They Got Me Covered

This wartime Bob Hope comedy is not a classic, but it does produce laughs - including some out-loud ones - with adequate frequency. The topical elements (the Gestapo, air raids, saboteurs, etc.) are played fairly straight, which is interesting to see. Dorothy Lamour looks great as Bob's girl - I got Woody Allen-Diane Keaton vibes from their partnership. **1/2 out of 4.

Foreign correspondent Bob Hope is recalled to the States. He has, as he puts it, "slipped up a little bit on the Russian rumpus." Meaning—he was the only foreign correspondent in Europe who didn't report the invasion of Russia by the Nazis. (Instead he sent home a cable saying to disregard all such rumors.)

Fired, Hope winds up in Washington, hoping to redeem himself and his job by begging (and buying) another scoop from a spy named Vanescu (John Abbott). He is going to need help from his girlfriend on the Washington bureau—Dorothy Lamour, of course.

One thing leads to another, and the plot develops into a spy thriller involving a missing notebook; a kidnapped stenographer (Phyllis Ruth); a blonde dance hall star (Marion Martin) who musters up her patriotism when it counts; a murder or two; and a beauty parlor that is actually a nest of Axis spies.

Donald Meek has one great scene as a nut who thinks he's fighting the Civil War. Donald MacBride has a wild bit as the managing editor who is flabbergasted at Hope's incompetence and takes great relish in loudly firing him. Lenore Aubert is wickedly tempting as the beautiful fortune teller and spy near the center of the plot.

The patriotic element is there, too: When the emergency is on, Lamour rounds up her roommates—all government office workers in one department or another. For muscle, the girls bring along their boyfriends: a marine, a sailor, and so on. It's a team very easy to cheer for as they swoop onto the scene.

Of course, Hope and Lamour always look good together. A fair number of snappy one-liners and a decent plot keep this one moving.

One of the funniest Bob Hope movies made without Bing Crosby, this world war two era comedy must have really helped the home front with the laughs. Hope plays a bumbling reporter who messes up many big war time scoops, must to the chagrin of his editor. The funniest scene in the whole movie is when Hope's character comes back to the States and gets yelled at by his editor. The whole scene from when he walks in the office to when he leaves is absolutely hilarious. They really do not make them like this anymore. This country is so starved for a man like Hope these days. No comedian today can even hold a candle to him. I give this film a 10 out of 10 just for Hope performance and the laughs. A dose of Bob Hope a day will keep the head shrinker away. May he rest in peace.

Bob Hope is a Pulitzer-prize winning Robert Kittridge reporter who, after assuring his editor that Germany will not invade Russia loses his job in "They Got Me Covered." He thinks that this minor infraction can be forgiven if the man who won him the first Pulitzer, his contact Vanescu, will just come through with the story he says he has. But he's too nervous and tells Kittridge to have a stenographer (Lamour) meet him and she should carry a red bag and a green umbrella. His girlfriend/secretary calls home and arranges to have her roommate meet them - but Kittridge has the meeting place mixed up and by the time they get to the right place, the roommate has been taken away in a car. She gets the story in shorthand but the Nazis can't decipher it. They bring in decoder after decoder who look at the notes in dismay and say things like, "This isn't Gregg shorthand...this isn't Pittman....this isn't speedwriting..." - a very funny scene that probably had the secretaries in the audience laughing. The poor roommate then becomes a target.

The script is loaded with war jokes about rationing, the swing shift, etc., and Hope pops them off in his usual wry manner. When he hears Crosby on the radio, he turns it off and says, "That guy is haunting me." Lamour sports a big, high hairdo that almost looks like she's got it intertwined with a fur piece. She gives Hope great support. The Axis powers are a scream - Otto Preminger, Eduardo Cianelli, and Philip Ahn. In one very funny scene, Hope, disguised as a dummy, is eavesdropping on them at a health club when Preminger decides to show his skill with a knife - at the dummy.

Wartime audiences must have loved this, and much of "They Got Me Covered" still holds up even if that particular war is over. Great comedy delivered by masters.

Paramount Studios loaned out Bob Hope to Sam Goldwyn to make two films--"The Princess and the Pirate" (1944) and this film. Despite a new studio, however, the style and enjoyability of this film is about on par with Hope's films of the late 30s and through the 1940s. This was Hope's most productive period--with one excellent comedy after another. None are masterpieces, but all are consistently worth seeing.

Hope stars as an incompetent reporter. His boss is so fed up with his lack of talent in sniffing out a story that he fires him. However, when a man approaches Hope and promises to give him important secrets about the Nazis, Hope sees his chance to win his job back and tell an important story. But, unfortunately, things don't go that smoothly and soon Hope's days seem numbered, as Axis agents from all three powers are all mobilized to kill him and gain the secrets for themselves. Along for the ride is the ubiquitous Dorothy Lamour.

All in all, the film is breezy and fun--and relies more on fun situations than one-liners. It also is a good propaganda film, as although like most of these films it's a bit preachy, it's entertaining enough that you just don't care. If only Hope's later films were this much fun....