A Global Affair

Hope is wonderful in this movie. Yes I agree the plot is unrealistic but that is the beauty of this film. It is played for laughs and does not take itself seriously in any way. The movie is entertaining and fun. This movie shows Bob Hope gagging it up and having fun with a script that could have been better but still manages to make us laugh and entertains us. It is wonderful to see what NYC was like in 1964 when I was 7 years old! I do agree that one major flaw was the fact that no one would allow a baby to be handled in such a matter without contacting the authorities. The movie is predictable and that is part of its charm.

It's unfortunate that a most intriguing idea about who does an abandoned infant left at the United Nations belong to was turned into a subpar Bob Hope comedy. Very few of Hope's films in the 60s compare with what he was doing for Paramount in the 40s and 50s.

In A Global Affair Bob plays a UN employee and is given charge of the infant and to make a decision which country gets the child. Hope's about the last person to be given this assignment as he's a confirmed bachelor with a reputation as a wolf. So a lot of countries hoping to score a propaganda coup send some of their best diplomats to make a pitch for their nation. And it just so happens that all of them are beautiful women appealing to Bob's baser instincts.

It all gets rather silly after a while. Even the baby starts to look bored with it all.

There was a good message there delivered by Hope in the end about nationalism being something that is acquired. Perhaps had a more serious approach been taken with the film it might have resonated. But you want serious in a Bob Hope comedy?

One of the four projects in which Jack Arnold directed Bob Hope, "A Gobal Affair" has Larrimore (Hope) taking an abandoned baby home for the weekend, apparently one of his responsibilities at the UN building. Hope had just done Road to Hong Kong, the last ROAD film, in 1962. Of course, Larrimore's neighbor Mr. Snifter is suspicious, and keeps threatening to throw him out of his apartment. Viewers will recognize the neighbor ( John McGiver ) from "Breakfast at Tiffanys", and "Mame". All sorts of silly things happen to Larrimore and the baby, and they attempt to explain why they don't just turn the baby over to the police. There is a not-so-graceful edit while Larrimore is addressing the UN, and it sounds like a line was added later. Co stars Yvonne DeCarlo and Nehemia Persoff. Even appearances by Hugh Downs and Adlai Stevenson. Throw in some silly dates with women from Russia, Spain, and Japan who are out to prove a point, and you've got this movie. Starts out light, gets heavy in the middle, and must all be ironed out by the end. Where were we ...? oh that's right, it's all being done to figure out where the baby should grow up. Some quickie lines for Hope, but not his best work.

Vastly underrated comedy delivered by Bob Hope and friends. The movie is a snapshot of N.Y.C., circa 1964, that puts on display a lifestyle--unlimited cocktails, swingin' chicks and cool, smoky music--which no longer breathes. This film has more smoking, drinking, and carefree carousing ever photographed on celluloid for a family film. The ridiculous plot concerns a child abandoned at the U.N., who somehow becomes the international focal point for peace. Hope is given custody of the silent tyke by default(Why no one calls the authorities is anyone's guess?) At the time, Bob Hope was sixty years old! My girl friend was surprised he was THAT old--she thought he looked around forty. There is an interesting battle between humans and pets in this movie. Hope's landlord hates children but loves animals. There is an extended scene at a snooty dog show where Hope looses the kid and gets dragged by a huge pooch. However, the strangest moment has to be when Hope needs to smuggle the "world's baby" into his bachelor pad and past his troublesome landlord. His solution: put him in a dog-carrier and pass him off as man's best friend. Now, where was Child Welfare? There is some nice on location photography and one far-out cameo by Adlai Stevenson, a year before he died. Also, Billy Halop appears briefly as yet another cab driver{see "Mister Buddwing"}; he was a fixture at the time always playing working class types. View this film at a tiki bar with a drink and Dean Martin on the juke box. If that is at all possible.

This movie is an exercise in wasted talent. Bob Hope, who was so funny in the 40s and early 50s, sleepwalks through this film. He once used to toss off wisecracks and one-liners with body posture, facial expression, and voice intonation all adding to the impact. In this film, he seems encased in cement and bored. Another misfire: Lilo Pulver, the gorgeous, hilarious, sexy secretary (to James Cagney) in "One, Two, Three." is wasted. She was given a drab wig and mousy dress and mainly used to give Hope an opportunity to tell her that the USA is superior to the USSR. The rest of the cast shows no sparkle; the gags are old and performed with no verve. To bring this down to rock bottom, there are saccharine drenched parts.

This should be shown in screen writing classes to demonstrate how a comedy can be made to be insufferable.