A Global Affair

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?

Frank Larrimore (Bob Hope) works at the UN and talks on the radio. A mother hears his speech and leaves her baby at the UN for him. While UN security searches for the mother, he's the one forced to take care of the baby.

This one allows Bob Hope to have a parade of international babes chasing him. The UN premise is a bit of ridiculous fun. It is missing the one scene where Bob Hope is being chased down the street by the crowd of beautiful international babes like The Beatles. I was not expecting a whole lot and I got that nothing more. One thing concerns me. The mom did not come back. That seems to be the better ending.

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.

As the countries of the earth gathered at the New York World's Fair in 1964, Bob Hope and Producer Ed Small (who would produce a series of films in the 60's that became increasingly cataclysmic disasters with each subsequent release) felt this topical comedy on the United Nations and an abandoned child "adopted" by Hope would be a natural for laughs. Nope. Hope's effortless sauntering around a set in lieu of acting became standard by this time, and here his search for a mate among the international nubile hostesses at the U.N. is particularly dated and borderline offensive. As was undoubtedly said at the time- Hope sets the sites on his laugh targets low... and misses. Even a mild diversion as "Bachelor In Paradise" just three years hence would prove a high-water mark of the latter half of Hope's film career. They may have "hoped" to succeed "Globally" but stank locally.

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.