They Got Me Covered *** (1943, Bob Hope, Dorothy Lamour, Lenore Aubert, Donald MacBride, Walter Catlett, Eduardo Ciannelli) – Classic Movie Review 7860

It’s Bob Hope versus the Nazis in director David Butler’s amusing, little-known 1943 wartime Washington spy comedy thriller They Got Me Covered about a Gestapo espionage ring planning sabotage.

It is a surprise subject for comedy perhaps, but Hope is on excellent form as a rotten, useless idiot of a reporter, called Robert Kittredge, who turns out to be an ace spy catcher – by accident of course.

Hope’s Road movies companion Dorothy Lamour, sparring nicely with him as Christina Hill, Donald MacBride and Walter Catlett have got the rest of the laughs covered as Mason and the Hotel Manager, while Otto Preminger and Eduardo Ciannelli are tip-top as, respectively, the German and Italian bad guys, Fauscheim and Baldanacco.

Song: ‘Palsy, Walsy’ by Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer, performed by Marion Martin (dubbed by Martha Mears), Orchestra conducted by Constantine Bakaleinikoff.

Also in the cast are Lénore Aubert, Eduardo Ciannelli, Marion Martin, Donald Meek, Donald MacBride, Walter Catlett, Philip Ahn, Florence Bates, John Abbott, Phyllis Ruth, Mary Treen, Bettye Avery, Margaret Hayes, Mary Byrne, William Yetter Sr, Henry Guttman, Frank Sully, Ferike Boros, Harry Bradley, Don Brodie, Jack Carr, George Chandler, Lane Chandler, Stanley Clements, Joe Devlin, Ralph Dunn, Willie Fung, Edward Gargan, Eddie Hall, Richard Keene, Donald Kerr, Pat Lane, Lyle Lyttell, Charles Legneur, Lou Lubin, Peggy Lynn, John Mather, Tom Mazetti, Vic Mazetti, Etta McDaniel, Greta Meyer, Bill O’Leary, Anne O’Neal, Gil Perkins, Nino Pipitone, Stanley Price, Hans Schumm, Hugh Prosser, George Sherwood, Byron Shores, John Sinclair, Walter Soderling, Arnold Stang, Kam Tong, Henry Victor and Wolfgang Zilzer.

They Got Me Covered is directed by David Butler, runs 95 minutes, is made by The Samuel Goldwyn Company, is released by RKO Radio Pictures, is written by Harry Kurnitz (screenplay), Lynn Root (additional dialogue) and Frank Fenton (additional dialogue), based on an original story by Leo Rosten and Leonard Spiegelgass, is shot in black and white by Rudolph Maté, is produced by Samuel Goldwyn, is scored by Leigh Harline, with music by Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer, and production designs by Peggy Ferguson.

At the end of the film, Hope kicks the Japanese spy in the bottom and says ‘that’s to save your face’, but that is dubbed over what he actually said: ‘that’s for Pearl Harbor!’

Hope and Lamour went on the Road together in Road to Morocco, Road to Zanzibar, Road to Utopia, Road to Bali, and The Road to Hong Kong. They also starred together in My Favourite Brunette.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 7860

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