Eight on the Lam [Eight on the Run] ** (1967, Bob Hope, Phyllis Diller, Jonathan Winters, Shirley Eaton, Jill St John) – Classic Movie Review 8335

Veteran director George Marshall’s 1966 comedy Eight on the Lam [Eight on the Run] stars Bob Hope as a widowed bank clerk who goes on the lam (run) with his seven kids (including his real-life grandchildren Robert Hope and Avis Hope) falsely accused because he is thought to have stolen his bank’s cash after he finds $10,000 in a parking lot and the bank discovers a substantial money shortage.

Bob Hope pretends to be a rich Texan to find the real criminal, but he cannot find many big laughs along the way. There is nothing wrong with the performances of the co-starring players (Phyllis Diller, Jonathan Winters, Shirley Eaton and Jill St John), who are certainly amusing, appealing and game for a laugh.

The only problem is the rather tired and too-soppy slapstick screenplay by Albert E Lewin, Burt Styler, Bob Fisher (story) and Arthur Marx (story), and perhaps a slightly weary Hope, leaving Diller and Winters to get most of the film’s laughs.

Phyllis Diller plays the children’s baby-sitter Golda, Jonathan Winters plays both her dim-witted cop boyfriend Police Sergeant Jasper Lynch and his own mother Mother Lynch, Shirley Eaton plays schoolteacher Ellie Barton and Jill St John plays gold digging femme fatale Monica.

Also in the cast are Stacey Maxwell [Stacey Gregg], Kevin Brody, Glenn Gilger, Debi Storm, Michael Freeman, Austin Willis and Peter Leeds.

 © Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 8335

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