This is a terrific Christmas movie for adults, since it revolves around money and debt. Bob Hope is a racetrack tout who, for too many reasons worth going into here, winds up owing a gangster ten large during the Yuletide season, and comes up with an ingenious way to raise the cash. Hope fits in reasonably well with the general scheme (so to speak) of this Damon Runyon story, and Marilyn Maxwell is gorgeous. In able support are William Frawley, Sid Melton, Ben Welden and a gaggle of other big city types without whom this kind of movie can't work. Thanks in large part to them, it does. Only Lloyd Nolan, as Oxford Charlie, seems wrong for this one. His movie persona was too inflexible for Runyon antics. Maybe Brod Crawford wasn't available. But this is a minor quibble. The movie is a delight.
Review of The Lemon Drop Kid
