Let's Face It

The army setting for "Let's Face It" appears to have been used simply because the play and film came out during WWII and it was appealing patriotism. However, this really didn't work well simply because this is NOT a military comedy. Although Bob Hope stars in the film and there are a few wartime references and a submarine near the end, this is no "Caught in the Draft" but a film which has almost nothing to do with the war. Because of this, the overall film seems very strange and Hope and his fellow soldiers seem out of place. This reminds me of most Hollywood college films--where you never see the students attending a single class!! Here, you'd never know a war is on and the three soldiers in the film seem about as menacing as three potatoes.

The story involves three older women who want to cheat on their husbands with three soldiers. And, at the same time, the husbands want to cheat on their wives. When both sides discover what the other is doing, they seek to make their partners jealous and pretend to be having a wonderful time with their gigolo army boyfriends or three young girls. None of this is particularly funny and it's punctuated by an occasional song by Betty Hutton. There are some lesser plots...most of which just aren't funny (such as sneaking food to women at a 'fat farm' and some accompanying fat jokes). I would certainly put this among Hope's lesser films and I can see why it's one of his less famous films. Plus it isn't so much a Hope film as one in which they put Hope in the lead. It just seems very inconsequential and at best a time-passer.

A little research will yield some interesting results sometimes. Let's Face It was originally a very risqué comedy from the Roaring Twenties entitled Cradle Snatchers. It was written by Norma Mitchell and Russell Medcraft and produced on Broadway by Sam Harris and ran 332 performances in 1925. It concerned some college kids working as gigolos who some married women pick up after their husbands take one too many trips out of town for some frolicking of their own. Two of the married women were Mary Boland and Edna May Oliver and one of the college kids was Humphrey Bogart. I would love to have seen this play.

By the way it should be remembered at this time Bogart was playing young juveniles on Broadway and it was he who uttered the line "tennis anyone" for the first time. Maybe it was here.

Fast forward to 1941 and Cole Porter sees the possibilities of this play as a book for one of his musicals. It certainly has the plot elements for his double entendre lyrics. The book was updated to have the gigolos be recent army draftees from a nearby camp and it starred Danny Kaye and Eve Arden.

But as what happens in all of Cole Porter's work it gets watered down so it's a passably good comedy now for Bob Hope. Jule Styne and Sammy Cahn write extra material suited to Betty Hutton. Eve Arden repeats her role as one of the man hungry women. Betty Hutton is in this as the proprietor of a fat farm where three husbands led by Raymond Walburn dump their wives so they can frolic.

Only this time Arden and her chums decide to do some frolicking on their own as in the original play. Who do they pick but Bob Hope and two of his fellow draftees. Hope incidentally is going out with Betty Hutton and she catches wind of the scheme. I think you can figure the rest out.

Cole Porter's score was totally emasculated for the screen version. Some additional numbers were written for Betty Hutton, I don't think Porter exactly wrote her type of material. And of course it even has a Nazi submarine in the plot. That you have to see to believe.

Hope and Hutton do click very well, it's a pity they didn't get to work together again on material that was constructed for them as opposed to something watered down. I imagine you could sure make a film of Cradle Snatchers now without the censor.

But imagine, a story done by Humphrey Bogart, Danny Kaye, and Bob Hope. Great piece of trivia at your next tournament.

Wartime comedy about soldiers, one of whom is Bob Hope, getting involved with three wives trying to get back at their cheating husbands. Betty Hutton plays Hope's loud girlfriend who runs a retreat for women who want to lose weight. A fat camp, basically. All of that part of the film won't fly today so gird your loins if you're a Karen. Hope is okay here but Betty is a bit much. The early parts of the movie are grating but it gets better. A solid supporting cast helps, including Eve Arden, Zasu Pitts, Raymond Wilburn, and cuties Dona Drake and Marjorie Weaver. It's a somewhat racy film for its time with heavily implied themes like male prostitution going on. Ultimately I enjoyed it in spite of Betty Hutton, not because of her. I'm a big fan but this was not a role tailored to her strengths. Eve Arden though...

Zippy comedy based on a hit Broadway comedy that starred Danny Kaye.

Here it's Bob Hope as the army slacker who sells snacks at a fat farm run by girl friend Betty Hutton. After he wrecks a jeep, he's desperate for money.

Eneter three frustrated wives whose husbands have "gone fishing" for the weekend, leaving them mad. So they decide to "hire" some boys for a party. Eve Arden, Zasu Pitts, and Phyllis Povah are the ladies. But the husband also show up with their dates just as Hutton and friends track down Hope and his two stooges.

Lots of zingy lines as the various couples square off. Hutton sings a couple songs. Co-stars Joseph Sawyer, Dave Willock, Raymond Walburn, Andrew Tombes, Dona Drake, and Cully Richards.

The sign over the gate announces a "milk farm": "Reduce by exercise. Milk diet." Betty Hutton is a trainer at the farm, where we first see her encouraging, cajoling and leading her guests through a rigorous set of "reducing" exercises and then sending them out for their big snack—a glass of milk. Even just marching in place, Betty is bursting with energy.

Bob Hope, meanwhile, is a soldier driving a jeep full of supplies across bumpy fields to be delivered to….the back entrance of the milk farm? Yes, he's bootlegging in pies and éclairs and chocolates to the hungry residents. It quickly turns out that Bob and Betty are engaged; their continuing efforts to make it to a wedding day are a main subject of the picture.

The other plot involves three middle-aged husbands taking off for a weekend of "fishing," and their three wives making up their minds to pursue some sports of their own—namely, rounding up three boisterous soldiers to join them on a Sunday outing at the cabin where they suspect their husbands will be. Sure enough, it turns out to be a full house.

Musical numbers include a neat dance by Hope and his two buddies, and also an acrobatic and humorous specialty dance from a night club duo (Nicco and Tanya?). Hutton delivers a bouncy tune complete with fast-talking (!) bursts that make one scramble to keep up.

Hope is good and has the wildest role, including a passage where he feigns injury and insanity with a ketchup-soaked cloth on his head. Hutton is always fun to watch; she and Hope make a cute and wacky couple. Zasu Pitts has a couple of hilarious lines but it's the way she says them that's funny—her chiding a soldier by calling him a "nasty little boy" is only funny the way Zasu says it.

Joe Sawyer is a natural as the often clueless sergeant. The look on his face is priceless when Hutton attacks him with the mystifying charge, "You big brute! You didn't have to murder him just because he hit you with a piece of pie!"

It all gets pretty wild toward the end—the madcap last half hour certainly picks up steam from the early going. The script is not exactly highbrow, but the cast carry it off with enthusiasm and high spirits.

Scene that must be seen to be believed: The film's opening shot shows a row of cows eating out of a trough, then pans to a rear view of the row of cows…then fades into the rear view of a row of fat ladies bending over in the exercise room.