The New Pictures

Sorrowful Jones (Paramount), a remake of Damon Runyon's Little Miss Marker, turns out to be a major salvage operation. The original 1934 Hollywood version lifted Shirley Temple to stardom. The current version, though it has very little to do with Runyon, lifts Comedian Bob Hope out of an accumulated litter of silly scripts, props and costumes, and gives him a new grip on the U.S. public's funny bone.

As a penny-pinching Broadway bookie, Hope has only two props to work with, but both of them get worked to a fare-thee-well. One is a forward little moppet (Mary Jane Saunders) whom Hope accepts as an I.O.U. on a racing bet and later adopts as a permanent but irresistible liability. The other is a horse called Dreamy Joe. When Mary Jane needs a nightie, Hope flings her a sodden, outsized sweatshirt; when she is sleepy, he sings her a lullaby improvised from a handy racing sheet. When she lies desperately ill in a hospital, Hope smuggles Dreamy Joe in to see her. Blocked by a frantic nurse, he puts a confidential finger to his lips. "It's my brother," he whispers. "Thinks he's a horse. Sshh!"

The three scripters who rewrote the original screenplay have turned out an almost unbroken series of gags and gambits. For every ounce of Runyon's boozy Broadway sentiment they have added a pound of farce. Hope, past master of the triple-quip and the doubletake, tosses off this mixture with obvious relish. Little Mary Jane, though no Shirley Temple, shows pretty talent as a straight man. Hope's other helpers, including Lucille Ball and William Demarest, provide sturdy filler for an already meaty comedy.

Neptune's Daughter (M-G-M), starring Esther Williams, is a musical that is brilliantly Technicolored, lavishly staged and gowned, blatantly expensive and extravagantly dull. Esther Williams is widely publicized as an amphibian attraction,* and her special gifts are apparent when she is photographed in a swim suit or in a pool. But most of this film's action takes place in street dress, well away from the water. As a result, large chunks of it seem somewhat pointless.

Especially pointless is the sluggish little romance between Esther, a former swimming champion who has become a manufacturer of beach wear, and Ricardo Montalban, a South American polo player. Their love story produces only one good piece of entertainment: a lively little song called Baby, It's Cold Outside, which is already well established as a jukebox hit. Between the long, arid stretches of talk, Betty Garrett and Red Skelton supply some shorter sketches of acceptable slapstick. The rest of the show, including a razzle-dazzle water ballet at the end, lumbers along like an overdressed float in a Mardi Gras parade.

*Just as widely, in fact, as Annette Kellerman, who pioneered the one-piece bathing suit and starred in a 1914 movie also entitled Neptune's Daughter.

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