Main Cast: Bob Hope, Dorothy Lamour, Lenore Aubert, Otto Preminger, Eduardo Ciannelli
Release Year: 1942
Country: US
Run Time: 95 minutes
Plot
Bob Hope's first starring vehicle for producer Sam Goldwyn borrows the title of Bob's 1942 autobiography They Got Me Covered and very little else. Co-scripted by Leonard Q. Ross (aka Leo Rosten), Leonard Spigelgass and Harry Kurnitz (among many others!), the film casts Hope as Robert Kittredge, the Moscow correspondent for a major American news service, who is fired when he neglects to file a report about Hitler's invasion of Russia. Hoping to get back in the good graces of his boss Norman Mason (Donald MacBride), Kittredge steals another reporter's story about a Nazi spy ring operating in New York. Though officially a comedy, the film is curiously unfunny at times, with Hope playing an unsympathetic, unappealing character who'll step on anyone -- including his long-suffering sweetheart (Dorothy Lamour) and a hysterical kidnap victim (Phyllis Povah) -- to get ahead. Otto Preminger is funnier (perhaps intentionally) as the head Nazi. A few good gags notwithstanding, They Got Me Covered is nowhere near as satisfying as Hope's second Goldwyn effort, The Princess and the Pirate. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
One doesn't necessarily approach a Bob Hope vehicle expecting the plot to be of primary importance (or even necessarily to make much sense), but if it was made before 1960, one does expect it to provide some good laughs -- something that They Got Me Covered unfortunately does not do. Much of the blame rests with the screenplay, which not only botches a good set-up with its harum-scarum plotting, but fails to provide Hope and the rest of the cast with anywhere near enough good lines. The screenplay does at least attempt to make up for this mess-up by including a number of sure-fire comic situations. Unfortunately, these somehow turn from sure-fire to misfire, even with Hope giving it his all. Director David Butler is also partly to blame, for the direction is not very surefooted, despite the fact that in other instances he has had no trouble pulling off this kind of comedy. However, it seems that the real problem is that it suffered from being Hope's first outing with producer Samuel Goldwyn; the film feels like the comic and the producer were trying to learn how to work with each and hadn't yet found a workable groove. In the end, Covered isn't a bad film -- it's just surprisingly dull. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide
Perry Ferguson - Art Director, Adrian - Costume Designer, John Sherwood - First Assistant Director, David Butler - Director, Dan Mandell - Editor, Harold Arlen - Composer (Music Score), Leigh Harline - Composer (Music Score), Constantin Bakaleinikoff - Musical Direction/Supervision, Johnny Mercer - Songwriter, Rudolph Maté - Cinematographer, Walter Mayo - Production Manager, Samuel Goldwyn - Producer, Howard Bristol - Set Designer, R.O. Binger - Special Effects, Harry Kurnitz - Screenwriter, Lynn Root - Screenwriter, Frank Fenton - Screenwriter, Leonard Spigelgass - Short Story Author, Leonard Ross - Short Story Author
