriend Tony Martin. What to do? Get some schnook, reasons Clark, to be a new leading man just long enough for Strauss to make his move and cop William Demarest to nab him. I think you figured out the schnook they had in mind.

It's a pretty funny film with Hope getting into one situation after another with his only friend being chorus girl Rosemary Clooney truly on his side. You would think that with a couple of singers like Tony Martin and Rosemary Clooney in the film they would have been given at least one duet. But the Jay Livingston-Ray Evans score is serviceable, nothing more. No hit songs came out of it for anyone.

But its classic Bob Hope and it even has an appearance by a young kid playing Bang Crosby (I kid you not). Good enjoyable fun.

BOB HOPE's screen career was still at the crest of the wave when he did HERE COME THE GIRLS, but was soon to descend with a bunch of largely forgettable films, beginning with CASANOVA'S BIG NIGHT in 1954. From then on, Hope's films were less enjoyable than during his heyday when he hit his stride in '39's CAT AND THE CANARY and had a string of memorable comedy hits.

Hope is improbably cast as a chorus boy with two left feet (he describes himself as "the world's oldest living chorus boy"), and ROSEMARY CLOONEY is the girl who sticks by him when the going gets rough and he loses his job when fired by stage manager, FRED CLARK.

The zany plot has him chosen by the theater manager to be the bait to attract a killer called The Slasher, who is anxious to get revenge on any man close to ARLENE DAHL when leading man TONY MARTIN is unable to go on. The plot depends heavily on this one note gimmick for laughs and it does manage to get them despite the lightweight script.

Clooney and Martin both get a couple of ballads to sing, none of them the least bit memorable, and the lavish musical numbers are staged with some flair. Hope gets the laughs as things go wrong whenever he sets foot on the stage. ROBERT STRAUSS is the killer on the loose and he does a good job of combining villainy with comic skill.

Strictly second-rate stuff, but pleasantly handled by the agreeable cast. Biggest drawback is that Hope is really woefully too old for the role of the chorus boy, constantly being referred to as "the boy" throughout.

In 1953's "Here Come the Girls," Bob Hope is a pathetic chorus boy in a production around the turn of the century.

The leads (Arlene Dahl, Tony Martin) want him out of the show, and his only friend is his girlfriend (Rosemary Clooney). Finally, the producer (Fred Clark) fires him, only to bring him back immediately.

A serial killer obsessed with Dahl goes after Martin and injures him badly. So poor Bob is put back in the show - this time as the lead - just until the serial killer (Robert Strauss) can go after him and, as far as everyone is concerned, hopefully kill him. Dahl pretends to be enamored of him, and Hope starts ignoring Clooney.

This is very funny Hope, the energetic, cowardly, naive Hope that everyone loved in the '40s. Unfortunately, although it's a musical, we don't get to hear much from Martin and Clooney, neither of which have a tremendous amount to do. That's a shame.

Hope, of course, couldn't play that youthful character forever; eventually his films became stale with old jokes and a staid, wisecracking Bob. But here he still shines. The beautiful Arlene Dahl is his costar. She doesn't have much to do except look dazzling, never a problem for her.

Look out for the young boy named "Bang Crosby" whom Hope meets along the way. Enjoyable film.

To those reviewers who said that this is a lesser Hope entry (one saying that it was the start of his decline) I say, nay...Hope put enough into the likable egotistical fool Snodgrass to carry it off just fine. And plenty of 'ham' in his Stanley character, enough to supply all the fixings (with plenty of left-overs) for the Attila the Hun and his Horde's annual May Day, or should I say Mayhem, picnic.

And to those who said that there were to many forgettable songs, I say...too many sure, but I'm glad that they were 'new' and not the same-o same-o...new is good sometimes.

And since I'm being so contrary, I'll apply a little of that to myself...after decades of watching Hope (too many decades my tired, old body cries), I was sure I had seen all of his films. Wrong! This was my first viewing, and I was thankful that I finally stumbled upon it. Enough smiles, enough laughs and enough of my contrarian views...'hey Attila baby, pass the ham'...