Thanks for the Memory

It's a natural mistake assume that Bob Hope's familiar theme Thanks for the Memory comes from an early film with this title, but it isn't the case.

The Academy Award theme song came from Bob Hope's feature film debut in The Big Broadcast of 1938. Hope and Shirley Ross sung the number as a duet and proved so popular that Paramount rushed to put them in a film together and they used the song title to take advantage of its popularity. By now Hope was on radio and Thanks for the Memory became his theme that lasted the rest of his century long life.

Hope and Ross are a young married couple who are having their problems. He's a novelist who can't seem to come up with a finish for his latest work. She's a former fashion model and a former fiancé of Hope's publisher Otto Kruger who still has a yen for her.

Kruger certainly has ulterior motives when he suggests Ross go back to work and Hope stay at home do the housework and finish the novel. But it does seem like the only practical solution. Of course this is where the comedy starts.

Hope's not bad in this, but the role was far better suited for someone like Cary Grant. He and Ross get to sing another duet, Two Sleepy People, which was also a big hit. About this time Bob Hope and Shirley Ross recorded Thanks for the Memory and Two Sleepy People for Decca as a 78 rpm which sold over a million copies in Depression America.

Thanks for the Memory also gives one an opportunity to see Eddie Anderson do a variation on his Rochester character as the building janitor. Anderson had the gravelly comic voice which he used to great effect on Jack Benny's show. He was certainly never servile to Benny on the radio, in fact usually gave him a zing every show. He has a Rochester like moment with Hope as he insists that Hope pay him $10.25 for doing his laundry which Hope doesn't have. For a black man to stand up like that in 1938 is a rarity unto itself.

The title song is heard at the end where Hope and Ross reprise their duet from The Big Broadcast of 1938. And the song was sent well on its way to becoming an American classic.

Bob Hope and Shirley Ross play newlyweds trying get ahead. Hope has written part of a novel. It's good…but can he do better? Prospective publisher Otto Kruger—who happens to be an old flame of Ross's—tells him that if he's serious about the book, then he should quit his day job and treat writing as a business. Shirley convinces Bob to give it a try…and returns to her old modeling job to earn a living till he gets established. Bob has difficulty concentrating, home alone while his wife is out supporting him.

Their apartment is also a sort of social center for an entertaining gang of friends. Clever couple Charles Butterworth and Hedda Hopper drop in at all hours and help themselves to the apartment. Roscoe Karns is another buddy who frequently shows up, sometimes accompanied by his new wife (Laura Hope Crews), whose only real charm is her money.

Eddie Anderson is excellent as the building superintendent who spends most of the picture trying to collect payment for the laundry he delivers. His funniest line is when he steps into Hope's kitchen and observes Hope attempting to prepare a meal. "Do you cook?" he asks doubtfully in that unique Rochester voice.

There are other funny scenes….Hope cracks an egg, can't figure out what to do with the shell, and so crams it into the pages of the cookbook he's holding.

The supporting cast really provide most of the best moments. Slinky neighbor girl Patricia Wilder—complete with breathy southern drawl—traipses in at one point when everyone is gathered in the main apartment. She has a bat in her living room: "I'm in trouble and I wonder if one of you boys can help me out," she pouts. At which Hopper turns to Ross with arch look: "She's in trouble and she wants a boy."

It's not great dialog—but delivered by these pros it's quite entertaining. The plot is hardly surprising but it holds together okay.

The song "Two Sleepy People" is easily the film's high point—Hope and Ross just look and sound so good together, and the song is perfectly sweet and drowsy.

Bob Hope plays a down of his luck writer who do not want the wife to work. His wife finds a job to make ends meet to pay the bills, so he can write. Company come to visit unexpectedly chaos break loose. I do not think is Bob Hope best movie work, but his comedic style show through in story line. There are better films he did in career that show his talent full of potential plots comedic skill. Hope is funny starring with himself in Casanova's Big Night and The Princess and the Pirate, or with Bing Crosby in the Road Pictures. Just to name a few of his better films. The film was in enjoyable to watch, but the only curiosity thing where he got the song for end of his comedic routine.

The plot for this film may not have been an old one in 1938, but by the late 20th century it was certainly worn out. A would-be author is struggling to write a great novel. In various renditions, the author is a man or a woman, single or married. This is the classic version with the guy on the typewriter and the wife earning their keep.

"Thanks for the Memory" is old hat for such a theme; and but for the music and the substantial cast, it wouldn't amount to much. The story itself is very little more than the plot already mentioned, but it has a couple of unusual twists that don't help it. The first is that for a struggling writer and spouse, Steve and Anne Merrick live in a very nice apartment, with very nice furnishings. And it's THE party place for scads of regular friends and drop-ins from who knows where So, where do they get the money to finance such a lifestyle? This happens nearly every night.

Bob Hope and Shirley Ross sing the title tune that they first sang just months before this in "The Big Broadcast of 1938." Here' it's a duet they sing warmly as a couple in love. By the next year, Hope would adopt it as his theme song for the rest of his life. That song and the considerable cast are what earn this film my seven stars. Those folks include Hedda Hopper, Otto Kruger, Charles Butterworth, Roscoe Karns, Eddie (Rochester) Anderson, Edward Gargan and more.

The constant drop-in of party folks and wandering drunks gets tedious very fast, and all of the partying takes up much of the film's time. The comedy is just fair. One can guess how the film will end. Most younger audiences in the 21st century would find this film too slow and probably boring. Fans of older films and those who like the music of the period would probably still enjoy this film.

Here are some of the best lines of the film.

Gil Morrell, "By the way, I don't believe I've congratulated you." Steve Merrick, "Oh, you mean my novel?" Morrell, "No, I mean your wife. A lot of fellas can write, but few men can get a girl like Anne. I outta know - she almost married me." Steve, "Yeah, I know. Anne and I have laughed about that lots of times."

Steve Merrick, "Uh, do you write novels?" Taxi Driver, "Not me. I work for a living."

Anne Merrick, "Oh, Steve, you're wonderful." Steve Merrick, "I know it."

After decades of knowing of Bob Hope and Shirley Ross' follow-up to their The Big Broadcast of 1938-in which they introed their duet of "Thanks for the Memory" which won the Oscar for Best Song-I finally watched this movie with the same title of that song on the DailyMotion site just now. Since it's Black History Month, this was next in my chronological viewing list of African-American film performances as this had another supporting turn by Eddie Anderson having just previously seen him in Gold Diggers of Paris. His role here is actually a bit larger than that previous movie as he has about five scenes total, one by himself, one with a couple of the other supporting players, two with Hope, one with Ross. Another notable appearance is that of Patricia Wilder who had performed with Hope before at the Palace Theatre in New York earlier in the decade as well as The Big Broadcast of 1938. Future gossip columnist Hedda Hopper is also in this one playing a role and frequent screen comic drunk Jack Norton does his stuff as well. Since this was made before Bob Hope became a superstar, his usual characterization of being a cowardly hero hadn't been developed yet. In fact, he seems to be playing more of a character of a novel writer who doesn't like the idea of his wife working especially if it means she'd make more than him making his role a bit dramatic when things threaten to get rough, as it does for a while, which is reflected when they reprise this movie's title song. Be that as it may, he and Ms. Ross are quite the charming couple especially when they warble a new song called "Two Sleepy People". Since I also like to cite people associated with my favorite movie-It's a Wonderful Life-when involved in other films, here, it's the fact that this very movie was adapted from a play by Frances Goodrich & Albert Hackett who would later help write IAWL with that movie's director, Frank Capra. In summary, Thanks for the Memory was quite a charmingly funny movie, even when the drama threatens to take over.