After Bob Hope made THAT CERTAIN FEELING the general trend of his films as far as being worthy of the talent he had and of the best of his work was gone. In the future would be films like CANCEL MY RESERVATION. There was one more film with Bing and Dorothy Lamour, THE ROAD TO HONG KONG, but even that film was below par for the series (one wonders what the proposed final "Road" film - THE ROAD TO TOMORROW - would have been like). There was, however, this film...again not quite the film with Hope that one expected, but sturdy because of the support he shared with his leading lady, Lucille Ball.
THE FACTS OF LIFE is the story of two people who share a midlife crisis. Hope is married to Ruth Hussey and Ball is married to Don DeFore. Both have children, and both seem reasonably well settled in their marriages (Ball's sole reason for complaining about DeFore is his gambling habits). Both couples are in the upper middle class of 1960 suburban America, belonging to the local country club, and going on shared vacations with their best friends. A trip is planned to Acupulco but Hussey stays home to take care of her ailing son, and DeFore is forced by his boss to take over operations of the San Francisco office after the person there is injured in a car accident. So Hope and Ball travel with Philip Ober and his wife to Mexico. But the latter two get what appears to be Montezuma's Revenge, and Hope and Ball are thrown together to try to salvage the vacation. Although they have occasionally been caustic about each other, they find they really get along quite nicely. In fact, after Ball lands a huge Marlin fish with Hope's assistance, and go touring the town, they find they really like each other. And a small affair begins.
What follows is Hope and Ball trying to keep their raging/aging hormones in check, and yet still occasionally get together. This includes two funny sequences at a drive-in theater, and later Hope desperately trying to remember which roadside motel he left Ball in after a dinner dance. Finally they decide to take advantage of the Christmas holidays to make some plans. Will Ball leave DeFore for Hope, or will they find they can't shake responsibilities that come from being middle aged?
Hope is not totally subdued in this film. At the start he actually is playing a scene in a familiar role: he is the master of ceremonies at a country club dinner. His comments regarding winning sportsman Louis Nye are sharp ones. So are his attempts to speed a cub scout meeting he has to chair (he wants to get together with Ball) but he is forced to listen to one of the scouts read a long, dull report about smoke signals. Ball is also good, particularly towards the end when she starts lecturing Hope about how much better DeFore is as a mechanic. The rest of the cast is good, DeFore dismissing his gambling habit (he plays craps downstairs during the opening awards dinner, and thinks nothing about losing $200.00). Nye is fun as a philandering husband with a trusting, nitwit wife. On the whole the film is quite adult in its point of view, and may be the last really good film that Hope made in his career in movies.
THE FACTS OF LIFE is the story of two people who share a midlife crisis. Hope is married to Ruth Hussey and Ball is married to Don DeFore. Both have children, and both seem reasonably well settled in their marriages (Ball's sole reason for complaining about DeFore is his gambling habits). Both couples are in the upper middle class of 1960 suburban America, belonging to the local country club, and going on shared vacations with their best friends. A trip is planned to Acupulco but Hussey stays home to take care of her ailing son, and DeFore is forced by his boss to take over operations of the San Francisco office after the person there is injured in a car accident. So Hope and Ball travel with Philip Ober and his wife to Mexico. But the latter two get what appears to be Montezuma's Revenge, and Hope and Ball are thrown together to try to salvage the vacation. Although they have occasionally been caustic about each other, they find they really get along quite nicely. In fact, after Ball lands a huge Marlin fish with Hope's assistance, and go touring the town, they find they really like each other. And a small affair begins.
What follows is Hope and Ball trying to keep their raging/aging hormones in check, and yet still occasionally get together. This includes two funny sequences at a drive-in theater, and later Hope desperately trying to remember which roadside motel he left Ball in after a dinner dance. Finally they decide to take advantage of the Christmas holidays to make some plans. Will Ball leave DeFore for Hope, or will they find they can't shake responsibilities that come from being middle aged?
Hope is not totally subdued in this film. At the start he actually is playing a scene in a familiar role: he is the master of ceremonies at a country club dinner. His comments regarding winning sportsman Louis Nye are sharp ones. So are his attempts to speed a cub scout meeting he has to chair (he wants to get together with Ball) but he is forced to listen to one of the scouts read a long, dull report about smoke signals. Ball is also good, particularly towards the end when she starts lecturing Hope about how much better DeFore is as a mechanic. The rest of the cast is good, DeFore dismissing his gambling habit (he plays craps downstairs during the opening awards dinner, and thinks nothing about losing $200.00). Nye is fun as a philandering husband with a trusting, nitwit wife. On the whole the film is quite adult in its point of view, and may be the last really good film that Hope made in his career in movies.