The Great Lover (1949)

User Rating:

6.7/10   

Director:

Alexander Hall

Writers:

Edmund Beloin (writer) &
Melville Shavelson (writer) ...

Release Date:

23 November 1949 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Romance | Thriller | Musical

Plot:

On an ocean liner, an inept scoutmaster pursues a duchess while a killer pursues him.

Plot Keywords:

Ocean Liner | Duchess | Boy Scouts | Gambling | Ship

Cast

Bob Hope	...	Freddie Hunter
Rhonda Fleming	...	Duchess Alexandria
Roland Young	...	C.J. Dabney
Roland Culver	...	Grand Duke Maximillian
Richard Lyon	...	Stanley Wilson
Gary Gray	...	Tommy O'Connor
Jerry Hunter	...	Herbie
Jackie Jackson	...	Joe
Wright Esser	...	Steve (as Karl Wright Esser)
Orley Lindgren	...	Bill
Curtis Loys Jackson Jr.	...	Humphrey
George Reeves	...	Williams
Jim Backus	...	Higgins
Sig Arno	...	Attendant

Runtime:

80 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Certification:

Finland:K-16 | USA:Approved (PCA #13549) | Sweden:15

Company:

Hope Enterprises

Quotes:

Freddie Hunter: [after waking up to reveille] Every morning - Harry James!

Soundtrack:

A THOUSAND VIOLINS

Last of the Red Hot Hope's

To me "The Great Lover" was the last great Hope film: he had some good lines, the plot was OK and most importantly Golden Age high production values were much in evidence. The nitrate gleams and is an essential component in the enjoyment of it, Hope and Fleming and the "ship" itself would not have looked as romantic on safety stock film. And the rot that set in with the advent of safety film in the early 1950's had already begun in TGL - just listen to those 2 inept songs, they wouldn't have got as far as being filmed even 5 years previously. The nadir was reached a few years later in "My favourite spy", with a seemingly endless Hope song as excruciating as anything Norman Wisdom could have performed, and utterly ruined an average film for me.

I always counted Roland Young as a villain because I saw this first as a kid, whereas he was a pretty versatile actor and played plenty of goodies in his time too. He's a ruthless card sharper in this however, Roland Culver is a cold steely and "broke" aristocrat who Young wants to fleece, Fleming is his high class daughter the innocent Hope falls for. He in turn is leader of 7 little Boy Forresters with Grumpy as 2nd in command.

Favourite bits: The morning exercises; Hope petulantly parping smoke through one of the boys bugles; getting distracted by Fleming over champagne as only Hope ever could. The bad bits: a/m songs to avoid. I leave the rest to you to find out!