Sorrowful Jones

Damon Runyon was another one of those writers whose work never transferred very successfully to the screen. Even the great Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald had troublesome films made from their novels. Runyon failed before with THE BIG STREET (Lucille Ball as a hard-boiled dame using Henry Fonda as a doormat) but had better luck when GUYS AND DOLLS transformed one of his works into a musical.

Here it fails once again to provide BOB HOPE and LUCILLE BALL with anything more than routine roles in this racetrack comedy about an unlikely man to chaperone a kid (MARY JANE SAUNDERS in the role originated by Shirley Temple in "Little Miss Marker"). Saunders is cute, but that's about it. She's no Temple and never went on to child star stardom as Temple did.

Sidney Lanfield directed a lot of lightweight films for Paramount, not all of them successful, and this has to be counted among his least likable comedies--unless, of course, you happen to be a fan of the stars and can watch them in anything.

Hope has some amusing one-liners as the man who takes a marker on a kid who becomes a big part of his life and Lucille Ball has a few quips of her own. Adolphe Menjou played the unsuitable man in the Temple film, with better and more believable results. Hope and Ball are simply killing time here and it shows.

The story, which depends so much on the charisma and appeal of a child star, simply hasn't got the strength to support Hope and Ball. This one's a real loser without the charm of the original.

Bob Hope stars as Sorrowful Jones in the second screen version of Damon Runyon's "Little Miss Marker". It's a bit of a move in terms of screen characterization for Hope, but not enough of one to upset his fans. There are still the sarcastic asides, self-deprecating and delusional, but the character has a sense of depression implicit in the name that Hope had not brought to other roles. He would expand on this for the next half dozen years, reaching the point where he could play carefully tailored real-life characters like Jimmy Walker and Eddie Foy, that showed his actual abilities as an actor, before he would become a bit stale in the late 1950s.

Although Hope would not adopt the. Fractured English that was a trademark of Runyon's Broadway characters -- only Tom Pedi does -- a competent cast, including Lucille Ball as her most sarcastic, William Demarest, and Thomas Gomez run ably with their parts. Only Mary Jane Saunders as the little girl suffers in comparison, but Shirley Temple had played the role in the first version, cute and bubbly and headstrong. Miss Saunders is simply sweet.

This movie, a re-make of Shirley Temple's "Little Miss Marker" gets little respect from the critics. As usual, I disagree with them: this is fun movie and one you should enjoy if you like Temple and laugh at Bob Hope's jokes.

I didn't always think Hope was funny but this movie had a lot of laughs, a great story and a cute kid. It isn't as hokey or dated as most of Hope's films and some of his lines in here are downright clever.

Mary Jane Saunders does a nice imitation of Temple-Margaret O'Brien, a combination of those two child stars. You also get Lucille Ball in here, although she's just okay, nothing hilarious. She does get some good wise-cracks in, however.

This is a solid, underrated comedy. I'm sorry to see I am only the second person to review this film on IMDb. A lot of people are missing out on a funny movie.

What you will think about this probably depends a lot on if you are looking more for comedy or more for a cute family film...with a strong emphasis on cute. As far as a comedy goes, it's not terribly funny. As a cute film goes, it works reasonably well--mostly because the little tyke is awfully sweet--and not always in a saccharine way. It is clearly designed as a sweet family film and Bob Hope's comedy definitely takes a back seat to this.

The story is about a period in the life of the Damon Runyon character, Sorrowful Jones. All of Runyon's characters had colorful names like this, by the way. Jones is a professional gambler--a sharpie with an aluminum heart. First and foremost, he is interested in money and hasn't an ounce of sentiment about him. However, when a poor schnook leaves his four year-old child with Jones, temporarily, Jones is forced to care for the tyke. Sadly, however, her father runs afoul of a mobster and is killed--leaving the kid to either stay with Hope or go to an orphanage. Naturally, the struggle throughout the film is for Hope to show SOME nurturing skills and force down his natural impulse to be a money-grubbing jerk. To help him in this process is his on-again/off-again girlfriend played ably by Lucille Ball.

In a goofy twist (and one I didn't care for that much), the child becomes the owner of a racehorse...of sorts. Crooks decide to put the horse in the child's name in an effort to dodge the police--but the child becomes enamored with it. This leads to a schmaltzy portion of the film when the child is hurt and ends up in the hospital. They almost give up hope (not the actor) until Bob gets the idea of sneaking the horse into the hospital (this happens all the time). But, to do this, he has to fight thugs who are intent on killing the horse instead.

All in all, this was not a bad Bob Hope vehicle despite the emphasis on schmaltz instead of humor--though I would have preferred more humor and less sentiment. It's agreeable and cute, though as I said above, some may balk at the fact that the humor, such as it is, is pretty restrained. But, Hope did show that he could handle a role with a bit more to it than his usual characters...just a bit.

By the way, there have been four versions of this film. I haven't seen any of the others, so I cannot compare them. But based on the plot, I'm not in a huge hurry to see the rest. Meh.

FYI---Little Mary Jane Saunders grew up to marry Jay Johnstone, the major league baseball player.

Humphrey 'Sorrowful' Jones (Bob Hope) is working the angles in New York City. He is a bookie operating behind a barbershop. Gangster Big Steve wants $1k from every bookie to fix a race. His ex Gladys (Lucille Ball) is dating Big Steve. A gambler leaves his daughter with Jones as a marker for a bet.

The girl is a cutie, but she's no Shirley Temple. This is very much Bob Hope's movie and he's good at doing this character. Lucille Ball is sassy, but she is not doing much more than hitting the ball back to Bob Hope. She is certainly capable. Their back and forth is pretty good. Mostly, this is pretty good.