187. They Got Me Covered (1943)

[00:00:36] And welcome to SpyHards Podcast, where your hosts go deep undercover into the world of spy movies to decipher which films make the knock list. But remember, this information is strictly for your ears only. I'm Agent Scott.

[00:00:52] And I'm Cam the Provocateur. And Scott, did you get the dictation?

[00:00:56] I didn't. I didn't quite understand it.

[00:00:58] Did you get the dictation?

[00:01:00] I didn't. I'm sorry.

[00:01:01] Did you get the dictation?

[00:01:03] I... no.

[00:01:04] Did you get the dictation?

[00:01:07] Yes! Yes, I did!

[00:01:08] Oh, okay. Okay, good. I just wanted to double check. Or I guess quadruple check.

[00:01:12] Because that's very important. And it will be very important to the plot of the film we're going to talk about today.

[00:01:18] Surprisingly important how...

[00:01:21] Shockingly.

[00:01:22] How a brief scene can influence a film so much.

[00:01:26] And, you know, there's a lot to talk about this week in a very SpyHards special of SpyHards specials.

[00:01:33] That's right. That's right. I'm very hopeful that this episode will be a real ball.

[00:01:39] You used my hope pun already, so I haven't got a bob one.

[00:01:43] Um...

[00:01:44] I'm bobbing around to find one?

[00:01:47] Um...

[00:01:48] I hope I feel a lot of l'amour for this episode.

[00:01:51] Oh, very nice. Very nice. Very nice.

[00:01:53] Well, let's not belabor it. What are we talking about?

[00:01:56] We are talking about 1943's They Got Me Covered.

[00:02:01] A Bob Hope, Dorothy L'Amour, World War II extravaganza comedy.

[00:02:06] And if you would like to know, the exits are there, there, and there.

[00:02:10] You can turn the podcast off now.

[00:02:13] We are going to be tracking every era of hope, I think, because we've done the 1950s previously with My Favourite Spy, which was not great but a lot of fun because Hedy Lamarr was in that, which was always, you know, every time she was on screen.

[00:02:26] She was a ray of sunshine in that film.

[00:02:28] Yeah, totally.

[00:02:29] Totally.

[00:02:29] Uh, and we're going to have a lot of Bob Hope coverage in the future. We'll have Call Me Buona, which is from the 60s.

[00:02:36] He played through Spies Like Us. We've seen him in the 80s, too.

[00:02:39] Yeah, and we'll have My Favourite Blonde, which is early era Bob Hope, where he's kind of...

[00:02:45] He's a movie star, but it's at that point where he's really just like hitting it out of the park.

[00:02:50] Kind of like that Jim Carrey out of the gate, like Ace Ventura, The Mask, Dumb and Dumber kind of streak.

[00:02:56] Oh, so when Jim Carrey was funny?

[00:02:58] Correct, yes. Before the days of Mr. Popper's Penguins.

[00:03:01] Right, and Sonic 1, 2 and 3.

[00:03:03] I hear he's good in those. I haven't watched them, but people seem to like him in those.

[00:03:07] I've actually... I've seen the first one. He's just playing big.

[00:03:10] Okay, okay.

[00:03:12] Do you remember... Did you ever see the movie Kick-Ass 2?

[00:03:14] Yeah.

[00:03:15] It was not good. Like, it was pretty bad. Pretty terrible.

[00:03:18] It was a pretty poor sequel to a pretty good film.

[00:03:20] Yeah, but like, I remember Jim Carrey was so invested in creating a character in that second film,

[00:03:26] and he's like really, really good.

[00:03:30] And he should have just looked at that script and said, I'm phoning this one in.

[00:03:33] I mean, the last good Jim Carrey film was Bruce Almighty.

[00:03:37] Oh, you're going back quite a ways then.

[00:03:40] Um...

[00:03:40] I mean, okay, he's had like... Okay, I should... I'll restate that.

[00:03:44] The last good comedic performance by Jim Carrey was Bruce Almighty.

[00:03:47] He's done some interesting acting stuff since.

[00:03:49] Yeah.

[00:03:49] But like, I don't think there's been a laugh out loud funny film for me since.

[00:03:53] I mean, it's not a movie that I hold in high regard at all, but I feel like he was pretty funny in Dumb and Dumber 2.

[00:04:00] I didn't like that. I thought it was a really bad sequel.

[00:04:03] It wasn't a very good sequel, but I feel like he had enough moments that were pretty inspired.

[00:04:07] Hmm.

[00:04:09] Let us know before we get to Bob Hope. What are your Jim Carrey thoughts?

[00:04:12] It's all related. We're talking comedy and, you know, Jim Carrey was the Bob Hope of our generation, I guess.

[00:04:21] Yeah, I don't see Jim Carrey going on USO tours.

[00:04:24] Well, okay, that's a good question because we're gonna be talking about Bob Hope this week, folks.

[00:04:28] You know, this is a Bob Hope film that's maybe not as well remembered as others.

[00:04:31] We're not doing one of the Road 2 movies, which are really beloved.

[00:04:34] For good reason.

[00:04:35] But like, who is our modern era Bob Hope?

[00:04:39] Do we have one?

[00:04:40] I suppose like, I suppose I would need more grounding in Bob Hope as a person.

[00:04:44] Like, I don't think I have enough information on Bob to give you an analogy or a comparison.

[00:04:49] Well, here's the way I look at it.

[00:04:50] Bob Hope is like beloved.

[00:04:52] Like he is an institution.

[00:04:54] So like everyone is gonna run out and see Bob Hope movies.

[00:04:58] He's also, you know, I don't think at this point in time in the 40s, but going forward, he's gonna be, you know, the host of the Oscars.

[00:05:04] He is very much kind of like a face of Hollywood type.

[00:05:07] Tom Hanks.

[00:05:09] But Bob Hope is a comedian.

[00:05:11] So I'm trying to think of like a comedian.

[00:05:13] Cause like Tom Hanks can be funny, but he's also a very strong dramatic actor.

[00:05:17] I don't know that I've seen the Bob Hope drama yet to really push me over the, over the line there.

[00:05:23] Um, like, cause when I think of like the biggest comedians now we have who like kind of are recognized almost, you know, worldwide.

[00:05:30] I think of like Adam Sandler and I think of Will Ferrell and I'm like trying to stretch to come up with others.

[00:05:38] Do you know, you said, I don't think I have a lot of stock in Adam Sandler films anymore.

[00:05:42] Maybe early Adam Sandler films.

[00:05:44] Yeah.

[00:05:44] And he's had a couple of dramatic performances that are pretty good.

[00:05:46] The wedding singer is a, is a favorite of mine.

[00:05:49] Uncut gems.

[00:05:49] That's pretty good too.

[00:05:51] But, um, I think he might be actually the modern day Bob Hope because he has so much stock and people like just sort of, he's like beloved really beyond his work.

[00:06:01] He just seems to be a pretty nice guy from what the sort of aura is around him.

[00:06:05] He does a lot of philanthropic work.

[00:06:07] Maybe he is, uh, the modern day Bob Hope.

[00:06:10] Yeah.

[00:06:10] It's interesting the way though that like the era's changed because Adam Sandler is so unassuming.

[00:06:15] He's a guy who just kind of wants to be an every man in his life more or less, but is so beloved in his industry.

[00:06:21] Um, it took critics quite a while to get there, but, uh, you know, like he's someone who is very much acknowledged as probably the most successful comedian or comic actor we have right now.

[00:06:31] Um, and he is now in his fifties.

[00:06:34] So he has become kind of this much more revered older figure.

[00:06:38] Um, maybe he is, but it is interesting, you know, the way that Bob Hope is so like Mr. Hollywood in his time, where it's like Adam Sandler is almost Mr. anti Hollywood.

[00:06:48] He's there, but he's not someone who kind of, you're not going to see him hosting the Oscars and kind of, you know, out with the glitz and glamour.

[00:06:56] No, probably not, but I feel like he could.

[00:06:59] He could.

[00:07:00] Yeah.

[00:07:00] Yeah.

[00:07:00] And you know what?

[00:07:01] Like Will Ferrell, I don't think quite, you know, belongs there, but Will Ferrell was also similar.

[00:07:07] Like he is someone who kind of stays away from, you know, kind of the spotlight to a degree.

[00:07:12] I feel like he's more in the spotlight than Adam Sandler is.

[00:07:15] Hmm.

[00:07:15] Interesting.

[00:07:16] Yeah.

[00:07:16] You're probably right.

[00:07:17] Um, I think, I think he's had some maybe bigger films too.

[00:07:20] Um, like Barbie and stuff like that.

[00:07:22] Like he is just a more in demand actor than Adam Sandler is.

[00:07:25] Adam Sandler's going back and doing, you know, um, happy Gilmore too.

[00:07:30] Yeah, no, that's true.

[00:07:31] Um, the thing about Adam Sandler is though, his movies are really sold on him.

[00:07:34] Mm.

[00:07:35] Whereas like when you name a lot of the Will Ferrell big hits, like Barbie is a recent one.

[00:07:39] That is not sold as a Will Ferrell movie.

[00:07:42] No, no, no.

[00:07:42] He's just, but he, he's like Jack Black in a sense.

[00:07:45] He's just cast everything.

[00:07:46] Yes.

[00:07:46] Same with Lego movie.

[00:07:47] Um, but you know, you go back to like Elf, that is him out there on a high wire pulling

[00:07:51] off something that people fall in love with.

[00:07:53] So he can do it too.

[00:07:54] Yeah.

[00:07:54] Uh, I think we're already pulling away from the topic at hand though.

[00:07:59] Let's, uh, let's talk about They Got Me Covered, a World War II propaganda comedy film,

[00:08:04] because that's just what the war needs is comedy.

[00:08:07] There was a lot of it at this time.

[00:08:09] There really is.

[00:08:10] Here is your synopsis.

[00:08:14] They got me covered.

[00:08:16] Somebody's ripping us.

[00:08:21] Is that the tagline?

[00:08:22] Somebody's ripping us?

[00:08:23] Yep.

[00:08:24] I don't even get it.

[00:08:26] Ribbing means like pulling a prank.

[00:08:27] Yeah, I know that.

[00:08:28] But like, how is that really related to the movie?

[00:08:31] It's very generic.

[00:08:32] Maybe it's like the newspaper boss thinks he's being ribbed by Bob Hope.

[00:08:37] Okay.

[00:08:38] Okay.

[00:08:39] Sure.

[00:08:39] And there is a dot, dot, dot more.

[00:08:41] So brace yourself.

[00:08:42] You've got to be kidding me.

[00:08:44] Oh, for sure.

[00:08:44] Uh, bumbling reporter Robert Kittredge has been fired after bungling his latest assignment.

[00:08:52] His career isn't all he's botched up.

[00:08:55] His girlfriend Chris is tired of waiting for him to marry her.

[00:08:59] When he gets a hot tip on some Nazi spies operating in Washington, D.C., he convinces Chris to help him break the story so he can get his job back.

[00:09:09] The pair soon find themselves in several awkward predicaments as they track the criminals down in a nightclub.

[00:09:15] A burlesque, dot, dot, dot more.

[00:09:18] What a suggestive place to put the dot, dot, dot more.

[00:09:20] Ooh, la, la.

[00:09:21] Ah, it's like when they've got like the feathers and you're just like, what's behind the feathers?

[00:09:25] The word was show.

[00:09:27] Oh, okay.

[00:09:28] Well, there we go.

[00:09:29] Whoa!

[00:09:29] Put it away!

[00:09:31] I'm fanning myself.

[00:09:32] Oh!

[00:09:33] They got me covered.

[00:09:35] A burlesque...

[00:09:37] No, no, they're not.

[00:09:37] You're not covered anymore.

[00:09:39] You're revealed.

[00:09:39] Yeah, that's the problem.

[00:09:40] Yeah.

[00:09:41] A burlesque show and face a final showdown at a beauty salon.

[00:09:46] I mean, all that stuff's extraneous.

[00:09:48] Like you don't have to explain what the settings are of the comedy.

[00:09:51] No.

[00:09:51] Maybe that's like what they did as teasers back then because you haven't...

[00:09:55] Like there wasn't a trailer to see.

[00:09:56] Oh, there was.

[00:09:57] So you'd read that and be like, no, there is a trailer, of course.

[00:10:00] But like people didn't go to cinema to see trailers as much as they do now.

[00:10:04] And you wouldn't watch them on YouTube or television.

[00:10:06] But you might read that in print and be like, oh, Bob Hope in a beauty salon.

[00:10:10] Sign me up.

[00:10:12] God, it was a simpler time.

[00:10:14] Although it wasn't.

[00:10:15] There was a war going on.

[00:10:16] But in terms of comedy...

[00:10:18] Cam longs for the dice of the war.

[00:10:19] It was easier then.

[00:10:22] I didn't have to pick my dinner.

[00:10:23] All I had was these rations.

[00:10:25] Movies told me what they were about.

[00:10:27] I didn't have to figure it out over two hours.

[00:10:29] Morality.

[00:10:29] I was just told how to feel about things.

[00:10:32] It was easier then.

[00:10:33] Yeah, yeah.

[00:10:33] I knew someone was ribbing me.

[00:10:35] Yeah.

[00:10:36] They got me covered.

[00:10:41] Oh, this is going to be a fun one, folks.

[00:10:44] Strap in.

[00:10:44] But there you go.

[00:10:45] That's your synopsis.

[00:10:46] Obviously, we've already told you our Bob Hope stories leading into this.

[00:10:50] Cam, I assume you've never covered covered?

[00:10:53] No, I haven't.

[00:10:54] I had not heard of this movie.

[00:10:56] Because I'd added a number of Bob Hope movies to our master list to cover.

[00:11:00] Screw you.

[00:11:02] Sorry.

[00:11:03] And...

[00:11:04] Apologize to the listeners, not me.

[00:11:08] There's people that really like Bob Hope.

[00:11:09] We've seen those comments of people being like, you know, I find him very amusing.

[00:11:13] So...

[00:11:13] I like the way you say we've seen those comments as if there's like three.

[00:11:16] We saw those three notes that you gave us.

[00:11:19] The rest of it we ignored.

[00:11:20] But those three we really got through to.

[00:11:22] There have been notes that I have seen.

[00:11:24] But...

[00:11:26] This was one where I don't remember how I came across it, but it was recent.

[00:11:30] Like really recent.

[00:11:31] Like maybe a month ago.

[00:11:32] Where this one popped up somewhere and I just read the synopsis and saw Nazi spies in the synopsis.

[00:11:39] You're like, sold!

[00:11:40] Yep.

[00:11:41] I was like, throw it on the list.

[00:11:42] There we go.

[00:11:44] Okay.

[00:11:44] Well, that gets us to the film.

[00:11:47] But how did Bob Hope and co get covered?

[00:11:51] Okay.

[00:11:52] So Bob Hope is a big star at this point in time.

[00:11:55] And there's a war on if he didn't know.

[00:11:57] Exactly.

[00:11:58] Yes.

[00:11:59] And so Bob Hope and Dorothy Lamar were working for Paramount Pictures.

[00:12:03] Mm-hmm.

[00:12:04] That's where they're making most of their big movies.

[00:12:05] And they are paired up in a ton of films.

[00:12:08] Dorothy Lamar is in a whole whack of the Road 2 movies, the majority of them.

[00:12:13] And then she's also just doing Bob Hope comedies as well.

[00:12:16] They're a great comedy team.

[00:12:18] And so they're working for Paramount Pictures.

[00:12:20] But Samuel Goldwyn, the mega producer who had previously worked for major studios,

[00:12:25] but had gone independent and was basically just creating films and then having them distributed by other companies like RKO, for example.

[00:12:32] Mm-hmm.

[00:12:33] He's heading Samuel Goldwyn Productions.

[00:12:36] And he struck a deal with Paramount to borrow Bob Hope and Dorothy Lamar because Paramount had gotten Gary Cooper from him.

[00:12:46] Because they wanted Gary Cooper to appear in the 1942 film Star Spangled Rhythm, which was sort of a comedy variety film made to raise morale for World War II.

[00:12:57] And so he lent out Gary Cooper so he could appear in that film.

[00:13:01] And then in return, he got Bob Hope and Dorothy Lamar for two movies.

[00:13:07] So pretty good deal, I guess, on Samuel Goldwyn's part.

[00:13:10] I don't see anyone winning this.

[00:13:12] I mean, we'll cover Star Spangled Rhythm later.

[00:13:15] How stand the union?

[00:13:17] And then Gary Cooper's like...

[00:13:20] Drum solo.

[00:13:21] Pretty good, yeah.

[00:13:23] And Cooper on the drum!

[00:13:27] I hate communists!

[00:13:30] And he's on one of those rotating drum sets that go upside down, like Motley Crue.

[00:13:34] Like in Slipknot.

[00:13:35] You got Slipknot, Motley Crue.

[00:13:37] He's on bungee cords bouncing up and down.

[00:13:41] As I close my eyes, I feel I'm Gary Cooper.

[00:13:45] They're like, Gary's catching air!

[00:13:47] Hang ten, yeah!

[00:13:51] Hang ten was not a term I don't think at that point, was it?

[00:13:54] Probably not 60s, do you think?

[00:13:57] Uh...

[00:13:58] Way to bring it down with the specifics.

[00:14:00] Yeah, okay.

[00:14:00] I don't know when that was said either, Cam.

[00:14:02] Sorry.

[00:14:03] I feel like that's the beach movie craze when they're surfing.

[00:14:05] That's probably where that came from.

[00:14:06] Okay.

[00:14:07] But I love the idea of Gary Cooper hanging ten.

[00:14:11] Wait, didn't he hang ten in the spy film we had him on?

[00:14:15] No, that was another cowboy.

[00:14:18] Oh, no, yeah, that was...

[00:14:20] No, you're thinking of Big Jim McLean.

[00:14:21] You're thinking of John Wayne.

[00:14:22] Big Jim McLean.

[00:14:23] John Wayne, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[00:14:24] He hanged ten.

[00:14:25] John Wayne hung ten.

[00:14:28] Did he ever?

[00:14:29] Gary Cooper was in Springfield Rifle.

[00:14:32] Yeah, I know, I know, I know.

[00:14:34] It was just, I had to get through my head.

[00:14:35] Go on.

[00:14:36] Okay, so this movie has a story credit, credited to two people, Leo Rosten and Leonard Spickleglass, who we previously covered on the show.

[00:14:47] These two men worked on All Through the Night with Humphrey Bogart.

[00:14:52] Okay.

[00:14:52] Which was another World War II sort of comedy set in America with fifth columnists.

[00:14:59] That was actually a really fun film about kind of gangsters, Broadway gangsters versus like Nazi spies.

[00:15:06] Pretty fun movie.

[00:15:08] And so Leonard Rosten was a Polish humorist, author, and screenwriter.

[00:15:12] And his debut credit was actually All Through the Night.

[00:15:16] And he'd also worked on a Hedy Lamarr spy thriller called The Conspirators we'll cover.

[00:15:22] And so those movies are happening right around the time of this one.

[00:15:25] And he would work, not a lot, but his final credit would be in 1963 with the Gregory Peck film Captain Newman, M.D.

[00:15:35] So he was kind of a reliable hand.

[00:15:37] And I'll say Captain Newman, M.D. is a very strange movie.

[00:15:40] It's like a serious drama about dealing with PTSD.

[00:15:45] But the way to resolve PTSD is to get the soldier's wife to dress up in a sexy dress and dance for him.

[00:15:52] Of course.

[00:15:53] I mean, that is known to solve everything.

[00:15:56] It's one of those very earnest 60s movies that you're like, this is insane.

[00:16:02] It's like Patch Adams of the 60s.

[00:16:04] Okay.

[00:16:06] Yeah.

[00:16:07] I'll probably skip that one if that's okay.

[00:16:10] Whereas Spickle Gas was born in New York and had a bit of a longer career.

[00:16:15] He broke into the scene in 1933 with the movie Hello Sister and had a story and screenplay credit on All Through the Night.

[00:16:22] And would go on to do some major movies like 1949's I Was a Male War Bride, which he got an Oscar nomination for.

[00:16:29] And then also 1962's Gypsy with Rosalind Russell, which was a big film at the time.

[00:16:34] So they come up with a story idea, which I would love to know, like what was the pitch on this?

[00:16:39] Because to me it's like this movie is like hire Bob Hope, figure out the rest.

[00:16:45] Like I kind of feel like that was the case.

[00:16:48] Yeah, that feels like the starting point for sure.

[00:16:52] But it also feels a little bit like All Through the Night wasn't wildly different than this.

[00:16:58] Like obviously the settings are different, tones a little different, but like the kind of the fifth columnist hiding in plain sight and the way they kind of involve an unlikely person.

[00:17:08] It almost feels like they took that kind of template and just kind of provided another version of that for like a comedy.

[00:17:14] Well, one of the notes I was reading online is that a lot of people were referring to this as like another version of All Through the Night, which I do.

[00:17:22] I can see that.

[00:17:25] But I think totally it is quite different.

[00:17:27] I agree.

[00:17:29] I agree.

[00:17:29] And I think All Through the Night just felt like a little, there was a little more effort put in like just from a directorial standpoint, like it was a better made film.

[00:17:38] Yeah, I think there was higher aspirations with that film for sure.

[00:17:41] Totally.

[00:17:42] Yeah.

[00:17:42] So handling the screenplay duties was Harry Kernitz, who was a New York born writer, novelist and playwright.

[00:17:48] He started out as a reporter.

[00:17:50] So he really, I'm sure, could connect to the character of Robert Kittredge in this film.

[00:17:55] Mm-hmm.

[00:17:57] And he broke onto the scene co-writing the 1938 Melvin Douglas comedy mystery Fast Company, which was basically an attempt to try to recreate the popularity of the Thin Man franchise.

[00:18:09] And those Thin Man movies with William Powell and Myrna Loy were like a smash hit deal, but they couldn't crank them out fast enough to meet the audience demand.

[00:18:17] Mm-hmm.

[00:18:18] So there was kind of these, I don't want to say knockoffs, but attempts to kind of like satisfy the audience in similar ways.

[00:18:25] And Fast Company, I believe there was like three of them.

[00:18:27] And so that was one of them.

[00:18:29] But he wrote that actually under a fake name, Marco Page.

[00:18:33] Mm-hmm.

[00:18:33] His first credited job was 1939's Fast and Loose with Robert Montgomery and Rosalind Russell.

[00:18:39] Mm-hmm.

[00:18:40] But he'd just become one of these studio go-to guys.

[00:18:43] He wrote Shadow of the Thin Man.

[00:18:44] He wrote 1942's Pacific Rendezvous.

[00:18:48] Oh.

[00:18:48] A movie I had not heard of, but is a remake of Rendezvous.

[00:18:54] A movie we at one point were going to cover on the show and couldn't find a copy.

[00:18:58] So we may have two Rendezvous with Rendezvous films.

[00:19:01] We will be rendezvousing with Rendezvous and Pacific Rendezvous.

[00:19:04] That's a lot of Rendezvous.

[00:19:06] Uh-huh.

[00:19:07] So add that one to the master list as well now.

[00:19:10] They sound like some perfect Spy Hard specials right there.

[00:19:13] Uh-huh.

[00:19:14] Yes.

[00:19:14] And so he basically rolls from Pacific Rendezvous into this film and goes on to just, as I said,

[00:19:22] be like one of these go-to guys.

[00:19:23] He wrote another Thin Man movie.

[00:19:25] He did The Thin Man Goes Home.

[00:19:26] He got an Oscar nomination for 1945's What Next, Corporal Hargrove.

[00:19:31] Uh, he had a story credit on the John Wayne Safari epic Hatari in 62.

[00:19:36] He also, this is maybe the most interesting thing, wrote the play A Shot in the Dark, which was then turned into the Inspector Clouseau film.

[00:19:47] Oh.

[00:19:50] Okay.

[00:19:51] Yeah.

[00:19:52] So he's got some comedy chops.

[00:19:54] Yeah.

[00:19:54] Because if you remember, the film A Shot in the Dark was not originally a Pink Panther, you know, sequel.

[00:20:00] They took a popular play and retrofitted it to include Clouseau and then, you know, make it the first sequel to Pink Panther.

[00:20:09] Okay.

[00:20:10] Well, I mean, that's some good pedigree.

[00:20:12] Yeah, totally.

[00:20:13] Yeah.

[00:20:13] And his final credit was 1966's How to Steal a Million with, um, um, Audrey Hepburn and Peter O'Toole.

[00:20:20] And that movie's a delight.

[00:20:22] So this was someone who knew how to write comedy.

[00:20:25] Did they?

[00:20:27] I set you up there perfectly.

[00:20:30] Um, there was also some additional dialogue passes, which is not uncommon in comedy, basically punch up writers on this film.

[00:20:36] One of them was Frank Felton, who was a prolific British writer.

[00:20:39] Um, he'd worked on some Saint films.

[00:20:42] Uh, and we'll talk about the Saint film series later down the road.

[00:20:45] Mm-hmm.

[00:20:45] Um, he also did some uncredited work on one of the all-time great film noirs out of the past.

[00:20:50] And the other writer, uh, Lynn Root, who was Minnesota born, um, started out in the mid thirties, wrote also some Saint films, as well as some gay Falcon films.

[00:21:00] And the gay Falcon was kind of fell into that B movie serial kind of format.

[00:21:05] Not, not, not classic serials, but you know what I mean, where they were just putting out a whole series like the Saint they were as well.

[00:21:10] Yeah, sure.

[00:21:10] Uh, where it was a, uh, kind of two-fisted detective series.

[00:21:14] Mm-hmm.

[00:21:15] Um, not as well remembered though as maybe Dick Tracy or the Saint.

[00:21:18] Sure.

[00:21:19] Makes sense.

[00:21:20] Yeah.

[00:21:20] But only worked for a handful of years after they got me covered.

[00:21:24] So you could say this was the end of their career.

[00:21:26] Or this was like the heights and they, and like, and Lynn Root knew that now I step away.

[00:21:33] Yeah.

[00:21:34] I suppose once you've, uh, covered yourself, what more can you do?

[00:21:37] You're going to run out of puns on this one real quick.

[00:21:40] You've already run out.

[00:21:41] I feel like I may have already.

[00:21:43] Hmm.

[00:21:44] Okay.

[00:21:44] And so then they needed a director to oversee this circus of a film.

[00:21:51] And so they went to David Butler, who was a San Francisco born actor and director who began acting in 1910 and had some early credits in some very well-known, if not exactly, um, above the board silent films.

[00:22:07] Uh, he played a soldier in the birth of a nation, uh, obviously a movie that's, um, technically very important, but, uh, yikes has not, uh, not stood the test of time very well.

[00:22:19] That's for sure.

[00:22:19] Nope.

[00:22:20] Um, and also he then was also in D.W. Griffith's apology film for the birth of a nation intolerance, which is actually very good intolerance.

[00:22:29] I do recommend to people.

[00:22:30] And, um, that movie actually, if you watch it, you'll see a lot of the influence for the, uh, triple pronged action finale of return of the Jedi.

[00:22:39] Really?

[00:22:40] Yeah.

[00:22:41] Yeah.

[00:22:41] The triple editing they've got going on where you've got three action scenes going on at the same time.

[00:22:44] That's an intolerance.

[00:22:46] Wow.

[00:22:46] What a, what a weird starting point for the return of the Jedi.

[00:22:49] Right?

[00:22:50] I mean, there's a lot of birth of a nation.

[00:22:52] No, no, no, no.

[00:22:53] Birth of a nation intolerance.

[00:22:54] I know.

[00:22:55] One led to the other.

[00:22:57] George Lucas is like, no, no, no, that's not what, no, no, no, no, no.

[00:23:00] Whoa, whoa, whoa.

[00:23:02] Uh, midi-chlorians.

[00:23:03] Ah, ah, ah, ah.

[00:23:05] They're like, that's worse.

[00:23:06] Oh.

[00:23:07] Oh.

[00:23:09] I guess I'll sell to Disney now.

[00:23:11] Okay.

[00:23:13] So David Butler was a pretty prolific actor for a while.

[00:23:17] I mean, those were bit parts just playing soldiers in those two movies, but he would play roles going forward.

[00:23:22] But once sound comes into the picture, he is pretty much out of acting.

[00:23:28] Like he leaves and becomes a director, which makes me wonder what his voice was like.

[00:23:33] Because that was the problem for a lot of silent actors was once sound came around, their voices didn't, uh, didn't sound great.

[00:23:40] Sure.

[00:23:41] So yeah, maybe he was like very nasally or something.

[00:23:43] Are you saying if I were a film star, it would have been in the 1920s and 30s?

[00:23:48] Uh, not 30s.

[00:23:49] Maybe the 10s and the 20s.

[00:23:51] The 10s and the 20s.

[00:23:52] Yeah.

[00:23:53] I'll be, I'll hang out with Buster.

[00:23:55] Sure.

[00:23:55] Yeah.

[00:23:56] Probably not.

[00:23:57] Yeah.

[00:23:57] You can be like the goon that he gets the one up, uh, kind of moves on every time.

[00:24:01] Yeah.

[00:24:01] Yeah.

[00:24:04] That'd be pretty fun.

[00:24:05] Um, and so he really didn't act after that.

[00:24:09] He played in three cameos as himself, uh, in the 40s and 50s.

[00:24:13] But outside of that, he was done with acting.

[00:24:16] And so he began directing right at the kind of end of the silent era.

[00:24:20] So he was kind of lining himself up.

[00:24:22] It's like this guy could see the end was coming.

[00:24:24] Sure.

[00:24:25] I don't know how David Butler sounded, but he knew, he knew that, uh, this was going to be the end.

[00:24:29] And so his, uh, first directorial effort was a movie called High School Hero in 1927.

[00:24:35] Um, that will not be the name of my biopic if it's ever made.

[00:24:39] Um, and he was just a very prolific journeyman.

[00:24:43] He directed a whole bunch of Shirley Temple films.

[00:24:46] Um, he did an early version of White Fang.

[00:24:49] He worked with, um, Bing Crosby a couple times.

[00:24:52] And he directed 1941's Caught in the Draft with Bob Hope and Dorothy L'Amour.

[00:25:00] Oh, okay.

[00:25:00] Yeah, fine.

[00:25:01] Great.

[00:25:02] He also directed, uh, 1942's Bob Hope Bing Crosby film Road to Morocco.

[00:25:07] So David Butler had definitely a rapport going with Bob Hope, which makes sense why he's brought over to this film immediately after Morocco.

[00:25:16] Okay.

[00:25:16] That's fair enough.

[00:25:17] The Road to Morocco leads to They Got Me Covered.

[00:25:21] I've never been, and, uh, I'm not sure I want to now.

[00:25:25] Mm.

[00:25:26] Mm.

[00:25:26] Um, but, you know, as, uh, David Butler transitioned from acting into directing films in the, uh, 1920s, 30s, he transitioned into mostly directing TV, um, once you get to the mid-50s into the end of the 60s.

[00:25:43] Okay.

[00:25:43] And stuck around for a while.

[00:25:45] Yeah.

[00:25:46] Yeah.

[00:25:46] Worked, like, his whole career, but was never a kind of A-level director.

[00:25:50] Sure.

[00:25:51] That's fair enough.

[00:25:52] But very busy.

[00:25:54] Mm-hmm.

[00:25:54] So this film had two working titles.

[00:25:57] They couldn't really figure it out.

[00:25:59] So they were going under Washington Story or The Washington Angle.

[00:26:04] Um, the latter, well, actually both of them really play on the reporter aspect of the story.

[00:26:10] But, um, Samuel Goldwyn in a move that was either smart or dumb, I really don't know, um, just stole the title of Bob Hope's autobiography.

[00:26:19] They Got Me Covered and used that.

[00:26:22] So this, that title just comes from a book that Bob had written or someone had written for Bob.

[00:26:28] Exactly.

[00:26:29] Yes.

[00:26:29] That's cross-promotional tie-ins if I ever did see one.

[00:26:33] Mm-hmm.

[00:26:34] Uh, which is, it makes sense because when I'm watching the movie, I really don't understand the title very well.

[00:26:39] Like, yeah, there's parts where, like...

[00:26:41] He says it once.

[00:26:42] I know, but it felt like it was a bit of a stretch.

[00:26:44] Like, when we watched My Favorite Spy, I get it.

[00:26:47] Um, I've seen My Favorite Brunette with Bob Hope.

[00:26:50] Sure.

[00:26:51] I get it.

[00:26:51] I saw Road to Bali.

[00:26:53] I get it.

[00:26:54] They Got Me Covered.

[00:26:55] It does not make me think of the events of this film.

[00:26:58] No.

[00:26:59] I mean, I only had assumed it was some sort of, like, reporter parlance.

[00:27:03] And so that was sort of part and parcel.

[00:27:05] Yeah.

[00:27:06] Washington Angle sounds too serious.

[00:27:08] So does Washington Story.

[00:27:10] Yeah.

[00:27:11] Well, this isn't a serious story.

[00:27:12] I guess a wacky title makes tonally more sense.

[00:27:15] What if they used, like, Washington Scoop?

[00:27:18] Big Scoop.

[00:27:19] Yeah.

[00:27:21] Yeah.

[00:27:21] Maybe I would go to They Got Me Covered too.

[00:27:24] Yeah.

[00:27:24] Uh, maybe it's lazy.

[00:27:26] Maybe it's genius.

[00:27:28] Yeah.

[00:27:29] Depends on how you tell me how it did.

[00:27:30] I'm a little confused about that myself.

[00:27:32] Oh.

[00:27:33] Because, um, I found one note that said RKO lost 150,000 on this film because they distributed

[00:27:39] the movie.

[00:27:40] Um, but then I saw other, uh, you know, writers acknowledge that this was one of

[00:27:45] Bob Hope's biggest hits.

[00:27:46] So I'm, I'm a little confused to be honest with you.

[00:27:49] I don't think I've ever seen this one thrown around online, but then I don't hang around

[00:27:52] in Bob Hope circles.

[00:27:53] It doesn't seem to be held up as like one of Bob Hope's classics.

[00:27:57] I mean, judging from like the, how many reviews has it had on IMDB?

[00:28:02] Not IMDB.

[00:28:03] On Letterboxd?

[00:28:04] It's like 76.

[00:28:05] Yeah.

[00:28:06] That's not many.

[00:28:07] No.

[00:28:08] It's like three stars on Letterboxd.

[00:28:10] Like if you say my favorite blonde or you say like the road movies, people like will

[00:28:17] recognize those.

[00:28:17] I mean, not, not, you know, you ask like a 20 year old now, they don't, haven't heard

[00:28:21] of them.

[00:28:21] But if you ask someone who really knows comedy and comedy of its specific eras, I think they

[00:28:25] would know those movies.

[00:28:26] I don't know.

[00:28:27] They got me covered really jumps out.

[00:28:29] Uh, no, I don't think it does either.

[00:28:31] Yeah.

[00:28:31] Hmm.

[00:28:32] It's, I mean, judging from reactions, I think it is more of a lesser known film.

[00:28:36] Totally.

[00:28:37] I agree.

[00:28:38] Yeah.

[00:28:38] Um, although easily available, which I appreciated.

[00:28:40] It was one that was on Apple.

[00:28:42] I watched a beautiful streaming version of it last night.

[00:28:44] So, uh, you know, it's easily, easily accessible, uh, which is not always the case for these

[00:28:49] 1940s films.

[00:28:50] Um, so the top three for the year, number one, this is the army, which was a, uh, world

[00:28:57] war one musical comedy directed by Michael Cartes, who did Casablanca.

[00:29:01] Um, and it was made to, uh, raise us morale and all proceeds went to army emergency relief.

[00:29:07] Okay.

[00:29:08] Well, like a lot of these films, you know, the war bonds and stuff like that.

[00:29:11] That makes sense.

[00:29:12] Mm hmm.

[00:29:12] Yeah.

[00:29:13] Uh, number two was for whom the bell tolls, which was a Spanish civil war drama starring

[00:29:18] dot, dot, dot Gary Cooper, my man, Gary hanging 10 based on the Ernest Hemingway

[00:29:23] book.

[00:29:24] Sure.

[00:29:24] Ernest also liked to hang 10.

[00:29:26] Allegedly.

[00:29:27] So.

[00:29:27] Yeah.

[00:29:28] And number three was the song of Bernadette with Jennifer Jones, which is about a young

[00:29:32] woman who experiences visions of the Virgin Mary.

[00:29:34] And it was based on a very popular book at the time.

[00:29:36] Right.

[00:29:37] It was a big Oscar film.

[00:29:39] I think she won best actress for that one.

[00:29:41] 40.

[00:29:41] This is 42, right?

[00:29:43] 43.

[00:29:43] 43.

[00:29:44] Okay.

[00:29:44] So the war's going pretty heavy and America's involved at this point.

[00:29:47] Like this morale is really what is needing to be boosted at this point.

[00:29:51] Yeah.

[00:29:52] Because even song of Bernadette, it's about a woman finding hope, right?

[00:29:55] Like in these visions of the Virgin Mary.

[00:29:57] So yeah, that kind of ties into what's going on.

[00:30:00] And I mean, if you go through and look at kind of films by year, and I keep like a catalog

[00:30:05] myself of everything I watched by year.

[00:30:08] 43 is one of the thinnest years.

[00:30:10] Right.

[00:30:10] Because obviously the war is going on.

[00:30:12] And so that's where all the resources are going.

[00:30:14] And so the movies that are coming out, a lot of them are like these kind of World War II propaganda films or musicals made to raise morale.

[00:30:22] Um, there are also a lot of B movies, you know, universal horror is making things at this point in time as well.

[00:30:28] Or there's sure, you know, Dick Tracy movies, that kind of thing, but not a lot of like the A level movies.

[00:30:34] Mm-hmm.

[00:30:35] So like when I look at my 40s breakdown, I think I've seen the fewest movies in 1943.

[00:30:40] Wow.

[00:30:41] Is that just a year of lesser films being released as well?

[00:30:43] Just because of what's going on?

[00:30:45] It's just, is less?

[00:30:47] It's just like, yeah, economically, I don't think they're putting all of their efforts into movies.

[00:30:51] Yeah.

[00:30:51] And they're not quite at the, uh, like when you get to like the 44, 45 production is going a little better.

[00:30:58] Things are starting to turn around and yeah.

[00:31:00] Yeah.

[00:31:01] Okay.

[00:31:01] I don't want to like compare the two as one to one, but it's a little bit like when we were going through COVID and you had like theater movie years in 2021.

[00:31:09] Mm-hmm.

[00:31:10] Because it was just like, they had other, um, priorities that were more important.

[00:31:14] Yeah.

[00:31:14] That makes sense.

[00:31:15] Perfectly.

[00:31:16] Yeah.

[00:31:17] And I know you are hanging on the edge of your seat.

[00:31:20] Mm-hmm.

[00:31:20] You learned that Samuel Goldwyn had borrowed Bob Hope and Dorothy L'Amour for two films.

[00:31:27] Mm-hmm.

[00:31:27] This is one and I know it would have kept you up at night to not know what that second film was.

[00:31:34] The second film was The Princess and the Pirate, which also was directed by David Butler and it co-starred Virginia Mayo.

[00:31:43] I think, uh, I think we could end the show on that bombshell right there.

[00:31:48] Mm-hmm.

[00:31:48] I think we should.

[00:31:49] Thanks folks.

[00:31:50] We'll, uh, we'll see you next time.

[00:31:52] We'll see you back when we'd cover The Princess and the Pirate, in which we will bend over backwards to accommodate it as a spy film.

[00:31:58] Yar.

[00:32:01] A lot of hanging 10 in that one as well.

[00:32:03] Oh, there, there really is.

[00:32:04] There really is.

[00:32:05] Uh, uh, uh, a Mac 10?

[00:32:06] No, that's flying.

[00:32:07] Hmm.

[00:32:08] Yes, it is.

[00:32:10] Yeah.

[00:32:10] Sorry folks, uh, not a nautical man.

[00:32:13] Or, clearly, a aerial man either.

[00:32:15] I don't think you call them aerial men, to be fair, so...

[00:32:18] What do you call them?

[00:32:19] Airmen?

[00:32:20] Airmen?

[00:32:21] Yeah, I guess that makes more sense.

[00:32:22] Yeah.

[00:32:22] Aerial men.

[00:32:24] Those good old, uh, Air Force aerial men.

[00:32:28] When I was a kid, my mom would take me to like the, uh, the air base and be like, wave at the aerial men!

[00:32:34] I wanna be an aerial man too!

[00:32:38] They're like, what is with this kid?

[00:32:40] I don't know.

[00:32:42] He's not all there.

[00:32:43] He's just not.

[00:32:44] He hasn't got that covered.

[00:32:46] He's got podcaster written all over him.

[00:32:48] Oh, he certainly does.

[00:32:49] One day he'll be talking about Bob Hope films.

[00:32:52] He's warming up to Bob Hope right now.

[00:32:54] He'll be 43 covering 1943 Bob Hope films.

[00:32:59] I think Bob Hope's younger than you in this film.

[00:33:03] Oh, guaranteed.

[00:33:04] Mmm.

[00:33:05] Scary.

[00:33:06] I think like, I'm the age of like the fortune teller in the like bar they go to later in the film.

[00:33:12] Yeah, yeah you are.

[00:33:14] That's how I met you, funnily enough.

[00:33:16] It's true.

[00:33:17] True story.

[00:33:18] Thought you were gonna reveal that on maybe like an anniversary episode of the show, not here, but whatever.

[00:33:23] I wanted to spell the majestic sort of idea of us bumping into each other in Las Vegas and striking up a conversation.

[00:33:30] It really was you just trying to grease my palm.

[00:33:33] That's true.

[00:33:34] That's true.

[00:33:34] Yeah.

[00:33:35] You're hustling in on the streets of Las Vegas.

[00:33:37] You're one of those like, that sits there drumming for an hour hoping someone to put $5 in your cup.

[00:33:42] But I was dressed as Garfield at the time.

[00:33:44] Yeah, it was odd.

[00:33:45] It was really odd.

[00:33:47] And you were like, you had the helmet off and you were like chain smoking at the same time.

[00:33:50] It was odd.

[00:33:51] Yeah, and I didn't work Mondays, as I recall.

[00:33:54] I ate a lot of lasagna.

[00:33:55] Yeah.

[00:33:57] A lot of smashing spiders.

[00:33:59] What a weird life we live, eh?

[00:34:01] It's true.

[00:34:02] Yeah.

[00:34:03] All right.

[00:34:04] Let's talk about it.

[00:34:05] We're here.

[00:34:05] Let's hope.

[00:34:06] Let's hope.

[00:34:07] You got nothing.

[00:34:09] Oh, man.

[00:34:12] I was not looking forward to recording this.

[00:34:15] Oh.

[00:34:16] Listen, right.

[00:34:18] Recording a podcast about a comedy film is tough.

[00:34:22] Yeah.

[00:34:23] I mean, oh, what was me?

[00:34:24] I'm recording a podcast.

[00:34:26] I mean, because if the film didn't work for you on a comedic level.

[00:34:31] What have you got left?

[00:34:33] Yeah, that's true.

[00:34:34] Like, okay, the filmmaking, some of the performances, maybe you can talk about that.

[00:34:38] But I just wrote down a chronically unfunny glimpse into an alternate world where Cam had become a journalist instead of a podcaster.

[00:34:56] Oh.

[00:34:57] Oh, wow.

[00:34:57] So you think I'm a Kittredge type?

[00:34:59] Oh, you are a total seat of your pants kind of guy.

[00:35:02] You as a journalist.

[00:35:04] You as a 1940s CE journalist.

[00:35:08] Who's inept?

[00:35:09] Yeah.

[00:35:10] Well, I mean, that's a given, but that's anyway.

[00:35:12] Like, you walk in knowing that.

[00:35:14] True.

[00:35:14] But yeah, and just like, despite some interesting twists and a couple of standout performances,

[00:35:22] and I think Bob Hope is a good lead.

[00:35:25] I think he is charismatic.

[00:35:26] I think if you find him funny, you will find this very funny.

[00:35:30] Will you?

[00:35:31] But if you don't...

[00:35:32] Well, I think if you find Bob Hope funny...

[00:35:35] This is where I'm having issues.

[00:35:36] You know what?

[00:35:37] I'll wait till I get my thoughts.

[00:35:38] You continue.

[00:35:39] Okay.

[00:35:39] Well, I mean, that's pretty much it.

[00:35:41] It's leaving for you to retort to it.

[00:35:43] But like, yeah, ultimately, it was 90 minutes.

[00:35:46] It's not a painful slog in the sense of, like, it's only 90 minutes.

[00:35:50] It's not like this was a three hour Bob Hope film.

[00:35:52] True.

[00:35:52] I'd have no hope by the end.

[00:35:54] But yeah, I just...

[00:35:57] Every single punchline, and this is built on Bob Hope doing like non-sequitur and like,

[00:36:01] throwing off little comments and little jokes and winks at the audience, just didn't land.

[00:36:07] I think it was one joke that made me kind of go, huh.

[00:36:09] Yeah.

[00:36:10] The reason I was like raising an objection there is because like, I do think we have to like acknowledge the jokes weren't funny in this movie.

[00:36:20] Like, whoever was writing Bob Hope's material in this film.

[00:36:23] And I mentioned there was a number of writers on this one.

[00:36:27] I just don't think they ever cracked it.

[00:36:29] It felt like really uninspired jokes to me, which is...

[00:36:33] I mean, I'm not saying like Bob Hope is my all time favorite comedian because he's not.

[00:36:37] But when I watched, which you haven't seen, I suppose, Road to Bali or my favorite brunette, Bob Hope could actually be pretty funny in it, in both of those films.

[00:36:48] And it's a little bit, you know, we were talking about Adam Sandler off the top of the show.

[00:36:52] Adam Sandler can be inspired or he can be awful.

[00:36:56] You know, you watch some of those Netflix films and you'd be like, why is this man in anything?

[00:37:02] And then you watch him in something, you know, like, you know, Happy Gilmore or Billy Madison or something.

[00:37:07] And you're like, no, there's like a spark of genius to this guy.

[00:37:10] And so like, I think Bob Hope with this film, there's two issues, I think, going on.

[00:37:16] One, the material of the writing for him just isn't particularly funny.

[00:37:20] But two, a lot of this is real plot based.

[00:37:24] Yep.

[00:37:24] And so it's kind of like, Bob, we, sorry, we need to take the camera off you because we need to focus on establishing what is going on with this triple pronged fifth columnist plot.

[00:37:35] We have all these various machinations we have to go through.

[00:37:38] This movie feels very over long at 90 minutes, which is weird.

[00:37:41] It's one of my notes.

[00:37:42] Yeah.

[00:37:43] Yeah.

[00:37:43] And also, there's also the issue that like him and Dorothy Lamore are actually really fun together.

[00:37:49] And then they separate them.

[00:37:51] Yeah.

[00:37:51] Yeah.

[00:37:52] And you go, okay, that ain't so great.

[00:37:55] So for me, like, and then he's off doing like, you know, getting married to a show girl and like running through a beauty salon and all this sort of weird stuff.

[00:38:04] And it's just, I feel like I'm, it's one of those things where like I'm passively watching a film.

[00:38:10] Yeah.

[00:38:10] Like I'm not, it's not like I'm not paying attention.

[00:38:12] My phone is not out necessarily, except for maybe checks Wikipedia a couple of times.

[00:38:16] Um, but like, I just think nothing really pulled me in.

[00:38:21] Also your protagonist is an asshole.

[00:38:22] I actually liked that.

[00:38:24] Okay.

[00:38:24] Well, that makes sense.

[00:38:26] Yeah.

[00:38:26] To me, you know, I'll save that for likes.

[00:38:28] Uh, but, um, yeah.

[00:38:30] Um, the movie I think found more interesting things when it would tip a little more into him being almost like just a complete opportunist and sociopath.

[00:38:39] Like I thought that was like a little bit funnier, but also, I don't know if that's where they wanted to go in 1943 of like, let's, let's champion this guy.

[00:38:48] He was just a complete monster.

[00:38:49] Sure.

[00:38:49] Um, but yeah, I, I just found this one to be a bit of a struggle where the things that I would enjoy, it would keep taking away from me.

[00:39:01] And then what am I left?

[00:39:02] And as you said, talking about comedies is tough because if it's not funny, you're just explaining for half an hour or whatever.

[00:39:09] Why something's not funny, which waka, waka, waka.

[00:39:14] Or if it's really funny, then you just sit there and recite jokes from the movie for like 40 minutes.

[00:39:19] So comedy is tough both to, uh, pull off on screen, but also to talk about.

[00:39:24] I just like, and that, that translates into this because we could do 90 minutes on this film, right?

[00:39:32] And we'd have some jokes.

[00:39:35] People would listen and laugh hopefully.

[00:39:38] But if you haven't seen, if, if the film doesn't work and the critical element of a comedy film is comedy.

[00:39:44] Hmm. Yeah.

[00:39:45] And if your comedy falls flat, I was expecting you to come in a little nicer on this one.

[00:39:49] I have to say, I'm pleasantly surprised that you're on my side here.

[00:39:52] Uh, that it's DOA in the sense of it isn't funny.

[00:39:58] And so what are you left with as a comedy film?

[00:40:01] And Bob Hope is a great comedian from what you tell me.

[00:40:04] So very watchable.

[00:40:05] He's definitely a good leading man.

[00:40:07] I can see why he was pegged for this.

[00:40:08] Oh yeah.

[00:40:09] Um, yeah, yeah.

[00:40:10] And you know, some of the cast around them are great.

[00:40:12] Dorothy Lamour, I think does really good work in this film.

[00:40:14] She's great.

[00:40:15] Yeah.

[00:40:15] Like she's legit great.

[00:40:17] And some other people who pop in like, you know, Margaret Hayes as Lucille.

[00:40:21] Um, uh, it is fun when she's around.

[00:40:24] There's a couple of other people that stand out as well.

[00:40:26] Um, I liked Marian Martin as, uh, you know, Gloria, the gold girl.

[00:40:31] Yeah.

[00:40:31] The glow girl.

[00:40:33] The glow girl.

[00:40:33] Like they found this whole like inner life for that character in this wacky little subplot

[00:40:38] where, you know, she is this kind of brassy nightclub singer dancer.

[00:40:43] Yeah.

[00:40:43] And they try to stage this, um, fake marriage between her and Bob Hope just to discredit

[00:40:48] him, which I thought was rather shocking.

[00:40:51] That made front page news, uh, that these two had gotten married, but I guess it was

[00:40:54] a, it shouldn't have been a slow, uh, news week in 1943.

[00:40:57] It really shouldn't have been, but that was apparently front page news.

[00:41:02] Um, and then like they have her standing up to the fifth columnist and you see like the

[00:41:06] morals of her character.

[00:41:08] There's a tragic murder.

[00:41:09] Like I was like, holy smokes, Gloria gets it arc.

[00:41:12] I mean, the guy lobbing the knife through the ball into her chest or another flowers

[00:41:16] into her chest.

[00:41:17] Was it or something like that?

[00:41:18] Um, it looked like, uh, like, Oh, like a stuff, like almost like snowball.

[00:41:24] It was supposed to like approximate like a snowball.

[00:41:25] Yeah.

[00:41:26] Uh, it was something, so it blended in basically, but then like lobbing it into her chest on stage

[00:41:29] was actually like a, Oh, that was a pleasant.

[00:41:31] It's something I haven't seen before.

[00:41:33] That was interesting.

[00:41:34] Exactly.

[00:41:34] It was something we had not seen before.

[00:41:36] So I always appreciate that.

[00:41:37] So my like is the assassination of Gloria, the glow, the glow girl.

[00:41:42] Well, okay.

[00:41:43] Well let's pivot into likes a little bit.

[00:41:44] Let's do some celebrations.

[00:41:46] Yeah.

[00:41:46] Um, I, I will say much as his material wasn't well written, I think Bob Hope did an

[00:41:51] okay job as, as a lead.

[00:41:53] Mm-hmm.

[00:41:54] I think, you know, he is, as I say, charismatic and he does hold your attention and you know,

[00:42:00] he moves at breakneck speed.

[00:42:02] He does.

[00:42:03] Uh, it's someone who, I mean, he's a, at this point, a very, very well-trained comedian.

[00:42:08] Mm-hmm.

[00:42:09] And so he knows to just keep it moving.

[00:42:11] So even though he's being given a lot of gags that just aren't very funny, he just keeps

[00:42:15] barreling onto the next one.

[00:42:18] So, in that sense, it's a very confident performance.

[00:42:21] And here's where I'll just mention, like, I liked when they would kind of tap into him

[00:42:25] just being like a total bastard.

[00:42:27] Like, I loved the part where Sally comes back, uh, you know, like the typist comes

[00:42:33] back and is like, you know, roughed up because she's been meeting with, uh, their source

[00:42:38] for the story.

[00:42:39] She gets jumped by fifth columnist, gets away, but is very, you know, like, shows up like

[00:42:46] disheveled and dirty and all that.

[00:42:47] And Bob Hope could not care less.

[00:42:49] Like, he doesn't care about this woman whatsoever.

[00:42:52] And everyone around her is like, are you okay?

[00:42:55] Are you okay?

[00:42:55] And she's like, like sobbing.

[00:42:57] And he's just like, did you get the dictation?

[00:42:59] Did you get the dictation?

[00:43:00] Where's those notes?

[00:43:01] Where's the dictation?

[00:43:02] Oh, she'll be fine.

[00:43:03] Yeah.

[00:43:04] That to me was hilarious.

[00:43:05] Right.

[00:43:06] Like I liked when they were moving his character more in that direction of a guy

[00:43:09] who's just completely oblivious to the feelings of others.

[00:43:12] Mm.

[00:43:12] I'm like, oh, that's kind of funny.

[00:43:14] The fact that like Bob Hope is likable on screen, but then you have this twist to it

[00:43:19] where it's just like, you have very, you know, like the Sally character is just like plucky,

[00:43:25] good natured, friendly, kind.

[00:43:28] Mm-hmm.

[00:43:28] And to have him just completely dismissive of her, I thought was actually pretty funny.

[00:43:31] Yeah.

[00:43:32] I think that like in terms of an introduction, that's pretty good.

[00:43:34] He does seem to sort of somewhat learn his lesson by the end of the film.

[00:43:38] Yeah.

[00:43:38] And you know, I'm not big on the learning lessons, but.

[00:43:41] It's what those things in those days, those films do, I guess.

[00:43:45] Totally.

[00:43:45] I mean, there was a reason when Seinfeld broke through, like their lesson was, was it no

[00:43:51] hugging, no lessons.

[00:43:52] Right.

[00:43:53] And that was like revolutionary at the time.

[00:43:55] So that's like the nineties.

[00:43:58] And ironically, this is a film about nothing.

[00:44:01] Oh, it's about too much.

[00:44:02] Well, I think we'll come back to that.

[00:44:05] Another like from you?

[00:44:07] The dynamic between him and Dorothy L'Amour.

[00:44:10] Like clearly chemistry there.

[00:44:12] Yeah.

[00:44:12] Oh my God.

[00:44:13] Yeah.

[00:44:13] And I liked how she's kind of the put upon girlfriend, but like, she has a real spark to

[00:44:20] her.

[00:44:20] Like every scene they're together.

[00:44:22] It doesn't feel like a lot of the time we were talking about Adam Sandler earlier.

[00:44:26] He would often cast people opposite him, but he was the one kind of dominating the screen.

[00:44:32] And it was basically like casting someone to stand next to him.

[00:44:35] And a lot of comedians do that.

[00:44:37] Whereas I like that Bob Hope is confident enough to have someone next to him who is also

[00:44:42] a very, very strong actor who can bounce barbs back at him just as well.

[00:44:46] Yeah, for sure.

[00:44:47] And so when she gets like fed up with him, I buy into it.

[00:44:51] And I like that she's also independent of him working things through as well.

[00:44:56] Like she's the one that figures out the beauty salon stuff and helps bring the cavalry that

[00:45:01] saves the day.

[00:45:01] That was, I was going to add to your point with that exactly, because I've seen a lot

[00:45:05] of these films in this era where like the doting love interest or she's fawning over

[00:45:11] the guy.

[00:45:11] Yeah.

[00:45:12] And doesn't really have any agency or has some at the start and then loses it once she meets

[00:45:16] the guy, that sort of thing.

[00:45:17] Whereas Dorothy is basically on her own mission throughout and really is the one who saves

[00:45:22] the day.

[00:45:23] Yeah.

[00:45:23] Oh yeah.

[00:45:24] She's like, she is the brains of the operation.

[00:45:26] And I think the movie makes it very clear that she's the brains of the operation.

[00:45:31] Yes.

[00:45:31] I agree with that.

[00:45:33] Yeah.

[00:45:33] Because he's a mess.

[00:45:34] I mean, right up top where you have, and I thought this was actually a very strong

[00:45:39] character intro, which is you have like all the news stories saying that Germany has

[00:45:43] attacked Russia.

[00:45:44] And then we find out immediately after that he bet against Germany attacking Russia.

[00:45:49] Which is great.

[00:45:51] Yeah.

[00:45:51] Brilliant.

[00:45:52] Yeah.

[00:45:53] That whole like, he like gave up that information as like a bet and stuff.

[00:45:59] Like it just, it gives you a sense of the person immediately that he is just a scoundrel

[00:46:04] and is chancing his way through life.

[00:46:05] Yeah.

[00:46:06] He's like failing upwards because I don't know why his, you know, chief at the news office

[00:46:12] gave him the job as foreign correspondent because he seems like the worst foreign correspondent

[00:46:17] you could ever hire.

[00:46:18] Well, it was, it was the Pulitzer Prize that he won.

[00:46:20] That's true.

[00:46:20] It's true.

[00:46:21] And they said he'd get another one.

[00:46:23] Yeah.

[00:46:23] All you gotta do is get one award and they'll let you do anything.

[00:46:27] Apparently we need an award then.

[00:46:29] We've won some podcasting awards.

[00:46:31] That's true.

[00:46:31] That's true.

[00:46:32] Um, but, uh, I thought that was actually a really good setup.

[00:46:36] And when we had him meeting with the chief, I was like, oh, this is actually pretty funny.

[00:46:41] Like, give me more of this.

[00:46:42] I thought we were going to have more of that news office kind of comedy going on.

[00:46:47] Hmm.

[00:46:48] And the chief was just like hysterical.

[00:46:51] It's like just screaming at Bob Hope.

[00:46:54] And I was like, oh, this is kind of that J Jonah Jameson thing.

[00:46:57] And, uh, this could be pretty fun.

[00:47:00] It's a shame we don't get any more of him later on, really.

[00:47:03] No.

[00:47:03] And I actually really, one of the laughs for me too, was when he goes back to the office

[00:47:08] after this terrible, terrible, um, mistake he's made and everyone in the office is shunning

[00:47:15] him.

[00:47:15] And there's the one guy he walks over who's just written on a typewriter.

[00:47:19] I have a wife and five children go away.

[00:47:22] And Bob's just like, yeah, I get it.

[00:47:23] Yeah.

[00:47:24] Okay.

[00:47:25] Okay.

[00:47:25] Okay.

[00:47:26] Buddy.

[00:47:27] Yeah.

[00:47:27] I actually quite liked that setup.

[00:47:29] I had a lot of faith in the film at this point.

[00:47:31] Yeah.

[00:47:32] Didn't last.

[00:47:34] Again, it's plot problems, right?

[00:47:35] Like once the plot kicks in, you're like, oh, and I think it's about the 30 minute mark.

[00:47:39] It really has to start like doubling down on the fifth columnist stuff.

[00:47:42] Mm-hmm.

[00:47:43] And it just, it just gets boggy.

[00:47:46] Yeah.

[00:47:46] I mean, I wrote labyrinthium was the word I use, which it shouldn't be in a comedy.

[00:47:52] Well, the objectives of the fifth columnist is both clear and fuzzy.

[00:47:57] Like they have, you know, bombs and, you know, weapon materials hidden in this beauty salon.

[00:48:05] We have a part where they explain what they're going to do and they have various plots all

[00:48:09] throughout.

[00:48:09] They're basically saboteurs.

[00:48:11] Yeah.

[00:48:11] So that stuff's clear.

[00:48:13] The methods of which they are interacting with Bob Hope are very unclear.

[00:48:18] Yeah.

[00:48:18] There's also like, obviously we mentioned the fake wedding and stuff like that.

[00:48:22] They're trying to get this notebook at one point and then they're like trying to get

[00:48:27] Bob Hope eventually.

[00:48:28] And it's a really great scene that I actually really enjoyed.

[00:48:30] And I've got one of my likes is I think there are some fun moments in here.

[00:48:33] Yeah.

[00:48:34] We mentioned the cabaret act.

[00:48:35] Another thing I quite liked was a moment where he, where Bob Hope accidentally stumbles

[00:48:39] into a meeting with the fifth columnist and has to disguise himself as a dummy.

[00:48:43] Yeah.

[00:48:43] That was great.

[00:48:44] Yeah.

[00:48:44] I had a lot of fun with that.

[00:48:45] I actually laughed at that was basically the moment I laughed is where it's basically

[00:48:49] it's almost like the Smithsonian, not the Smithsonian, like the natural history museum with like

[00:48:54] statues around the room depicting different periods of history.

[00:48:58] And Bob Hope hides on a bicycle next to a woman who's a mannequin.

[00:49:04] And one of the fifth columnists wants to test out his knife throwing skills.

[00:49:08] So he throws two at the lady and he goes, that's enough.

[00:49:10] And then he, and then he's challenged and says, I want to throw one more.

[00:49:13] And then the boss of the fifth columnists say, all right, throw it at the male and get him

[00:49:17] square in the head.

[00:49:18] And like, you could just see like Bob going, Oh, and like eventually I jumped off the bike

[00:49:22] and runs away.

[00:49:23] And then leads to the whole sort of sort of the end sequence really of the film.

[00:49:26] It was actually a pretty strong moment of like suspense because you know what's going to happen and you just

[00:49:32] don't know how it's going to play out.

[00:49:34] Yeah.

[00:49:34] I really enjoyed that.

[00:49:35] So that was actually a really good bit.

[00:49:37] Yeah, I did too.

[00:49:38] I thought another good bit was this is where it gets fuzzy though, which is that like the fifth columnists

[00:49:45] like, why don't they just kill him?

[00:49:46] Like I didn't understand like the machinations they were going through to deal with Bob Hope.

[00:49:51] But there's the part where they put him in the room with basically this insane guy.

[00:49:55] Um, I was going to bring up the civil war guy, which is an absolutely crazy performance.

[00:50:01] Donald Meek playing the little old man, little old man. Yeah, very fitting, but he's basically nuts.

[00:50:09] He's like pouring a bottle like for, you know, to give Bob Hope a drink, but there's nothing coming out.

[00:50:15] Like it's just empty.

[00:50:16] And this is a character who's lost his mind.

[00:50:19] And I thought that that was really funny.

[00:50:21] And the fact that like Bob Hope has to kind of outsmart this guy, they turn out to have a argument with an empty chair,

[00:50:28] uh, which I thought was also funny with a guy named Cartwright who's not actually there.

[00:50:32] Um, it was basically someone who's insane and Bob Hope having to pretend to be insane to have a conversation with the man.

[00:50:39] Yeah.

[00:50:40] And, um, like there's some, it's like a five minute scene of physical comedy really in that.

[00:50:45] Yeah.

[00:50:46] I think Bob actually really gets to show some of his physical talents in that scene.

[00:50:49] I know I really enjoyed that moment.

[00:50:51] I did too.

[00:50:52] Um, I did.

[00:50:53] I definitely thought about Clint Eastwood when they were arguing with the empty chair, but, um, you know,

[00:50:58] yeah, I can see that.

[00:50:59] I mean, I, I, I also just, I noted, it was nice to see, uh, some civil war spies.

[00:51:04] Yeah, that's very true.

[00:51:06] And I mean, Donald Meek is just one of those character actors of the time who's pops up all over the place,

[00:51:11] but had a great handle on this character.

[00:51:14] And, you know, if you ask me to describe one of the antagonists of this movie,

[00:51:20] I won't remember any of the fifth columnists, but I will remember Donald Meek.

[00:51:24] Yeah.

[00:51:25] I think that's, that's the, probably the scene I'll remember the most or, or the, uh, or the mannequin.

[00:51:30] Those two feel inspired.

[00:51:32] Like there was a desire to create a set piece there, uh, with both of those.

[00:51:37] And I think a lot of effort went into pulling them off and it feels like they were coming up with ideas.

[00:51:43] Whereas a lot of it feels like, okay, the plot's going on and you know, Bob, we need you to kind of just flail your way through this.

[00:51:51] Like make it funny, make it funny, make it funny.

[00:51:54] And that doesn't work out as well.

[00:51:57] No, no, it doesn't.

[00:51:59] And I think before we get to dislikes, the last thing I want to highlight as a like for the film is that actually, despite some of the bogginess, it does move at a clip.

[00:52:09] Ah, I felt the length in the last half hour.

[00:52:11] Um, I heard that you did.

[00:52:15] Um, no, I, I, I, I'll spin that into a point though.

[00:52:20] I felt like it did sort of kind of breeze through a bit, but I think that was quite useful in the painful moment.

[00:52:25] So I'm glad ultimately that it moved fast for me because it meant it was over quicker.

[00:52:29] Hmm.

[00:52:29] Okay.

[00:52:30] I mean, I hope we don't run into the two hour Bob Hope comedy, but, uh, they've been pretty generous runtimes lately.

[00:52:38] We might run into it.

[00:52:39] I will run away.

[00:52:40] Hmm.

[00:52:42] We interrupt this program to bring you a special report.

[00:52:46] Red Alert SpyHards, we are shaking things up over on the Patreon page.

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[00:53:01] And don't forget every month you also get two agents in the field episodes where we decode the adventures of your favorite spy actors in their biggest non-spy movies.

[00:53:14] But Cam, tell the people what we have coming up next.

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[00:53:30] So let's hit the road folks and grab some beers and throw some punches.

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[00:53:44] But before this message self-destructs, let's get back to the spy jinx.

[00:53:51] Okay, Cam, what about dislikes? What do you have for us?

[00:53:57] I mean, we've talked about how like the plotting just overwhelms the movie, but like we spend a lot of time with the fifth columnists.

[00:54:03] And like you have Otto Preminger playing the German.

[00:54:07] Otto Preminger was obviously, you know, an actor at the time, but he was also a major director going forward and also would play Mr. Freeze on the 66 Batman show.

[00:54:18] So, you know, this is a guy with pedigree, but like this was the most stock character possible.

[00:54:23] And it just felt like all three of them.

[00:54:26] I like the idea of having the German, Italian and Japanese fifth columnists together and like creating a dynamic where they're trying to outdo each other because they have these notes and we mentioned it up front.

[00:54:41] Kind of the gist of the story is that the Sally character is taking notes on what is going to happen with these fifth columnists, but she's written in a style that no one can read.

[00:54:50] And so you have a scene where all three of them are looking at this notebook and calling in their own people with a sense of like national pride.

[00:54:57] Like, okay, bring in the Italian.

[00:54:59] He can crack this code, but no one's able to do it.

[00:55:02] And I like the idea of them trying to one up each other in this, you know, alliance they have going, but they don't really do that much with it.

[00:55:11] No, I feel like there is sort of a, there's a nugget of a good idea in here.

[00:55:16] Yeah.

[00:55:16] Which I think is probably used a bit better in all through the night if we're talking about comparisons for a second.

[00:55:23] But yeah, I know what you mean.

[00:55:25] Like they feel like, I'm trying to think of the Flint film.

[00:55:28] I think it might be the first film where there's like really underdeveloped villains.

[00:55:31] That's the first one.

[00:55:32] Yeah.

[00:55:33] Yeah.

[00:55:33] And like, I think it frustrated us in the film that we were like meant to know more about these people or feel for them when they died.

[00:55:40] And we were just like sort of shrugging as to who they were.

[00:55:42] I feel like this film has the same issue.

[00:55:44] Actually in that Flint film, it was also three villains.

[00:55:47] It was three scientists.

[00:55:48] Ah, there you go.

[00:55:50] Could be why I'm making a connection.

[00:55:51] Yeah.

[00:55:51] And they had like last names that didn't correspond to what you'd think would be their last names.

[00:55:57] Because they were also a multiracial group of scientists.

[00:56:00] Right.

[00:56:00] But the names didn't line up with as the audience would expect the names to line up.

[00:56:04] Right.

[00:56:05] Yeah.

[00:56:05] Yeah.

[00:56:05] I remember that.

[00:56:06] Yeah.

[00:56:07] But like, yeah, so that film has the same issue.

[00:56:09] And you just think it's a bit of a shame because I mean, I'm not, I'm not expecting the, some of the best spy movie storytelling from a Bob Hope comedy.

[00:56:17] No.

[00:56:17] But like, it feels like a little bit of an open goal.

[00:56:19] Some of it here.

[00:56:20] Yeah.

[00:56:21] Like, you know, we mentioned Happy Gilmore and you've got like Shooter McGavin in that movie.

[00:56:26] Right.

[00:56:26] And he's like your villain, but he's like an inspired comic character.

[00:56:31] Yeah.

[00:56:31] Which, you know, kind of feeds into the fun of the movie.

[00:56:34] He's still the bad guy you want to see get, you know, beaten at the end.

[00:56:38] But like Christopher McDonald is really inspired there.

[00:56:41] And that was something I thought about when I was watching this movie where I was just like, Otto Preminger is like a great actor and I'm not as familiar with the other two, but like push it a little further.

[00:56:52] Like it's more fun if the villains are fun or at least memorable.

[00:56:58] Yeah.

[00:56:58] Yeah.

[00:56:58] Yeah.

[00:56:58] I agree.

[00:57:00] It's a real, it's one of those ones where I just think like, I feel like this film could have been better.

[00:57:06] Yeah.

[00:57:07] And not, and not in the sense of like, I feel like my expectations were quite low.

[00:57:12] Sure.

[00:57:13] With this film.

[00:57:14] And it didn't meet those either.

[00:57:16] Right.

[00:57:16] I mean, it has a very low Rotten Tomatoes score.

[00:57:19] There's only like five reviews, I think, but they're very poor.

[00:57:22] Yeah.

[00:57:23] I don't, I don't understand who said that this is one of Bob Hope's best films.

[00:57:26] They didn't say best, most popular.

[00:57:29] Okay.

[00:57:30] Yeah.

[00:57:30] So that's the difference.

[00:57:32] And I just want to like circle back to, I think part of the issue is this is a World War Two propaganda film.

[00:57:37] Coming out in 1943.

[00:57:39] Sure.

[00:57:39] So I'm sure that they just want the fifth columnists to come across as just completely inept.

[00:57:44] Mm-hmm.

[00:57:44] And so they're giving them kind of generic, you know, they don't want them to be fun or enjoyable to hang out with.

[00:57:51] Yeah.

[00:57:51] They're just kind of presenting them as here they are and they're dumb, but that doesn't necessarily work into like the success of a comedy.

[00:58:00] Well, it's just like with a film like this, especially with a comedy, you've got a reason to go a bit broader.

[00:58:06] Mm-hmm.

[00:58:07] They could have made these villains even slightly memorable, but looking at the IMDB page right now, I couldn't remember who's who.

[00:58:13] And the thing is too, it's like you have, you know, Marian Martin's Gloria showing up.

[00:58:19] That's like a small role, but it's really memorable.

[00:58:21] And they do that several times.

[00:58:24] You know, you have, we haven't mentioned her, but Lenore Aubert as Mrs. Vinescu, who is the wife of the primary source for the story that Bob Hope is pursuing.

[00:58:35] Yeah.

[00:58:36] And she is, you know, in leagues with the fifth columnists.

[00:58:40] She has a fair amount of personality, but also doesn't really get to feature into many funny moments.

[00:58:47] And no, she's just sort of there to push the plot along at certain times.

[00:58:51] And sort of be the seductress that Bob Hope can, you know, swoon over.

[00:58:56] Yeah.

[00:58:56] Cause I don't think he would really do much of that with, um, with Dorothy L'Amour.

[00:59:01] He treats her, he treats her like the wife at home sort of thing.

[00:59:04] Yeah.

[00:59:04] The joke there is they've been together a long time and are just like, yeah, yeah, yeah, you like whatever.

[00:59:10] Oh, you.

[00:59:11] Which is how we are.

[00:59:12] I saw ourselves in those two.

[00:59:14] Exactly.

[00:59:14] Whereas like, uh, when Lenore Aubert comes out in like a shimmering, you know, dress, Bob Hope is all a wooga.

[00:59:21] A wooga.

[00:59:23] Yeah.

[00:59:23] Yeah.

[00:59:24] Um, I mean, I think we did sort of mention this earlier, but I also just want to point out that the plot just does not need to be this deep.

[00:59:32] Right.

[00:59:33] Like, like we spoke about the motivations.

[00:59:35] They didn't need to make it that murky.

[00:59:37] I feel like this, I don't think this film should be shorter.

[00:59:40] I just think it should have had more time with having fun.

[00:59:44] Yeah.

[00:59:45] I, you know, it's, you've got Bob Hope and you've got, you know, Dorothy Lamore, who he's got proven chemistry with.

[00:59:51] Let them spend more time together, which leads me onto my main dislike is separating the two.

[00:59:54] Yeah.

[00:59:55] And you kind of lose her from the film and she comes back in the end.

[00:59:58] You know, I think it's good that she does kind of get the big save at the end, but why have you got her in the film if you're not going to use her?

[01:00:05] Well, and they have a natural chemistry together and an ability to banter.

[01:00:10] And like, I was thinking about this earlier.

[01:00:12] There's like certain actors, you know, you put Julia Roberts and Richard Gere together in Pretty Woman and it's just like perfection.

[01:00:20] But you put the two of them together in Runaway Bride, the movie's nowhere near as good, but the two of them still work together.

[01:00:27] And I feel like that's the case with Bob Hope and Dorothy Lamore.

[01:00:30] They've been together in all these road films and, you know, Bob Hope solo films and whatever else or Bob Hope headlining films, I should say.

[01:00:37] But like, you know, here, this is material that's probably a little lower than they're used to, but the two of them have chemistry.

[01:00:46] They're still fun to watch together.

[01:00:48] Yep.

[01:00:48] And so when you separate them and send Bob Hope off with Lenore Aubert, there's no comedy. Like the comedy just disappears really when it gets to that pairing.

[01:00:59] And then a section I think should have been more inspired is when they marry him off to Marian Martin's character.

[01:01:05] Marian Martin has a very specific angle on that character.

[01:01:09] It's a character type we've seen many times if you watch older movies.

[01:01:13] And I felt like they should have done more with that, had more fun with it.

[01:01:16] Like when he wakes up and he's in the hotel room with her, play that up.

[01:01:21] Like make that like a comedy of, you know, mistaken, like, how did we wind up here?

[01:01:26] Yeah.

[01:01:26] Like the fact that she's pretending to know him and that they're married.

[01:01:30] Like, it's kind of insane to me how little comedy they milk from that.

[01:01:34] They get almost nothing.

[01:01:35] He's like barreling out the window of the hotel room at Niagara Falls.

[01:01:40] Like what?

[01:01:41] How much time do they spend together?

[01:01:42] Like a minute and a half?

[01:01:43] Yeah.

[01:01:44] About that.

[01:01:44] And then she's sort of around the film for a little bit longer and then killed.

[01:01:47] Yeah.

[01:01:48] I mean, it did get one good laugh from me that, you know, that development in the plot, which

[01:01:54] is when Bob Hope is going to throw himself off the Niagara Falls because the news is broken

[01:01:59] and the police officer comes up and is like, hey, buddy.

[01:02:02] Hey, it's okay.

[01:02:04] Okay.

[01:02:04] And then he finds out who Bob Hope is and he goes, go ahead.

[01:02:09] Yeah.

[01:02:10] Yeah.

[01:02:10] That actually, to be fair, that also got a slightly far out of me too.

[01:02:14] Yeah.

[01:02:15] Like that was a good comedic beat there, but I just didn't understand why they didn't do

[01:02:20] more with the Gloria, the glow girl.

[01:02:23] It's crazy to think that the insinuation is what would ruin his life too.

[01:02:28] Yeah.

[01:02:29] Right?

[01:02:29] Like, why is that the worst thing in the world?

[01:02:32] Well, it's also like, unmarried jet setting, you know, reporter is caught married to show

[01:02:42] girl.

[01:02:43] Yeah.

[01:02:43] I mean, that's basically old news nowadays.

[01:02:47] Like it wouldn't even make the front page.

[01:02:49] I mean, was he respectable?

[01:02:51] No.

[01:02:52] No.

[01:02:52] I mean, I guess maybe he'd be reviewed, uh, viewed as respectable because he has a Pulitzer

[01:02:56] prize, but yeah, that would work better.

[01:03:01] Okay.

[01:03:02] This works better.

[01:03:03] This, this development.

[01:03:05] If he's played as someone very rigid, you think of someone like, um, Cary Grant in bringing

[01:03:11] up baby and he plays someone who's so rigid and he meets Catherine Hepburn, who's just completely

[01:03:17] loopy.

[01:03:17] And that's the comedy is that he's being pulled out of his comfort zone.

[01:03:21] Mm-hmm.

[01:03:22] That is not Bob Hope.

[01:03:24] Bob Hope is like, you know, making like tiger noises at women and leering and, you know,

[01:03:30] goofy and gambler and kind of degenerate in this.

[01:03:33] And it's like him being shacked up with this, you know, blonde showgirl.

[01:03:38] I don't know that there's that much to milk out of that.

[01:03:41] Whereas like if you had him, someone who was very rigid and took himself too seriously,

[01:03:45] and that was kind of the joke, then it's funny.

[01:03:48] Yeah.

[01:03:49] I think that would work better.

[01:03:50] But I think the idea of this sort of roguish reporter wouldn't work if he was that rigid.

[01:03:55] No, you couldn't do the roguish reporter.

[01:03:57] He has to be a very serious reporter.

[01:03:59] Yeah.

[01:04:00] And then I don't think he would be like lying his way around his job.

[01:04:04] Would it be serious though, but kind of bumbling, like almost like Clark Kent, which

[01:04:08] is also a Niagara Falls connection with Superman too.

[01:04:11] It is.

[01:04:11] No, I think that also like, I don't think it works for the character because I don't think

[01:04:14] he would be lying.

[01:04:16] No, he wouldn't be lying.

[01:04:17] And that's, that's really what gets him into this whole predicament in the first place

[01:04:21] is the fact that he cheats and lies.

[01:04:23] Yeah.

[01:04:24] Well, maybe it's more just that, that specific development of trying to undo him through this

[01:04:29] marriage to the showgirl.

[01:04:30] It doesn't work with the conception of the character that they've created.

[01:04:34] Sure.

[01:04:35] Yeah.

[01:04:35] I'll give you that.

[01:04:36] I'll give you that.

[01:04:37] Um, I, I, I think, I think this whole script probably needs more time in the oven.

[01:04:42] Although it had so many writers, so many writers.

[01:04:46] Well, I think, I think if anything, television these days proves that you don't need that

[01:04:50] much and sometimes you can overcook it.

[01:04:52] Yeah, that's true.

[01:04:53] That's true.

[01:04:55] Um, any other dislikes for us, Cam?

[01:04:56] There's some weird racial humor in this movie.

[01:04:59] Uh, I wondered if you'd bring that up.

[01:05:00] Yeah.

[01:05:01] Not as glaring as some of the other comedies, uh, I think we're going to tackle with Bob

[01:05:07] Hope, but, uh, there's some moments you go.

[01:05:10] Okay.

[01:05:11] Um, there's the one where he, you know, he's pretending to call the FBI.

[01:05:17] Um, because, you know, he's going to be responsible and actually report what's actually happening,

[01:05:22] but he's just lying to Chris, Dorothy L'Amour's character, but calls like a Chinese launderer,

[01:05:28] like launderer.

[01:05:29] And it's the most like stereotypical over the top thing you could ever expect.

[01:05:35] Uh, there was that again, like, you know, it's not to, uh, be surprised it's 1943, but

[01:05:41] you know, it's a little uncomfortable when you watch it now.

[01:05:43] There's also the weird part where there's like the blackout and him and Dorothy L'Amour

[01:05:48] are together in the city and all the lights go out and they're holding hands or so they

[01:05:53] think.

[01:05:53] And then the lights come back on and he's holding hands with a black woman and they

[01:05:57] both stare at each other.

[01:05:58] And then, you know, oh my God, what did we do?

[01:06:02] But I feel like the joke was that she was black.

[01:06:05] It was not that she, he was holding hands with a stranger.

[01:06:07] Uh, yeah.

[01:06:08] I think that's also what they were indicating.

[01:06:10] Yeah.

[01:06:11] Like the way it's performed and everything.

[01:06:13] I'm like, oh, okay.

[01:06:14] Yeah.

[01:06:15] Right.

[01:06:16] Cause I think that joke works in the sense of like, you're holding hands with a stranger,

[01:06:19] like two couples take the wrong hands and the lights come on.

[01:06:23] It's like, oh my God, what were we doing?

[01:06:24] Like that, that fine.

[01:06:25] That's fine.

[01:06:25] But the way they played it, I was like, that's the joke right there.

[01:06:29] That's what they're going for.

[01:06:31] Yeah.

[01:06:31] And I, I, I saw that and I bumped on it.

[01:06:34] Yeah.

[01:06:34] Yeah.

[01:06:35] And there's a couple of, there's a couple of like caricatures of other races as well

[01:06:40] in this film, the pop up.

[01:06:42] Yeah.

[01:06:43] From Russians to Japanese people and things like that.

[01:06:45] But I mean, it is 1942.

[01:06:47] Like it, I'm not, not forgiving it, but it is just, it was a style at the time, as you'd

[01:06:52] like to say.

[01:06:53] It's not a surprise at all when you watch the movie, but it's the kind of thing when you're

[01:06:57] watching a comedy, it does kind of pull you out in that moment.

[01:06:59] You're like, oh, you know, it does, it doesn't hold up is, is I think what we're saying.

[01:07:04] Yeah.

[01:07:04] Yeah.

[01:07:04] And I know we're going to have more of this.

[01:07:06] Like I have a feeling call me Buona is going to have some moments.

[01:07:10] It's interesting that that's sort of a, an Eon film that it's not really spoken about.

[01:07:14] Yeah.

[01:07:15] Yeah.

[01:07:16] Yeah.

[01:07:17] I haven't got any more dislikes.

[01:07:18] I have a couple of notes though.

[01:07:20] Okay.

[01:07:20] What are your notes?

[01:07:21] Um, so firstly, I, I found some interesting connections in the film.

[01:07:27] Mm hmm.

[01:07:28] Firstly, it was nice to see, uh, another fatal, uh, beauty salon.

[01:07:32] Like we saw in, in like Flint.

[01:07:34] Yeah.

[01:07:35] I thought they should have done a little more with that.

[01:07:37] I did like Bob Hope running around with like the, um, the, like the facial and the

[01:07:41] blonde wig and the, and the wig.

[01:07:43] Yeah.

[01:07:43] Which ties to the beginning where he's wearing a, a disguise at the start of the film as

[01:07:46] well.

[01:07:47] Yeah.

[01:07:47] He reminded me a little bit of Jerry Hall in Batman when, do you remember the Joker's

[01:07:52] girlfriend where she's wearing like the white mask?

[01:07:56] No.

[01:07:57] Oh yeah.

[01:07:57] It's a little unsettling.

[01:07:58] Okay.

[01:07:59] Right.

[01:07:59] I was unsettled looking at Bob Hope in this as well.

[01:08:01] That makes sense.

[01:08:03] Uh, I also laughed at the Bing Crosby gag.

[01:08:06] Oh, that was great.

[01:08:07] Yeah.

[01:08:08] Yeah.

[01:08:08] Yeah.

[01:08:09] Um, so they'd already done films by this point together by the looks of it, but obviously

[01:08:13] they've gone to do a lot more films, uh, Bob Hope and Bing Crosby and a bit of Bing

[01:08:18] Crosby music starts playing and Bob Hope goes, this guy's stalking me.

[01:08:22] Yeah.

[01:08:22] Um, which is, reminds me a lot of the Frank Sinatra Dean Martin relationship they have

[01:08:27] in their films too.

[01:08:28] Right.

[01:08:29] Yeah.

[01:08:29] And like I watched road to Bali, as I said, and like that type of comedy was more up my

[01:08:35] alley than some of these Bob Hope solo ones where there was a lot of in jokes like that.

[01:08:41] Um, there was a part in road to Bali where they're just, you know, walk along, they get

[01:08:45] to a river and then it shows Humphrey Bogart coming down, pulling a boat and it's taken

[01:08:49] from the African queen.

[01:08:50] Right.

[01:08:51] And it's just like the banter between the two of them is really fun between him and Bing

[01:08:54] Crosby.

[01:08:55] Yeah.

[01:08:55] Where it made me want to watch more of those road movies, but my experience thus far, having

[01:09:00] seen my favorite spy, they got me covered and caught in the draft.

[01:09:05] Uh, and also my favorite brunette, like, you know, a couple of those were amusing, but

[01:09:09] like it did not make me as, um, interested in checking out more Bob Hope, you know, no

[01:09:14] headline about, you know, name above the title movies.

[01:09:17] No, it did not.

[01:09:18] And I, I, two more quick notes and then a bigger one to bring up.

[01:09:20] Yeah.

[01:09:21] Firstly, uh, secondly in the salon, you see a man taken down by the, uh, schweitz, is

[01:09:28] it called schweitz?

[01:09:28] A schweitz?

[01:09:29] The, the seated sauna.

[01:09:31] Oh yes.

[01:09:32] Which took out, uh, our friend in Thunderball.

[01:09:35] Yes.

[01:09:36] And lastly, I found it interesting that they went for the Casino Royale 67 ending in

[01:09:41] the brawl.

[01:09:42] Um, that felt like such a comedy thing to do.

[01:09:45] Just have like massive amounts of people all in a big fight at the end.

[01:09:48] Yeah, it did.

[01:09:49] And, and, uh, you know, I didn't mind it because by that point I was like, well, it's

[01:09:53] over.

[01:09:53] Let's just have fun for a second and let Bob throw some punches.

[01:09:56] Well, that was kind of amusing to me that like it turned into Bob Hope action hero where

[01:10:00] he was taking on like a whole room of people and actually doing pretty well.

[01:10:04] Yeah.

[01:10:04] You know, he's like grabbing like weapons and like knocking them down.

[01:10:08] I'm like, wow, Bob Hope should have done a full on action movie.

[01:10:10] He could have had his own like nobody.

[01:10:13] The film with Bob Odenkirk that came out a few years ago where you take an actor known

[01:10:16] for comedy, put him in action.

[01:10:18] I want to see the Bob Hope, you know, gritty action John Wick style film.

[01:10:21] I, I feel like that would never happen, but I'd like to see it anyway.

[01:10:25] Can you imagine a world where it did?

[01:10:28] I often try.

[01:10:29] Bob Hope, one of his big props was a golf club in his comedy.

[01:10:34] He is swinging a golf club at someone in that movie, right?

[01:10:37] Someone had determined.

[01:10:38] He does like the swing away thing, like from science.

[01:10:41] Yeah.

[01:10:42] Yeah.

[01:10:42] Or like Casey Jones at the end of the first Ninja Turtles movie.

[01:10:45] Hmm.

[01:10:46] There you go.

[01:10:47] And last thing to add in before you have any notes for us as well is I often try and pay

[01:10:54] attention to the taglines from these older films after our adventure with Tartu at the

[01:10:58] beginning of the year.

[01:10:59] Yeah.

[01:11:00] Yeah.

[01:11:00] And this one has some gold.

[01:11:03] Hmm.

[01:11:03] Would you like to hear some of the, they got me covered taglines?

[01:11:07] I would indeed.

[01:11:08] Okay.

[01:11:09] They're best yet.

[01:11:11] No fooling.

[01:11:13] As in like the two actors?

[01:11:15] I guess so.

[01:11:16] Okay.

[01:11:17] It was cool.

[01:11:18] Yeah.

[01:11:19] Um, now mystery, romance, hair raising, laugh loaded gags.

[01:11:26] That is hella generic.

[01:11:29] Yep.

[01:11:30] Uh, you'll get a great bang out of it with spies, wrecks and assorted weird characters.

[01:11:37] Hmm.

[01:11:37] Hmm.

[01:11:38] I mean, Hmm.

[01:11:41] When you say like assorted weird characters, I go, that's something that sounds very unlike

[01:11:45] anything you'd hear nowadays.

[01:11:47] But also I wonder how often they use that back then.

[01:11:49] It could have been really common.

[01:11:50] It could.

[01:11:51] Now the last two, I specifically say for the last one, they were my favorites.

[01:11:55] So here's the first one.

[01:11:56] Bob is an undercover man in Washington and the spies are thick as flies.

[01:12:02] That's pretty good actually.

[01:12:05] Yeah.

[01:12:05] Yeah.

[01:12:05] I like the, the, the, the rhyming spies with thick as flies.

[01:12:09] Mm.

[01:12:09] And lastly, if you want something funny, this is a honey.

[01:12:14] Um, Hmm.

[01:12:16] Hmm.

[01:12:17] It's the fastest, most exciting, right of fun of the year.

[01:12:21] I take question with that.

[01:12:23] Yeah.

[01:12:23] They didn't know how to market this movie.

[01:12:25] Did they?

[01:12:25] I mean, it did.

[01:12:26] It maybe did well.

[01:12:27] I don't know.

[01:12:28] Oh no, that, that, that's just throwing everything at it and see if it sticks.

[01:12:31] Yeah.

[01:12:31] Just get people into theaters so they can pay the war bonds.

[01:12:34] Yeah, totally.

[01:12:35] That, it just feels like a movie where they were just saying the most generic comedy things.

[01:12:40] It's like, Hey, you like Bob Hope?

[01:12:41] You're going to like this.

[01:12:42] Mm hmm.

[01:12:43] That kind of thing.

[01:12:45] Uh, do you have any, uh, any notes for us?

[01:12:47] So I've got a few.

[01:12:49] Um, there was a bit where Bob Hope was trying to seduce, uh, Lenore Aubert and he was doing

[01:12:54] it by smoking sexily.

[01:12:56] Mm hmm.

[01:12:57] I thought that was actually pretty funny.

[01:12:59] Like it's all silent.

[01:13:00] It's just Bob Hope, just milking this scene, uh, trying to like, look like he's, you know,

[01:13:06] eyes of love basically and smoking.

[01:13:08] And I thought that was good.

[01:13:10] Isn't that the scene where he gets high?

[01:13:12] It is.

[01:13:13] It is.

[01:13:13] But before that, he's like trying to kind of seduce her.

[01:13:16] The whole high sequence made me kind of laugh because I, I was genuinely surprised they,

[01:13:21] um, made Bob high.

[01:13:27] Who knows what Bob was doing in between hanging 10?

[01:13:30] Well, yeah.

[01:13:32] Uh, I, I, I mean, this whole film is just a bit odd.

[01:13:35] It is.

[01:13:35] It is.

[01:13:36] Um, another thing I noted the chief when he's screaming at Bob Hope, I don't think he'd

[01:13:42] any top teeth.

[01:13:44] Really?

[01:13:45] Didn't look like it.

[01:13:46] And I was a little distracted.

[01:13:48] I was like, what's the story there?

[01:13:50] Hmm.

[01:13:51] I might go back and rewatch it and check that out.

[01:13:53] Yeah.

[01:13:54] Yeah.

[01:13:55] A gummy approach to life.

[01:13:57] Yeah.

[01:13:58] I mean, it was the forties dentistry was a little different then.

[01:14:01] Um, and then also, um, there is a bit where Sally has been confronted by the fifth columnist

[01:14:08] and is trying to get away.

[01:14:09] She bails.

[01:14:11] I think that may have been an accident.

[01:14:14] She goes face down and then pulls herself up and keeps going.

[01:14:19] And I saw that and I was like, and I actually rewound it.

[01:14:22] Cause I'm like, that looks like someone actually falling down.

[01:14:26] Okay.

[01:14:27] Don't think I picked up on that.

[01:14:29] Yeah.

[01:14:30] I wondered about it.

[01:14:32] I went back and I'm like, is that a stunt person?

[01:14:34] Hmm.

[01:14:35] Doesn't look like it.

[01:14:36] And the way she falls, it's not, it doesn't look like a movie fall.

[01:14:39] It looks like an actor who's tripped and has actually fallen.

[01:14:42] Cause they're trying to run in like high heels.

[01:14:44] Hmm.

[01:14:44] And, uh, you know, they, they kind of keep that going.

[01:14:46] Cause when she shows up, she's like really dirty and everything.

[01:14:49] But I was looking at it going like, that looks suspicious.

[01:14:52] Kind of like when you see, um, Britt Eklund in the man with the golden gun at the

[01:14:56] end and there's the explosion and she just takes a bail and gets up and keeps running.

[01:15:00] Cause that was, that was a gaffe on set.

[01:15:02] Wasn't it right?

[01:15:02] Like that didn't mean to, yeah, she fell over and then yeah, she just rolled with it.

[01:15:06] Yeah.

[01:15:06] And it felt like an actress doing that.

[01:15:09] Hmm.

[01:15:10] So I don't know the jury's out on that one.

[01:15:11] We may never uncover that mystery.

[01:15:13] I I'm not sure we're going to be peeling back the layers that they got it covered.

[01:15:17] Uh, I think what?

[01:15:20] 80 years later?

[01:15:21] Probably not.

[01:15:22] I don't know that we'll have a spy master interview for this one.

[01:15:25] We'll resurrect.

[01:15:26] We'll do a seance for Bob Hope and see if he can come back and talk to us.

[01:15:30] Is there a small child in this movie that we can interview?

[01:15:33] Like from the third man?

[01:15:35] Yeah, exactly.

[01:15:36] Like, is there like someone who's like six that we can talk to now that they're like,

[01:15:39] uh, whatever, like 80 years old?

[01:15:42] Maybe Bob Hope's grandkids are still doing interviews.

[01:15:45] Hmm.

[01:15:46] Okay.

[01:15:46] Maybe they'll have us covered.

[01:15:47] Okay.

[01:15:48] Well, fingers crossed.

[01:15:50] One can only hope.

[01:15:51] Yeah.

[01:15:52] No kidding.

[01:15:53] Well, I've run out.

[01:15:54] I'm officially tapped for I'm tapped with Bob Hope and I'm tapped with this film cam.

[01:15:58] Let's get to the knock list.

[01:16:00] I mean, no, it's a no, no.

[01:16:04] Um, I would say I preferred my favorite spy to this film.

[01:16:07] Yeah.

[01:16:08] I had more fun with that.

[01:16:09] Yeah.

[01:16:09] That just had better gags.

[01:16:11] It had more memorable sequence like the, like the fire engine.

[01:16:13] I remember that.

[01:16:15] Yeah.

[01:16:15] Uh, the barrel.

[01:16:17] And it kept him and, um, and Hedy Lamarr together a little more.

[01:16:22] Mm hmm.

[01:16:22] I think she had a little bit more screen presence than, um, uh, Dorothy Lamarr, I would say.

[01:16:28] Yeah.

[01:16:29] I mean, she was such a full wattage movie star.

[01:16:33] Um, whereas like Dorothy Lamarr is just a invaluable presence and someone who's very likable on screen.

[01:16:39] Yeah.

[01:16:40] Like when Hedy Lamarr shows up, that's like a movie star walking in.

[01:16:43] Yeah.

[01:16:44] Sure.

[01:16:45] Uh, it's a no from me too.

[01:16:46] I mean, I, I, my opening salvo was a chronically unfunny mess.

[01:16:52] Uh, I don't think a chronically unfunny mess is making the knock list.

[01:16:56] And we are really struggling for spy comedy films to find many that we really love.

[01:17:00] Yeah.

[01:17:01] I wouldn't put this one on a disavowed list though.

[01:17:03] No, I was going to just quickly ask, but I don't think it was bad enough.

[01:17:06] It just, it's a real like four star film out of 10.

[01:17:09] You know what I mean?

[01:17:10] Maybe even three.

[01:17:11] Yeah.

[01:17:12] I would go like, yeah, two star out of five.

[01:17:14] I do the five star scale.

[01:17:16] Okay.

[01:17:16] Then yeah.

[01:17:17] Two out of five.

[01:17:17] Sure.

[01:17:18] Yeah.

[01:17:18] Uh, but there you go, folks.

[01:17:20] They got me covered is not making the knock list.

[01:17:23] The dossier on the film is complete and far as classified.

[01:17:25] That's another spy hard special in the bank.

[01:17:29] Boy, is it boy?

[01:17:31] Is it?

[01:17:31] Oh boy.

[01:17:31] Hey, at least this one's available on YouTube.

[01:17:33] You can watch it for free on there.

[01:17:35] It's you can also rent it online as well.

[01:17:37] I will say though, as I was watching this movie last night, I was reflect on the

[01:17:40] reflecting that, you know, these are kind of my favorite movies to watch for the podcast.

[01:17:44] I mean, where else are you going to get a chat about Adam Sandler?

[01:17:48] Well, probably other podcasts, but where else are you going to get people talking about

[01:17:52] they got me covered for 80 minutes?

[01:17:54] I can guarantee to you.

[01:17:56] I actually, I have, I haven't checked this.

[01:17:58] I don't know.

[01:18:00] I would be willing to bet unless there's like a Bob Hope podcast that's done like his entire

[01:18:04] filmography, which I want to find if it is.

[01:18:07] Yeah.

[01:18:08] I think we might be the only people that have ever reviewed this film in the podcast.

[01:18:12] In fact, live on this recording, I'm going to look it up.

[01:18:17] So Cam can vamp for a second whilst I look.

[01:18:19] I can imagine someone mentioning my favorite spy on a podcast, especially if they're doing

[01:18:23] like a Hedy Lamarr, you know, spotlight or something like that.

[01:18:27] I could see how that one would be discussed.

[01:18:29] They got me covered.

[01:18:30] I don't know if there's anything about it that jumps out as special enough that it would have

[01:18:34] been mentioned somewhere else.

[01:18:36] Other than like if you're, if there's a podcast just going through all the films of

[01:18:39] the war era, but I somehow doubt that.

[01:18:43] I can officially confirm live on the air that no one has ever done a podcast episode on

[01:18:48] They Got Me Covered.

[01:18:50] Until now.

[01:18:51] Look at us providing a service for all mankind.

[01:18:55] We will be like the monolith in 2001 A Space Odyssey and all will bow to us because

[01:18:59] of this.

[01:18:59] I can already hear the noise.

[01:19:01] Are we the space child?

[01:19:03] Um, someone wants to eject us into space.

[01:19:06] Yes.

[01:19:06] Yes, yes, yes, yes.

[01:19:07] And that probably is our cue to get out of here, folks.

[01:19:10] So thank you all for tuning in.

[01:19:12] Cam, what are we talking about next time?

[01:19:14] Well, Scott, it's been a while since we've actually talked about Bond.

[01:19:17] We've done some interviews, but we haven't actually tackled the cinematic Bond world the

[01:19:22] way we, you know, typically had in the past.

[01:19:25] We aren't going to dive into, you know, the Timothy Dalton or the Roger Moore era just

[01:19:29] yet.

[01:19:30] It's coming relatively soon, but not quite yet.

[01:19:33] Instead, we're going to do a special episode.

[01:19:35] There are so many facets of Bond that are a lot of fun to talk about.

[01:19:40] Mm hmm.

[01:19:40] One of them is the music of Bond.

[01:19:43] And so we are going to do our own rankings of all of the Bond songs.

[01:19:49] I think this is going to be a lot of fun and hopefully it gives you guys a lot to agree

[01:19:53] with and also disagree with.

[01:19:56] Yes, we're calling this a little bit of a new series, our best of Bond.

[01:20:00] So over the years in the coming years, we might have a subject we want to talk about,

[01:20:04] like the best of one of the actors or the best of an action scene or stunts or music in this

[01:20:09] case.

[01:20:10] So it'd be its own little corner of the Bond universe for us to talk about from time to time

[01:20:14] when we don't feel quite like talking about a film or we're not quite in the in the sort

[01:20:18] of realm of talking about a Bond film at this time.

[01:20:20] So I think it's a nice way of keeping the British end up as it were still talking about 007

[01:20:25] and all the things that we love about Bond in this case, the music.

[01:20:29] And there's a lot to talk about there.

[01:20:31] We've also had a couple of guests in the past have been lightly connected with the music.

[01:20:34] We, of course, had the director of the Sound of 007 documentary on a couple of years ago

[01:20:39] as well. That's definitely worth checking out.

[01:20:41] So your mission, folks, if you choose to accept it, is to join us next week as we celebrate

[01:20:45] the best of Bond and in this case, the best of Bond music.

[01:20:49] If you like what you heard on this episode, please consider joining us over on our Patreon.

[01:20:53] It's my only cheap plug of the episode, folks.

[01:20:56] Let me have it.

[01:20:57] Don't take it away from me.

[01:20:58] Join us over on the Patreon, patreon.com slash spy hearts over 100 bonus episodes.

[01:21:04] And you just get more of me and Cam in your ears.

[01:21:06] And that can't be too bad.

[01:21:10] Unless it's Bob Hope episodes, I'm sure.

[01:21:12] Well, yeah, we've got that covered, too.

[01:21:14] So don't worry about that.

[01:21:16] And make sure that here's a question.

[01:21:17] Scott, I have a question for you.

[01:21:18] Okay.

[01:21:18] Okay.

[01:21:19] Are we ever going to tackle Bob Hope movies on the Patreon?

[01:21:24] Probably not, right?

[01:21:25] Probably not.

[01:21:26] Yeah.

[01:21:26] Yeah.

[01:21:27] So you could be just rest assured that the Patreon is a Bob Hope free space.

[01:21:32] So if you want to get away from Bob Hope, you can join us over on the Patreon at patreon.com

[01:21:37] slash spy hearts.

[01:21:38] And you could pay us to not talk about Bob Hope.

[01:21:42] Yeah.

[01:21:42] Yeah.

[01:21:42] Unless there's like some sort of Bob Hope spy related special that was on TV that we have to tackle.

[01:21:48] But to the best of my knowledge, does not exist.

[01:21:51] I'm not going to make a hope joke.

[01:21:53] Hopefully that's not the case.

[01:21:54] Damn it.

[01:21:54] I did it anyway.

[01:21:56] Make sure you follow us discreetly on social media at spyhards.

[01:21:59] That's S-P-Y-H-A-R-D-S on Facebook.

[01:22:02] X, if you want to call it that.

[01:22:04] And Instagram.

[01:22:04] But until next time, folks, put a saddle on me.

[01:22:09] Let's get going.

[01:22:10] Okay, so let's get started.

[01:22:10] Take yourmana watering across the attic.

[01:22:10] I'll see you right after the product.

[01:22:11] Bye-bye.

[01:22:11] Bye.engineer.