George Beck Movies
- 1966
Usually cited as the absolute nadir of Bob Hope's film career, Boy, Did I Get a Wrong Number! is by no means a classic, but it isn't nearly as bad as some of his other sixties efforts (take a look a Private Navy of Sgt. O'Farrell sometime). The plot is set in motion by movie sex bomb Elke Sommer, who flees from the set of her latest picture when she refuses to do yet another bathtub sequence. Sommer hides out in the home of real estate agent Hope, who is forced to keep the buxom starlet under wraps lest his wife Marjorie Lord misunderstand. Phyllis Diller plays Hope's maid, who conspires with her boss to keep Sommer out of sight. The plot lumbers forward to a wild climax wherein Hope, accused of Sommer's murder (she's still very much alive), embarks upon a slapstick car chase, chock full of Sennett-like sight gags. Though cheaply produced and perilously anachronistic, Boy, Did I Get a Wrong Number! is professionally assembled by director George Marshall, a Hope colleague from way back. The film turned a tidy profit, thanks largely to the popularity of Hope's costar Phyllis Diller. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bob Hope, Elke Sommer, (more)
One of the oddest comedies of the 1950s, Behave Yourself! stars Farley Granger and Shelley Winters as a pair of none-too-bright newlyweds. Granger and Winters adopt a stray pooch named Archie, who unbeknownst to them has been trained as a go-between for a couple of underworld gangs. To the ever-mounting amazement of our hero and heroine, corpses begin to pile up all around them as one gang endeavors to rub out the other during a million-dollar smuggling operation. While it's quite possible to treat murder as a farcical situation-remember Arsenic and Old Lace?--the killings in this film are sometimes too graphic to induce laughter (there's nothing terribly mirth-provoking about gang flunkey Hans Conried lying dead in a bathtub with a bullet hole between his eyes). Another detriment is the casting of Granger and Winters, both of whom are woefully unsuited to their roles. In fact, such veteran villains as Lon Chaney Jr., Sheldon Leonard, Francis L. Sullivan and Elisha Cook Jr. come off funnier than the stars! The film's best sequence occurs during the closing cast credits, so try to stick around after the "THE END" title. Behave Yourself was the first coproduction between Wald-Krasna Productions and RKO Radio. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Farley Granger, Shelley Winters, (more)
- 1942
Take a Letter, Darling is from the "boss lady" school of 1940s comedies. Fred MacMurray is Darling (that's his last name), an unsuccessful artist who advertises for a position as male secretary. He is hired by female advertising executive Rosalind Russell, who is all business--during business hours. MacMurray learns that his job description includes escorting Ms. Russell and her clients to social gatherings. This goes on and on until Rosalind begins softening her steely exterior and MacMurray asserts his male prerogative (this of course was 1942, when gender stereotypes weren't subject to the ACLU). The film's best moments belong to Robert Benchley as Russell's ad agency partner, who'd rather play cards than tend to business. Though Rosalind Russell seems to be typecast in Take a Letter, Darling she was actually second choice for her role; it had been slated for Claudette Colbert, but Colbert became unavailable when she took over for the recently deceased Carole Lombard in The Palm Beach Story (42). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rosalind Russell, Fred MacMurray, (more)
- 1940
Rosalind Russell and Brian Aherne go through their customary farcical paces in the formula romantic comedy Hired Wife. Russell plays Kendal Browning, the superefficient secretary of business executive Stephen Dexter (Brian Aherne). When Dexter is legally obliged to put his business and its assets in his wife's name, he is momentarily stymied, inasmuch as he has no wife. Rather than enter into a hasty marriage with one of his various amours, Dexter proposes to Kendal, with the firm understanding that their union will be strictly a business arrangement. Is it any surprise that this "in-name-only" set-up culminates in a deep and abiding romance by fade-out time. Also contributing mightily to the overall frivolity is Robert Benchley as Dexter's prudish business partner and Virginia Bruce as a sexy model whom Dexter plans to wed as soon as his financial problems are straightened out, and John Carroll as a temperamental Latin Lover-type-stock characters all, but consummately played. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rosalind Russell, Brian Aherne, (more)
- 1940
An innocent young woman is accused of murder by her wicked stepmother. The poor lass ends up in prison. Fortunately, a reporter sets out to prove that she is not guilty and brings the real culprit to justice. Meanwhile the murderous step-mom plots the hapless girl's demise. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1938
In this comedy, designed to exploit the then current national craze for picture puzzles, an alcoholic advertising exec becomes addicted to inventing puzzles. Trouble ensues when he goes off on a major drunk and forgets to leave the answers to a national breakfast cereal contest. His colleague is assigned to find him. She succeeds and takes him to a rehab farm to sober up. He is kidnapped by gangsters who want those answers. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Preston S. Foster, Sally Eilers, (more)
- 1937
In this comedy, the shady editor of a newspaper does all he can to keep his best reporter from marrying a journalist from a rival paper. In spite of the editor, the wedding day finally comes. The happy couple is at the alter when suddenly the woman gets news of a big scoop. Without a backward glance she leaves her groom to get the story first. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gene Raymond, Ann Sothern, (more)
