Les dégourdis de la M.P.

Love the older Bob Hope films but not this one.

He stars with Mickey Rooney and Marilyn Maxwell in the military comedy. Both men love the same woman.

Hope plays a boxing coach tricked into working as a Military Policeman. He meets Mickey Rooney, and more importantly, his good-looking aunt. To get closer to her, Hope offers to train Mickey as a fighter.

Unfortunately, this is a tedious and not funny film. The fact that it made no sense wouldn't have bothered me if I had been laughing - I mean, Hope was what, 49, being drafted? Or how about short stuff Mickey as a lightweight champ.

This doesn't hold up the way other Hope movies do.

This movie was very funny. Hope plays a Prize fighters manager who gets swindled into the army by his corrupt partners, where he finds another fighter. He trains the kid to beat his ex-fighter and win the belt. While doing this he gets into his usual Bob Hope trouble with the MP and a woman. This is another good move by Bob Hope.

Not only do Bob Hope and Mickey Rooney deliver enjoyable performances, there is a great character, "Chow Hound" portrayed by Norman Leavitt. Mr.Leavitt is one of those wonderful character actors whose face you have seen a million times but might not remember his name. After watching "Off Limits", you will never forget him. For years I have enjoyed his performances in many "Andy Griffith" and "I Love Lucy" episodes as well as his performance in the feature "The Blue Gardenia" directed by Fritz Lang. Also, he was in one of my all time favorite films, "Harvey" as one of the cab drivers. The cast of "off Limits" should have gone on to make a sequel, it was like watching a charmed ensemble cast movie.

Off Limits is a very typical Bob Hope product with Hope playing a character that he's done before, a guy who thinks he's a sharpie, but is really quite the schnook. Hope is a fight manager who finally gets himself a champion in Stanley Clements only to be done out of his end of the champ by partners, Marvin Miller and Richard Weil.

It's quite the con they pull, sending a fake draft notice to Clements and then having Hope enlist to protect their investment. Of course Clements gets rejected by the Draft Board, but Hope's in for the duration.

While there he buddies up with Mickey Rooney who was also a fighter and thinks he can be lightweight champion himself. Hope kids him along because he's got his mind on Marilyn Maxwell who is Rooney's aunt if you can believe that one. Later on Hope and Rooney get real earnest in their championship quest.

All this is done mind you while the two of them become Military Police. That's another thing I found hard to swallow in Off Limits. Still Rooney and Hope work quite well together and I'm surprised they never did another film together. All their shenanigans are watched with a jaundiced eye by the Captain of the MPs Eddie Mayehoff who probably has the best performance in the film.

Off Limits was the second of two films Bob Hope did with Marilyn Maxwell the first being the infinitely better The Lemon Drop Kid. The two of them were involved with each other at the time though that would shortly come to an end. There's a little bite in their scenes together as Maxwell was realizing Hope wasn't going to leave Dolores for her.

If you look quick you'll see Charles Bronson in a brief appearance as a fighter training in a gym in one scene. Bing Crosby makes his obligatory appearance in Hope film via a clip from Welcome Stranger.

As in The Lemon Drop Kid, Jay Livingston and Ray Evans wrote the score though nothing as memorable as Silver Bells came out Off Limits. Still it's a pleasant enough service comedy, though far from Hope's best work.

This is a very good Bob Hope movie. He does a wonderful job of playing a military person that really isn't very military minded. His usual pranks to get out of something he doesn't want to do, doesn't let you down, and I love the way he always gets a jab at his old buddy Bing in his solo movies, and he has a very neat way of doing it in this movie. The only thing I don't understand in the movie is that the champ refers to "women" as buffaloes. Does anyone know where or why that term was used in those days. This is the only movie I've ever heard them refered to as.