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The Lemon Drop Kid
RRP: £12.99
Our Price: £5.97 (subject to change)
Editorial
Amazon.com
Bob Hope plays a small-time con artist with a fondness for lemon candy in this film based on a Damon Runyon story. When the Lemon Drop Kid accidentally cheats gangster Moose Moran (Fred Clark) out of his track winnings, the Kid promises to repay Moose the money by Christmas. Creating a fake charity for "Apple Annie" Nellie Thursday, the Kid tricks his gang into donning Santa suits and "collecting dough for old dolls" like Nellie who have nowhere to live. Radio personality Marilyn Maxwell assists as the Kid's girlfriend, while William Frawley and Jay C. Flippen play the lovable, gruff crooks that fall for the Kid's Santa scam. Hope is great as the fast-talking sharpster, and the comical gangsters are well worth the price of admission. Music by Ray Evans and Jay Livingston (including the classic Christmas song "Silver Bells") makes The Lemon Drop Kid that much sweeter. --Mark Savary
A CLASSIC CHRISTMAS FILM
Review date: 2007-11-18 Rating: 8 out of 10
Ah,they don't make films like this anymore - or, at least, not for grown -ups.Nominally based on a Damon Runyon story, Hope is at his wily,cowardly,best as he tries to repay a mobster money he has lost on a horse.To do this he enlists his friends,shady characters to a man but nevertheless with hearts of gold, to dress up as Santas and collect money for a bogus home for old ladies in the run up to Christmas.The film's packed with great character actors, smart dialogue,lots of laughs,some good songs,including Silver Bells sung by Hope and Marilyn Maxwell,and,of course,everything turns out all right in the end.If only gangsters were really this soft hearted.
Woody Allen may not have learnt all he knows from Bob Hope, but he certainly learnt a lot and this is one of the films that taught him.In fact there's a scene here that's copied almost exactly in Love And Death.
A Bob Hope classic that'll give you a warm feeling for the holiday season.Buy it and be transported back to, what now seem, more innocent times.
I have to add that after watching this again at Christmas I realised that this is not a great print.There are intrusive lines that persist for several minutes and on a couple of occasions the brightness looks as if it has probably been boosted in the transfer from a darker print as it noticably changes in some scenes.This did not detract from our enjoyment of the film,but there may well be better prints available on other dvds.
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Product Details/Specifications
Actor(s):
Bob Hope
Creators:
Bob Hope (Primary Contributor)
Recording label: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
Manufacturer: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
EAN: 5035822760837
Binding: DVD
Number of items: 1
Format: PAL,
Release date: 2006-10-30
Audience rating: Universal, suitable for all
Region code: 2
Running time: 88 minutes
Language: English (Original Language)