My Favorite Spy (1951)

When a notorious international spy (Bob Hope) is wounded during a gun battle, a third rate vaudeville comic (Bob Hope), who looks like him, is coerced by the U.S. government into impersonating him in order to get some important microfilm. But when the real spy escapes from the hospital, it becomes a race against time to see if his doppelganger can get the microfilm before he arrives. Directed by Norman Z. McLeod (TOPPER), this spy spoof is one of Hope's very weakest comedies. It's all very frantic but to no avail, it's still born and if sensing that it's all going downhill, during a sequence where Hope is under the influence of sodium pentothal ("the truth serum"), he breaks out into a hokey musical number. It doesn't help that Hope's leading lady, Hedy Lamarr, has no comedic timing and she's unable to even play the straight man to Hope's antics. It's fun to see, albeit briefly, Hope play a steely, cold blooded killer when playing the real spy. There's an amusing "in joke" when Hope and Lamarr go to a nightclub, Victor Young's theme from SAMSON AND DELILAH (which starred Lamarr) is played. The large cast includes Francis L. Sullivan, Arnold Moss, John Archer, Angela Clarke, Iris Adrian, Frank Faylen, Marc Lawrence, Mike Mazurki and Kasey Rogers.