The Great Lover (1949)

The Great Lover is a fairly typical Bob Hope vehicle that takes many of the standard Hope ingredients (the star in a put-upon underdog role, lusciously beautiful co-star, high-concept setup, interesting location, a few songs by Jay Livingston and Ray Evans, plenty of gags), shakes them well, and comes up with a moderately entertaining little picture. Those who are looking for a strong, well-structured narrative can look elsewhere, although the film does get off to a promising start with a surprisingly serious opening sequence. Once Hope and his boy scouts appear, however, the story becomes little more than a clothesline for hanging jokes on. That's fine, as long as the jokes are strong, but The Great Lover suffers occasionally from stretches where the humor is stretched a little too thin. Fortunately, Hope is in fine form, delivering every line as if it were a zinger and making most of them work. Rhonda Fleming is appropriately fetching, Roland Young nicely villainous and the rest of the cast gives fine support. Alexander Hall's direction is okay, but nothing more, and he isn't able to handle some of the film's odder moments (such as when it all of a sudden thinks it's a musical and lets Hope and Fleming engage in a duet that comes from nowhere and just as quickly goes back there). Not one of Hope's very best, but it definitely makes for nice viewing when the viewer is in a non-demanding mood. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide