I found this a really funny film when I was young, and then again when my daughter was young, but now I find time has taken its usual toll on once-treasured items. Maybe I saw it ten times too often. Sure, it stills makes me laugh at various scenes, Hope has a relentless supply of memorable class-A killer quips, and there's a beautiful glossy Paramount atmosphere, but the laboured contrivance around the microfilm McGuffin and the farcically flat ending now get in the way too much for me.
Alluring British secret agent Carroll forcibly enrols mediocre vaudevillian Hope to help her escape from the clutches of an omnipresent Nazi gang who are after her secret warplane plans. Their slapdash flight to California is littered with witty scenes and romantic humour, but some were also flat and even embarrassing too (eg the baby psychologist scene). Favourite bits: Carroll and Hope's deliberate violent fight about her birthday and their subsequent icky sticky reconciliation in the police car; Hope's comical discomfiture at being gradually surrounded by unsmiling Nazis in the train club car; the impeccable Zucco/Sondergaarde partnership; the sight of Percy the Penguin in his monogrammed pyjamas and the gargling Hope chiding the porter for keeping the passengers awake; only study Hope's slapstick expressions upon ordering the cab driver to "follow that cab"; the entire Mulrooney sequence but especially with Toirk the Joirk; many others. The last 20 minutes or so slow it down and spoil it imho, but even so there's still plenty of smart ass one liners from Hope in there.
With its flaws I certainly couldn't call it the greatest American comedy ever made like another commenter here has: it's a very pleasant time filler which I've confirmed to myself many times – and not quite even My Favorite Hope movie, but certainly in the top 10.
Alluring British secret agent Carroll forcibly enrols mediocre vaudevillian Hope to help her escape from the clutches of an omnipresent Nazi gang who are after her secret warplane plans. Their slapdash flight to California is littered with witty scenes and romantic humour, but some were also flat and even embarrassing too (eg the baby psychologist scene). Favourite bits: Carroll and Hope's deliberate violent fight about her birthday and their subsequent icky sticky reconciliation in the police car; Hope's comical discomfiture at being gradually surrounded by unsmiling Nazis in the train club car; the impeccable Zucco/Sondergaarde partnership; the sight of Percy the Penguin in his monogrammed pyjamas and the gargling Hope chiding the porter for keeping the passengers awake; only study Hope's slapstick expressions upon ordering the cab driver to "follow that cab"; the entire Mulrooney sequence but especially with Toirk the Joirk; many others. The last 20 minutes or so slow it down and spoil it imho, but even so there's still plenty of smart ass one liners from Hope in there.
With its flaws I certainly couldn't call it the greatest American comedy ever made like another commenter here has: it's a very pleasant time filler which I've confirmed to myself many times – and not quite even My Favorite Hope movie, but certainly in the top 10.