Here Come the Girls (1953) User Reviews

The Hapless Chorus Boy

[bkoganbing · 7/10 · 2 May 2004]

Bob Hope plays the tanglefooted chorus boy who constantly fouls things up for producer Fred Clark and stars Tony Martin and Arlene Dahl in this film set in the gaslight era in New York. Clark, who had the best slow burn in film next to Edgar Kennedy, finally has had enough. He gives Hope the royal boot, but then a big problem happens. Arlene Dahl has attracted the unwanted attentions of a psychopathic killer played by Robert Strauss. He attacks and nearly kills her co-star and boyfriend Tony Martin. What to do? Get some schnook, reasons Clark, to be a new leading man just long enough for Strauss to make his move and cop William Demarest to nab him. I think you figured out the schnook they had in mind.

It's a pretty funny film with Hope getting into one situation after another with his only friend being chorus girl Rosemary Clooney truly on his side. You would think that with a couple of singers like Tony Martin and Rosemary Clooney in the film they would have been given at least one duet. But the Jay Livingston-Ray Evans score is serviceable, nothing more. No hit songs came out of it for anyone.

But its classic Bob Hope and it even has an appearance by a young kid playing Bang Crosby (I kid you not). Good enjoyable fun.

Hope still at the peak of his career before the descent...

[Doylenf · 6/10 · 18 January 2008]

BOB HOPE's screen career was still at the crest of the wave when he did HERE COME THE GIRLS, but was soon to descend with a bunch of largely forgettable films, beginning with CASANOVA'S BIG NIGHT in 1954. From then on, Hope's films were less enjoyable than during his heyday when he hit his stride in '39's CAT AND THE CANARY and had a string of memorable comedy hits.

Hope is improbably cast as a chorus boy with two left feet (he describes himself as "the world's oldest living chorus boy"), and ROSEMARY CLOONEY is the girl who sticks by him when the going gets rough and he loses his job when fired by stage manager, FRED CLARK.

The zany plot has him chosen by the theater manager to be the bait to attract a killer called The Slasher, who is anxious to get revenge on any man close to ARLENE DAHL when leading man TONY MARTIN is unable to go on. The plot depends heavily on this one note gimmick for laughs and it does manage to get them despite the lightweight script.

Clooney and Martin both get a couple of ballads to sing, none of them the least bit memorable, and the lavish musical numbers are staged with some flair. Hope gets the laughs as things go wrong whenever he sets foot on the stage. ROBERT STRAUSS is the killer on the loose and he does a good job of combining villainy with comic skill.

Strictly second-rate stuff, but pleasantly handled by the agreeable cast. Biggest drawback is that Hope is really woefully too old for the role of the chorus boy, constantly being referred to as "the boy" throughout.

Amusing Bob Hope comedy

[calvertfan · 7/10 · 24 February 2002]

A light piece of fluff, but enjoyable fluff! Watch out for the last scene with the great chase - some fantastic and hilarious acrobatics done there. Bob Hope fans, you can't miss this one. Non-fans, give it a go anyway, it's so silly that you'll laugh!

Funny Hope

[blanche-2 · 7/10 · 27 September 2008]

In 1953's "Here Come the Girls," Bob Hope is a pathetic chorus boy in a production around the turn of the century. The leads (Arlene Dahl, Tony Martin) want him out of the show, and his only friend is his girlfriend (Rosemary Clooney). Finally, the producer (Fred Clark) fires him, only to bring him back immediately. A serial killer obsessed with Dahl goes after Martin and injures him badly. So poor Bob is put back in the show - this time as the lead - just until the serial killer (Robert Strauss) can go after him and, as far as everyone is concerned, hopefully kill him. Dahl pretends to be enamored of him, and Hope starts ignoring Clooney.

This is very funny Hope, the energetic, cowardly, naive Hope that everyone loved in the '40s. Unfortunately, although it's a musical, we don't get to hear much from Martin and Clooney, neither of which have a tremendous amount to do. That's a shame.

Hope, of course, couldn't play that youthful character forever; eventually his films became stale with old jokes and a staid, wisecracking Bob. But here he still shines. The beautiful Arlene Dahl is his costar. She doesn't have much to do except look dazzling, never a problem for her.

Look out for the young boy named "Bang Crosby" whom Hope meets along the way. Enjoyable film.

I wish I was a girl so I could fight over me.

[hitchcockthelegend · 7/10 · 1 December 2013]

Here Come the Girls is directed by Claude Binyon and written by Edmund L. Hartmann. It stars Bob Hope, Arlene Dahl, Tony Martin, Rosemary Clooney, Millard Mitchell, William Demarest, Fred Clark and Robert Strauss. Music is by Lyn Murray and cinematography by Lionel Lyndon.

Hope is inept "chorus boy" Stanley Snodgrass, who after getting fired from the revue of Here Comes the Girls, gets a second chance. Unbeknown to him, though, he is being used as bait to lure serial killer Jack the Slasher out into the open.

Hearty and frothy and lush with Technicolor pleasures, Here Come the Girls is everything a committed Bob Hope fan could want. He gets to bound about with his usual energy, sing, crack sharp one-liners and flirt with a sexy woman; or two! The turn of the century setting is most appealing, the costuming equally so, and while the musical numbers are average fare, they serve good framework for Hope's goofery.

How middle class!

Around Hope, though, it's a mixed bag of performances, where it's Clark who shines brightest as the show's grouchy impresario who is literally willing the Slasher (Strauss having a great time of it) to rid him of Snodgrass! Dahl is socko sexy (check out that hour glass figure in an eye scorching purple frock), and Clooney's legs are a sight for sore eyes.

His fling is flang.

Better songs and a better director would have lifted it to greater heights, but Hope on form was usually enough to keep a comedy in credit, which is the case here. With characters called Bang Crosby and Jack the Slasher you know where the picture is at, while we also get the world's scariest clown to keep things on the black comedy simmer. 7/10

No bad, but still a bit of a disappointment....

[planktonrules · 5/10 · 3 March 2011]

Unlike the typical Bob Hope film, "Here Come the Girls" is a musical--with only a bit of comedy here and there. So, for me the film was a bit of a disappointment--mostly because I was expecting laughs, not song and dance numbers.

Hope plays a not particularly talented member of the chorus. His prospects to move beyond that are nil--mostly because he's not all that good. However, when a homicidal maniac begins stalking the lead in the play (Arlene Dahl), the cops and theater owners get the bright idea of putting Hope in the lead--that way, if Hope is killed due to the psycho's jealousy, at least he's easy to replace! While a normal guy would soon suspect something, Hope's character is his typical fat-headed guy who soon begins believing it when everyone begins trying to convince him he's brilliant in the part--and he is truly terrible. Rosemary Clooney's character cares about Hope and tries her best to convince him of the truth--but he's just too self-absorbed to believe her.

Throughout this clever idea for a plot, there are LOTS of musical numbers--LOTS! None of the music is particularly memorable and I felt it all bogged down the film--making the comedy come to a grinding halt again and again. Not a terrible film...just not a particularly enjoyable one.

Lots of talent in this Bob Hope fare

[SimonJack · 6/10 · 14 July 2017]

"Here Come the Girls" is one of a few dozen comedies and light musicals Bob Hope cranked out right and left from the early 1940s to the mid-l960s. With a few exceptions, most were mediocre comedies that fared well at the box office for their light entertainment. Most of his better comedies were in the 1940s. Once Hope began his technique of talking to the camera, his comedies seemed less humorous and entertaining.

This is one of his mediocre films that stands out because of the large cast of well-known actors of the day. Look at the list of top Hollywood supporting players of the day – William Demarest, Fred Clark, Robert Strauss, and Millard Mitchell. And, this film has a couple of lavish stage scenes with costumes and numbers. Hope himself does a couple of good lite dance numbers, and Rosemary Clooney and Tony Martin have some good songs.

Some of the one-liners are of the variety that begin to wear thin after just a few. That was a fault of the latter films of Hopes career. Some types of zingers work well on stage with live audiences, but don't go over as well on celluloid. Still, some of the comedy is quite good – in lines and situations. Here are a couple lines I enjoyed. For more of the comedy dialog see the Quotes section under this IMDb Web page of the movie.

Stanley (Bob Hope), "Failing is the only thing I've ever been a success at."

Daisy (Rosemary Clooney), "Will I see you tomorrow, Stanley?" Stanley, "Oh, don't come to the bottom of the river just for that."

Stanley, "And what happened to my blindfolded violinist?" Harry (Fred Clark), "Uh, they're leading him upstairs now."

Logan (William Demarest), "You can't trap the rat if you remove the cheese. Get Snodgrass back on that stage, and hurry up."

Here Come the Girls **1/2-Thank Heaven for Them

[edwagreen · 4/10 · 28 April 2008]

Inane Bob Hope farce where the Great Bob portrays Snodgrass, a jerk who has only succeeded at failure in his life.

He gets the show business bug and of course he is completely inept. He is about to get the heave ho in 1900 New York, until a serial N.Y. killer is bitterly jealous of co-star Arlene Dahl and her lover Tony Martin. Unknowingly, Hope is put in as a decoy for Martin and there are some hilarious moments.

Rosemary Clooney is the girl who really loves him. Unfortunately, both Clooney and Martin have little to do here except sing some ditties, none of which ever became memorable.

decent Hope comedy

[cherold · 7/10 · 8 March 2011]

While this isn't the best of Bob Hope's movie, to a great degree because the forgettable songs just take time away from the laughs, it's still generally fun. Hope plays his basic idiot character, in this case a talentless chorus boy who, in what has to be one of the most ludicrous plot devices of the year, is cast as the lead in a musical to protect the true star from a killer. Hope is blissfully unaware of the reason is a sudden star.

Hope is often a bit of a jerk in his films, but he's a bit more of a jerk in this one, especially to the girl who inexplicably loves him. That bothered me more than the absurdity of the plot; how could any girl keep affection for someone who treated her so badly and really had pretty much no redeeming qualities. But then, it's a Bob Hope movie.

The obnoxiousness is starting to catch up, leaving little Hope.

[mark.waltz · 4/10 · 13 May 2014]

As the most untalented chorus boy (and obviously one of the oldest) on Broadway, Bob Hope is still filled with ego and the delusion that one day he will be a leading man in a big musical comedy. Well, that dream is about to come true, but that is because he is chosen to go on for injured leading man Tony Martin, stabbed by the psychotic stalker of the leading lady. To bring the killer out into the open, producer Fred Clark reluctantly puts Hope into the lead for the pre-Broadway try-out, and this leads him into going on opening night not knowing that the killer is still out on the loose.

While there are some funny moments in this colorful musical, the plot line travels way beyond the path of ridiculousness into pure absurdity. Of course, there's a Bing Crosby reference (he meets a delivery boy whose name happens to be Bang Crosby) and one of several gags of Bob reacting to alcohol too strong for his stomach, but the highlight is the chase sequence on stage and in the audience between Bob and the killer.

Arlene Dahl and Rosemary Clooney offer colorful feminine beauty, and each of them gets a few good musical numbers, but Hope's hamming threatens to overshadow them. Of course, the show within the movie doesn't represent any realistic Broadway musical, probably giving the Gay White Way a big laugh at how Hollywood tried but failed quite a bit in presenting a realistic view of what goes on behind the scenes. A few good supporting performances (particularly Clark and William Demarest) round out the cast with Robert Strauss a convincingly scary villain.

The World's Oldest Chorus Boy

[theowinthrop · 10/10 · 10 December 2005]

Frequently in Bob Hope films he portrays inept stage artists. In MY FAVORITE SPY he's a third rate burlesque comic, Peanuts White. In FANCY PANTS he is Arthur Tyler, who has learned too much about cue lines in plays (he keeps jumping slightly ahead of them - which is pretty bad usually, but worse in a stage melodrama like the play we see him in). He does play the great vaudevillian Eddie Foy Sr. in THE SEVEN LITTLE FOYS, but to keep his kids near him all the time Eddie has to incorporate them into an act that is so bad it is entertaining in an unintentional way.

In HERE COME THE GIRLS he remains his normal inept self. He is Stanley Snodgrass, a woefully bad chorus boy who has been working in a small New York theater for years, much to the annoyance of the theater owner-producer Harry Fraser (Fred Clark). Not only is Stanley a bad dancer (lousing up the choreography) but he is annoying the leading lady Irene Bailey (Arlene Dahl) with his attentions. This is also annoying to her boyfriend and co-star Allen Trent (Tony Martin), and also unsettling to the one person in the cast who likes Stanley, chorus girl Daisy Crockett (Rosemary Clooney). Daisy (level headed girl that she appears) actually loves Stanley. Although he appreciates her interest he's too tied up throwing himself (sometimes literally) before the fed up Irene to really consider it. I may add that while Stanley's mother is all for Stanley's artistic efforts, his father Albert (Millard Mitchell) wants Stanley to settle down and take over his coal transporting business (the film is set in 1900 - coal is used for heating homes and buildings). Stanley will have none of it.

One day Stanley louses up so badly that a happy Fraser fires him. Except for Clooney the cast and company are quite happy at this decision. Unfortunately for Fraser's peace of mind Irene has won a second unwanted conquest - a local psychopathic type known as "Jack the Slasher" (Robert Strauss). He has killed several men and women for various reasons, and he now sends a message that he will kill his rival for Irene. This is a threat directed at Trent, so Fraser is beside himself: not only is the performer's life in danger, but he may lose a good leading man (Clark's characters are always "quite sentimental"). The New York Detective on the case, Dennis Logan (William Demerest) suggests that they set a trap using another patsy for the bait. Biting back his bile, Fraser rehires Stanley, and promotes him to the lead (with Trent as his understudy).

The results are quite funny, with the still inept Stanley holding center stage now of what is supposed to be a hit musical comedy. But why are so many odd things happening to him - close calls and near calamities. Daisy is concerned about this, and tries to inquire, only to be put off by Fraser and Logan. As for Stanley, he is more concerned about following through with his approach to Irene, who is sick of fighting him off (at one point she manages to knock him out). Allen, of course is not thrilled about that, nor of getting lectured about acting and singing from the new lead.

There are some great moments in the film, including a brief telephone sequence where a hopeful Fred Clark asks if Strauss has killed Hope, only to learn no such luck. A disaster with a Chinese-owned business shows Mitchell the wisdom of his son being involved in the family business. The conclusion, with Hope running amok on stage to avoid an infuriated Strauss is one of the best conclusions in Hope's films, as is the epilogue pay-off that Clooney manages to set up for Hope's benefit. Definitely one of the best of Hope's films

So-so comedy-musical-thriller

[gridoon2024 · 5/10 · 27 April 2022]

"Here Come The Girls" has a couple of splashy musical production numbers, including some impressive dancing, particularly from the female flamenco artist and the Four Step Brothers. But Bob Hope's character is atypically obnoxious in this one: he loses our sympathies when he practically sexually harasses Arlene Dahl despite that fact that he is supposed to have a sweetheart (Rosemary Clooney) back "home". This scenario only works when Dahl is trying to seduce him, not the other way around. There are still a few funny bits (the cue cards are my favorite), but on the whole "Here Come The Girls" delivers more as a musical than as a comedy. ** out of 4.

slow Bob Hope comedy/thriller

[ksf-2 · 4/10 · 28 April 2008]

It looks like this was the last film that Claude Binyon directed, although he did WRITE for TV and movies for another ten years after this. Both he and Hope were already about 50, so they were getting on up there. At one point, Hope even says "Look at me - the world's oldest chorus boy!" But with that supporting cast (Fred Clark and William Demarest, Rosemary Clooney, Arlene Dahl, even Nancy Kulp in a nonspeaking role -- all big names now) the show must go on.... but it just wasn't the same without BING......in this one, there's a killer on the loose, and they need Stanley Snodgrass' help to catch the killer. Fred Clark plays the same stuffy, bellowing character he played in How to Marry a Millionaire and Burns & Allen Show; here he's the show director Harry Fraser, that needs Stanley's "help". Things move a little slow without Crosby, and also the fact that its in color didn't help; might have worked better if it were done in black & white...?

a contrarian's view...

[jaydeetee-19255 · 8/10 · 8 August 2016]

To those reviewers who said that this is a lesser Hope entry (one saying that it was the start of his decline) I say, nay...Hope put enough into the likable egotistical fool Snodgrass to carry it off just fine. And plenty of 'ham' in his Stanley character, enough to supply all the fixings (with plenty of left-overs) for the Attila the Hun and his Horde's annual May Day, or should I say Mayhem, picnic.

And to those who said that there were to many forgettable songs, I say...too many sure, but I'm glad that they were 'new' and not the same-o same-o...new is good sometimes.

And since I'm being so contrary, I'll apply a little of that to myself...after decades of watching Hope (too many decades my tired, old body cries), I was sure I had seen all of his films. Wrong! This was my first viewing, and I was thankful that I finally stumbled upon it. Enough smiles, enough laughs and enough of my contrarian views...'hey Attila baby, pass the ham'...

Excellent Hope-starring vaudevillian show.

[weezeralfalfa · 9/10 · 29 April 2017]

This film incorporates the 3 classic elements of a vaudevillian show: music: both vocal and dancing, comedy: both verbal and physical, and drama, including romance and antagonistic elements. These should be in approximate balance, sometimes with comedy and drama mixed in with the music, as in this film.

There are 8 musical numbers, most incorporated into the musical productions. We have 4 featured singers,2 of each sex, in Bob Hope, Tony Martin, Arlene Dahl, and Rosemary Clooney. Hope and Martin are very different styled singers, with Martin a classic-trained singer and Hope with his vaudeville style. Dahl is cast as the grand dame, in very elegant wardrobes. Rosemary, cast as a chorus girl, seems more like the girl next door, and has a real crush on Hope's character(Snodgrass), instead of the phony interest of Arlene. Rosemary gets the most songs, one a duet with Hope, and one outside a production. I thought most of the songs were good, if not terribly memorable. The soft shoe "Ya Got Class", with Hope and Rosemary is probably my favorite. In addition, the African American Four Step Brothers gymnastic dance team participated in the "Ali Baba, Be My Baby" song and dance fest.

The 4 musical productions feature a variety of themes. The first theme is high fashion NYC at the turn of the century. Latino-style dancing is the theme of the second production. The third production features costumes relating to the Arab world. The last production has the circus as it's theme...Some reviewers wanted more comedy and less music. To me, they were in perfect balance, especially considering that much of the comedy was incorporated into the musical productions.

Fred Clark excels as the poor producer who has to keep deciding whether Hope stays or is released, not one time, but several....Robert Strauss plays Jack the Slasher(impersonator of Jack the Ripper?), who wants to kill, or at least injure, anyone who he thinks is romancing Arlene(namely, Hope and Martin),and keeps popping up until near the end. William Demarest is a detective on the lookout for The Slasher, who has escaped from custody. He devises various plans to entrap him, mostly involving the musical productions... Millard Mitchell plays Hope's step-father, who runs a coal-delivering company.. He pesters Hope to give up his dismal acting career, and join his coal company. After Hope is fired from the acting company, he tries out delivering coal. The first day, he mistakes a sidewalk laundry hatch for a coal shute, and creates a horrible mess, being forced to join the laundresses to make up for his mistake. Papa Snodgrass emphasizes that he isn't Hope's father. He's just his mother's husband. Zamah Cunningham plays Hope's mother, who has been providing his room and board for 20 years, since he began his theatrical career.

As expected, Hope is a clumsy oaf in the musical productions, substituting for the injured Martin. He can't remember his lines, so they are written on various props the other actors have, often vary obvious to the audience. The climax occurs when The Slasher, dressed as one of the clowns he knocked out, chases Hope around the circus with a knife(he thinks).

Of course, there has to be some reference to Bing Crosby. It comes in the form of a boy, whose name is Bang Crosby.

In summary, as entertaining as any Hope or Hope & Crosby film I've seen, with a better balance of vaudevillian components than most. See it now on You Tube.