This is the great mystery movie for fans of Hope and Hepburn. First of all it is the sole time they ever appeared in any movie together. Secondly it is dated - it has to be seen recalling what the heart of the Cold War was like in 1956, the year of the Hungarian Up-rising and the Suez Crisis. Apparently it is more available for viewing in Great Britain (it was a British film). I have never seen it listed on any American television station. Isn't it about time they would show it - just to settle our curiosity about this particular pairing? My suspicion it would not be great movie viewing, but it would be interesting anyway. At least we could compare it to it's "cold war" film comedy predecessors (NINOTCHKA, COMRADE X, and SILK STOCKINGS).
Addendum: February 20, 2008 - Finally I see the film.
Some films have to be seen to see why they were never repeated. Bob Hope did enjoy working with certain actresses many times, most notably Dorothy Lamour and Lucille Ball. But he made this one film (in 1956) that was with Kate Hepburn, and it is certainly not the best film either of them ever played in. Both were highly capable performers/stars. Both were good in comedy. But there is no chemistry between them, and they are in roles they don't fit.
Hope is a hotshot heroic U.S. pilot, hoping to marry an English aristocrat (Noelle Madison) for financial reasons. He is pushed into an assignment by his commanding officer (and supposed friend) Alan Gifford to put his romance on hold while romancing Russian pilot - heroine Kate Hepburn. Now Hepburn is not defecting. She took her MIG fighter (this film may be the first that mentioned the term "MIG" for a Russian plane) to England out of anger at being by-passed for a promotion for an inferior rival who is a man. She is not anti-Communist, and Gifford's hopes that Hope will make her into a propaganda victory for the West.
The Russians are led by James Robertson Justice (supposedly the head of a trade commission - it was a running joke that trade commissions on both sides were loaded with KGB and CIA agents). He is determined to bring Hepburn back to face trial as a traitor to Russia. He uses the services of her helpless ex-boyfriend Robert Helpmann. But Helpmann is really a weak reed to lean on. Justice tries alternative ideas, including kidnapping Hepburn when she is with Hope, Gifford, a jealous Madison, a Senator from Alabama (Alexander Gauge), Madison's cousin (Nicholas Phipps), and an air force major (Paul Carpenter). This too fails, despite the large number of agents that Justice brings with him (they include "Carry On" Sid James, Tutte Lemkow (from A SHOT IN THE DARK, THE WRONG ARM OF THE LAW, and THE WRONG BOX), and David Kosloff - Carl in INDISCREET). Also on hand, in one sequence, is Richard Wattis as a woman's clothing store manager.
It just doesn't work. The sequence in the nightclub is the best highlight in the film, due to the accidental failure of each plot that Justice tries to spirit Hepburn away, but it's not one of the great moments of comedy (Madison is the best in the sequence, though Gauge's really dense senator has some fun talking with Nicholas Phipps about why the British drive on the left side of the road).
Really the lack of chemistry between the stars does the film in. ugh Hepburn tries to develop some but Hope can't relate to her. I think it's because she is too cerebral an actress. He was at home with someone like Lamour or Hedy Lamarr or Joan Fontaine, who was regular not sparkling. I don't think he ever realized what a misfire the casting opposite Kate was until it was too late.
The irony is I can't see this story working well with many actors. It has been suggested that Tony Curtis (who did a film at this time, THE PERFECT FURLOUGH, set in Paris - as a military man), and maybe Nathalie Wood might have worked well. But it's hard to say. It does not look well compared with other similar plots. Hepburn's purchase of western feminine dinner clothes reminds one of a similar trick in NINOTCHKA where Garbo bought that symbolic Paris hat. Similarly, Hepburn's attempts to teach Hope how to accept Communism does resemble how Garbo tries to indoctrinate Melvin Douglas. But Douglas actually does show an interest in communist theory (to the fright of his butler). Hope really could not care less (although when he gets drugged he starts mumbling about Bakunin and the "Iron Law of Wages"). The Gable - Hedy Lamarr film COMRADE X also was clever, particularly in the spoof of the Stalin - Trotsky rivalry between Oscar Homolka and Vladimir Sobeloff. Let's face it, those two films were far better than this. SILK STOCKINGS is a musical version of NINOTCHKA, but it's Cole Porter's music, with Astaire and Cyd Charisse's dancing, and there are some good swipes at Hollywood and American's lackadaisical view of other country's cultures. It too is far more worthy of watching than this film.
Now that I have seen it, I will give the film only a "4" for the scene in the nightclub. But please, don't bother with this film if you really like Hope's best work, or like Hepburn's better comic parts as in DESK SET or ADAM'S RIB (with a more chemically correct film partner in both: oh Spencer, where were you?).
Addendum: February 20, 2008 - Finally I see the film.
Some films have to be seen to see why they were never repeated. Bob Hope did enjoy working with certain actresses many times, most notably Dorothy Lamour and Lucille Ball. But he made this one film (in 1956) that was with Kate Hepburn, and it is certainly not the best film either of them ever played in. Both were highly capable performers/stars. Both were good in comedy. But there is no chemistry between them, and they are in roles they don't fit.
Hope is a hotshot heroic U.S. pilot, hoping to marry an English aristocrat (Noelle Madison) for financial reasons. He is pushed into an assignment by his commanding officer (and supposed friend) Alan Gifford to put his romance on hold while romancing Russian pilot - heroine Kate Hepburn. Now Hepburn is not defecting. She took her MIG fighter (this film may be the first that mentioned the term "MIG" for a Russian plane) to England out of anger at being by-passed for a promotion for an inferior rival who is a man. She is not anti-Communist, and Gifford's hopes that Hope will make her into a propaganda victory for the West.
The Russians are led by James Robertson Justice (supposedly the head of a trade commission - it was a running joke that trade commissions on both sides were loaded with KGB and CIA agents). He is determined to bring Hepburn back to face trial as a traitor to Russia. He uses the services of her helpless ex-boyfriend Robert Helpmann. But Helpmann is really a weak reed to lean on. Justice tries alternative ideas, including kidnapping Hepburn when she is with Hope, Gifford, a jealous Madison, a Senator from Alabama (Alexander Gauge), Madison's cousin (Nicholas Phipps), and an air force major (Paul Carpenter). This too fails, despite the large number of agents that Justice brings with him (they include "Carry On" Sid James, Tutte Lemkow (from A SHOT IN THE DARK, THE WRONG ARM OF THE LAW, and THE WRONG BOX), and David Kosloff - Carl in INDISCREET). Also on hand, in one sequence, is Richard Wattis as a woman's clothing store manager.
It just doesn't work. The sequence in the nightclub is the best highlight in the film, due to the accidental failure of each plot that Justice tries to spirit Hepburn away, but it's not one of the great moments of comedy (Madison is the best in the sequence, though Gauge's really dense senator has some fun talking with Nicholas Phipps about why the British drive on the left side of the road).
Really the lack of chemistry between the stars does the film in. ugh Hepburn tries to develop some but Hope can't relate to her. I think it's because she is too cerebral an actress. He was at home with someone like Lamour or Hedy Lamarr or Joan Fontaine, who was regular not sparkling. I don't think he ever realized what a misfire the casting opposite Kate was until it was too late.
The irony is I can't see this story working well with many actors. It has been suggested that Tony Curtis (who did a film at this time, THE PERFECT FURLOUGH, set in Paris - as a military man), and maybe Nathalie Wood might have worked well. But it's hard to say. It does not look well compared with other similar plots. Hepburn's purchase of western feminine dinner clothes reminds one of a similar trick in NINOTCHKA where Garbo bought that symbolic Paris hat. Similarly, Hepburn's attempts to teach Hope how to accept Communism does resemble how Garbo tries to indoctrinate Melvin Douglas. But Douglas actually does show an interest in communist theory (to the fright of his butler). Hope really could not care less (although when he gets drugged he starts mumbling about Bakunin and the "Iron Law of Wages"). The Gable - Hedy Lamarr film COMRADE X also was clever, particularly in the spoof of the Stalin - Trotsky rivalry between Oscar Homolka and Vladimir Sobeloff. Let's face it, those two films were far better than this. SILK STOCKINGS is a musical version of NINOTCHKA, but it's Cole Porter's music, with Astaire and Cyd Charisse's dancing, and there are some good swipes at Hollywood and American's lackadaisical view of other country's cultures. It too is far more worthy of watching than this film.
Now that I have seen it, I will give the film only a "4" for the scene in the nightclub. But please, don't bother with this film if you really like Hope's best work, or like Hepburn's better comic parts as in DESK SET or ADAM'S RIB (with a more chemically correct film partner in both: oh Spencer, where were you?).