Quel certo non so che

Struggling cartoonist Francis X. Dignan (Bob Hope) is three times unlucky in marriage. His ex-wife Dunreath Henry (Eva Marie Saint) is secretary to successful cartoonist Larry Larkin (George Sanders) and soon to be his wife. Larry's cartoon is losing popularity and pulled from some newspapers. Dunreath suggests getting Dignan to help bring Larry's strip back to life.

I really like the story or at least the idea of the premise. I like the relationship with the kid. This could work, but one thing keeps bothering me. Bob Hope is too old. In real life, he is 21 years older than Eva. This is more problematic than the standard Hollywood two decades difference. It doesn't make sense for the story. They are supposed to be old friends from their home town. She has a childhood crush on him. He probably left town when he was twenty. If the ages hold, she would be just born when he left town. The characters need to be ten years different at the very most. Five would be better. In fact, Bob is older than George Sanders in real life. Larry should be much older than Francis and that's why he's out of touch. Bob is simply too old for this role.

For some reason this particular Bob Hope feature is hard to get, not out on any media and hasn't been seen in years. One hopes this will be corrected soon.

That Certain Feeling is a romantic triangle where George Sanders is in need of a ghost writer to help with his comic strip which ratings have fallen off. Fiancé Eva Marie Saint gives him a suggestion, her former husband Bob Hope who's another cartoonist but down on his luck. She also doesn't tell Sanders about her history with Hope.

George Sanders is his usual cad, but with elements of comedy. He's completely oblivious to all around him, a typical narcissist. Do you remember that in Woman Of The Year Katharine Hepburn wanted to adopt a child? Sanders decides the same thing and young Jerry Mathers is sent for. But the self centered Sanders doesn't have time for him and the future Beaver bonds with Hope.

Presiding over all of this is Pearl Bailey playing a very wise maid who gets some songs to sing, the title song, Zing Went The Strings Of My Heart and Hit The Road To Dreamland. Again Sanders doesn't know he's being subverted by his own hired help, he's so full of himself.

With Pearl Bailey who steals the film the right people get together in That Certain Feeling. Hope this one comes out, my bootleg was atrocious this film needs restoration.

Bob Hope has never been milder than in his portrayal of a hypochondriacal cartoonist--he makes Jack Lemmon look like Arnold Schwarzenegger. Over 50, he's a bit embarrassing as a nervous failure and a contender to reclaim his ex-wife. But, surprisingly, he takes the acting honors--Eva Marie Saint looks and acts like a prim librarian's boring sister and George Sanders's suave personality doesn't fit the gauche and corny lines he is given. However, he does have (I think) the best line in the movie, one that in ordinary circumstances would have been given to Hope: "If I weren't in makeup I'd strike you." It was Hope who, in real life, responded to a heckler with "You wouldn't dare say that if I had my writers with me."

The boy actor who the following year played the name part in Leave it to Beaver is an orphan who, again untypically, shows Hope to be a splendid father figure. He is bearable. But no child deserves the really nasty way that Sanders talks to him, a disturbing note in what is supposed to be a comedy.

A few musical numbers are very extraneous but they certainly liven things up--Pearl Bailey purring a couple of songs and Hope and Saint cutting loose with the title tune. The shabbiness of the material, however, is clear when she says that, back in their hometown, she admired him in the high-school play. She wouldn't have been born yet.

"That Certain Feeling" is unlike many of Bob Hope's films. Sure, Hope makes a few sarcastic comments here and there, but the movie is less a comedy than usual...and that's NOT a bad thing.

When the film begins, you learn that Larry Larkin (George Sanders) is a very successful cartoonist with his 'Snips' cartoon strip. However, over the years, the quality of the strip has dropped and has lost its way. This is likely because Larry has become a big fat-head--more concerned with public relations and his ego than his strip. To help him, his fiancée, Dunreath (Eva Marie Saint), goes out to hire a great cartoonist who can copy Snips and inject life into it...sort of a ghost writer and artist rolled into one. The problem is that Francis (Hope) is Dunreath's ex-husband! Well, although he doesn't want the job, it pays well and he certainly needs the money, so he takes it.

When Francis arrives at Larry's apartment, he sizes up Larry very well almost immediately--the guy is a total jerk. But instead of telling him off and telling him what to do with the job, Francis knuckles under. After all, he has suffered from an odd psychological impairment for years--whenever he gets mad, he gets nauseous. So, to keep from throwing up, Francis goes along with Larry and his stupid demands...and they are pretty stupid. Because it would be good p.r., Larry plans on adopting a cute orphan (Jerry Mathers) and tells Francis to go pick up the kid and show him a good time. Well, Francis and the kid get along great...but Larry is supposed to be the kid's father and Larry seems to only want the kid for photo ops! This, and many other thoughtless things keep building up until the audience knows, sooner or later, Francis is going to explode...nausea or not! While there's much more to the story, I'll say no more as I don't want to spoil it.

I really liked this film...mostly because the characters were enjoyable (even Larry...he was so awful you love to hate him). It's unusual and Mathers was adorable. Overall, a sweet little film with a bit of comedy here and there. Well worth seeing and it's too bad Hope's films of the 1960s lacked the spark you see in this one.

This well-acted mid-nineteen fifties comedy with its star-studded cast is engaging and full of funny lines and situations. In the case of Pearl Bailey, still looking young, slim and attractive in her late thirties, it is also well sung. Her humorous asides to Eva Marie Saint's character ("Are you all right, Honey?") as she serenades Dignan (Bob Hope) and Dunreith after dinner, in the role of their maid, Gussie, are very amusing. The song she sings is "Zing! went the strings of my heart." A very young Jerry Mathers will tug at your heartstrings as a little boy being adopted by a famous cartoonist. George Sanders acted the part of the self-deceiving and self-promoting cartoonist Larry Larkin to the limit and beyond, but it all comes together in this light-hearted and entertaining movie. One memorable scene has Bob Hope, with a ukulele and straw hat, sitting in a canoe on a very long sofa, preparing to sing the title tune. If you missed the film when it came out, it's well worth a look, fifty years later.