New Picture

The Lemon Drop Kid (Paramount) undertakes some drastic tailoring to fit a Damon Runyon fable to the measure of Bob Hope. The result is distinctly secondhand Runyon, but it is first-rate Hope.

As a racetrack tout known as the Lemon Drop Kid, Hope finds himself in a nasty jam when he gives a sour tip to a racketeer (Fred Clark). To square the bum steer, the gangster demands 1) $10,000 or 2) Hope's life, payable by Christmas. Hope hatches a scheme to raise the money by drafting Broadway mugs and con men into Santa Claus suits, sets them to taking up a sidewalk collection, supposedly for an old ladies' home. He also supplies the old dolls, installs them with a flourish in a vacant gambling casino and starts cleaning up until another mobster (Lloyd Nolan) hijacks both his swag and his old ladies.

The movie surrounds Hope with a whole gallery of Runyon types sporting names like Gloomy Willie (William Frawley) and Straight Flush (Jay C. Flippen). Jane Darwell plays an authentic old doll named Nellie Thursday, and Marilyn Maxwell supplies songs and cheesecake as a showgirl reluctantly in thrall to the Lemon Drop Kid. They treat their problems with deadpan earnestness, as Runyon intended them to, and beneath each sharp lapel and checkered vest beats a heart of gold.

But the script sacrifices them all to Hope's aggressive pursuit of anything for a laugh, from trip-hammer wisecracks to all-out slapstick. Since almost anything he does gets a laugh, none but the most stubborn Runyon fans should mind. Best scene: Hope trying to sneak the clothes off a department-store manikin without attracting attention from the crowd outside the window.

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