Product: Great Lover [VHS] (1949)
Rating: 4.0
Plenty of Hope chuckles; visually disappointing
"The Great Lover" has Bob Hope back in top form, tossing out funny one-liners against a backdrop of menace, a premise which worked well for his vein & cowardly comic character. As a scout master getting involved with the lovely Rhonda Fleming--and murder--Hope gets hilariously in way over his head on board a ship sailing across Europe. Most of the fun is watching Hope trying to match wits with his troup of pint-sized scouts (guess who's smarter?), struggling to stay one step ahead of them while romancing Fleming & evading authorities when he is framed for murder.While TGL is a fun & entertaining Hope romp, I'm disappointed that the distributors didn't take the time to remaster the film for DVD; quite often, it looks scratched up & dark.