Tira a campare!

Before the road pictures and Bing Crosby, there was Bob Hope and Martha Raye. This duo continued to entertain USO troops all over the world after the outbreak of WW2, and the thousands of GIs who saw them were always extremely grateful. This is one of their several film appearances together, and while not very believable from a romantic angle, they are, at least funny with their bantering. An hour of harmless fun.

Bob Hope at the point in time that Never Say Die was released was not the big name star he became, but he was definitely getting there. Please note that Martha Raye is billed above him in the credits.

Preston Sturges, year away from getting his first film as a director as well as writer, wrote a pretty funny and witty script, not an easy thing to accomplish both.

Bob Hope temporarily escapes the clutches of a predatory widow played by Gale Sondergaard who has him picked out to be her latest rich husband who have a knack of dying. In fact it's a mixed up diagnosis with a dog that makes Hope think he is dying.

Enter Martha Raye who's a nouveau riche daughter of a nouveau riche Paul Harvey who's a new Texas millionaire. He wants her to marry Alan Mowbray who's one no-account count. His daughter with a title will get him into society. She wants to marry her boyfriend Andy Devine back in Texas.

When Hope and Raye meet up they decide to marry each other and solve all their problems. I can't mention the rest but take it on faith that the players here perform to the stereotypes we have of them.

Even with Hope and Raye in the cast, my favorite moment is with Gale Sondergaard trying to vamp Andy Devine. Among other things Gale is the Olympic pistol target shooting champion. Poor Andy doesn't have a prayer in every sense of the word.

In two years, both Preston Sturges and Bob Hope were at the top of the Paramount pecking order. It begs the question why they never worked together at that period. Was it that they couldn't find a mutually agreeable project or was it a question of a couple of egos clashing. Hope and Sturges did in fact work together, but it was Hope's film Paris Holiday where Sturges had a brief acting role. Sturges was living in Paris at the time and living what could be described as genteel poverty. Anyway I think it's a real loss that Never Say Die and Paris Holiday are their only joint credits.

No masterpiece, but interesting in its own right. Martha Raye, for once, is playing it straight, and not doing the broad comedy/singing routine that was part of her 1930s Paramount films. (She really didn't show this side of her talent again until she had her regular TV variety show in the 1950s. Bob Hope had not yet become the familiar "Bob Hope", wise-cracking and egotistical; rather, here he plays a light comedy romantic lead rather in the British music hall manner. The love scenes between the two are often rather touching in their sincerity. The supporting cast is excellent, especially Gale Sondergaard, the predatory villianness whose shooting skill, which hangs ominously over Hope's head as she forces him into marriage during the entire film, provides the deus ex machina to resolve the romantic plot in a surprise turnabout. The fact that all other roles are played so broadly helps highlight the relatively subdued Raye and Hope performances. In fact, there are several surprises along the way, including the fact that boy and girl marry at about a third of the way through the movie; then fall in love. Very enjoyable.

Just watched this early Bob Hope picture made before his established movie personality of a cowardly hero was ingrained in the minds of the public. Here, he's a rich man who believes he's dying due to...well, just watch the picture. Anyway, Martha Raye is also in this. Both of them are engaged to a someone neither wants to marry so they decide to wed each other. Oh, and Andy Devine is also here as someone who really likes Ms. Raye. Let me just stop here and just say that I found the whole thing quite funny and the fact Preston Sturges was one of the writers may have had to do something with it. There's also a game supporting cast involved. So on that note, I highly recommend Never Say Die.

This early Bob Hope feature is very funny, and quite charming in its own particular way to boot. Of Hope's more frequent leading ladies in film, I have always found his teamings with Martha Raye to be the most satisfying, possibly because Bob and she seem to feed off each other in a way his other regulars (Paulette Goddard/Lucy/Dottie) didn't. Perhaps it has something to do with their vaudeville background. Anyway, both Bob, and particularly Martha, are far more subdued in their roles here than usual, and Never Say Die benefits enormously as a result. (Perhaps in the case of Hope this is due to the fact that this film comes so early in his screen career, before his on-screen persona of the egocentric and cowardly would-be ladies man was so firmly established). Their characters of John Kidley and Mickey Hawkins here somehow have a human dimension which is usually lacking in the usual Hope or Raye portrayal (no matter how enjoyable), and the warmth of the romantic scenes between the two in this picture is something which in my opinion is unique, never repeated by either of them in any of their other film work again.

There are other aspects of Never Say Die which have always made it one of my favourite Hope pictures...Gale Sondergard as a man hungry widow, Monty Woolley in a small role as an ambitious medico, Andy Devine as Martha's intended, and especially Sig Rumann as Poppa Ingleborg in some hilarious scenes at the hotel. Also Preston Sturges involvement in the script does show. And has already been noted elsewhere, fans of Danny Kaye may be interested in viewing this picture if only to see an earlier (and one must admit less successful) incarnation of the "flagon with the dragon" routine from The Court Jester.