Eight on the Lam

This is a rather silly comedy about Bob Hope, Phyllis Diller and Jonathan Winters on the run from the law. While there are occasional funny moments, the movie is an overall waste of these people's talents. It definitely could've been funnier.

As with most of the movies he made in the 1960s, this is a strong contender for the worst movie Bob Hope ever made. A lame-brained, poorly assembled extended sitcom with Hope as a bank teller accused of embezzlement. He hits the road with his seven(!) children in tow. They're pursued by nincompoop cop Jonathan Winters. Any promise of comic sparks between Hope & Winters are quickly doused by a barrage of unfunny one-liners (the script had FOUR writers!?!). Most of the jokes have Hope insulting everyone from the seven kids to Phyllis Diller, who plays a wild-haired harridan babysitter. Shirley Eaton plays Hope's love interest and Jill St. John is in it too as a gold digging party girl. The direction, by the once great George Marshall, is inert to say the least. The only stylish touches being the frequent screen swipes and flips. A sloppy mess.

What do you get if you have Bob Hope, Phyllis Diller and. Jonathan Winters all together - you have a very funny movie. The movie is about a widower - Bob Hope, who has seven children and a dog; who works as an accountant at a local bank. One day he finds a lot of money. By coincidence, it is discovered that $50,000 has been.embezzled at the same bank that Hope works at. You guessed it, the bank believes that Hope has stolen the money. Fearing that he will be arrested, he gathers up his seven children and the dog; and hits the road. The movie is full of skits and site gags; featuring the very talented comedians of Hope, Diller and Winters. It reminded me of a Jerry Lewis movie. Well worth watching.

"Eight on the Lam" was clearly filmed some time in 1966 and released the following year. It tends to plod along, but it has its share of fun stuff. I could see connections to 007 (Shirley Eaton and Jill St. John), as well as connections to "The Fugitive," which would end its run four months later. I am sure both Shirley and Jill provided plenty of eye candy, but it really is both Phyllis Diller and Jonathan Winters who really carry this film through. And yeah, I get the Ajax cleaner bit! I was a child when that ad aired in the Sixties. Overall, not a bad film.

This is a classic -- if predictable -- 60s comedy, complete with smart-aleck kids and Bob Hope's one-liners delivered in his deadpan style. Like the big family in "Yours, Mine and Ours" some of the kids just stand around and we're to blithely accept the fact that middle-class families reproduce like rabbits, but those of us with *only* three or four kids can still identify. Unlike the Disney movies of the same era, or the Hepburn-Tracy movies of a few years prior, the situations, clothes, and other styles truly reflect middle-class America. Oh, and it's actually funny!