one of my absolute favorites!

Good idea lost in the noise

Just intense enough to provide a much-needed diversion, just lightweight enough to make you forget about it soon after it’s over. It’s not exactly “good,” per se, but it does what it sets out to do in terms of putting us on edge, which makes it … successful?

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

Relative to Bob Hope films, that honor should have gone to I'll Take Sweden, a smarmy non-sex no comedy farce.Not as bad as I remember, funny in places.But I couldn't get past Elke Sommers' and Marjorie Lord's hair. Their whipped frenzy bouffants made Phyllis Diller's egg beater 'do look normal. They literally distracted from the scenes the actresses were in.See Lana Turner's hair hat in Bachelor In Paradise for more of the same.Really dumb. Harmless. And nowhere near a 50 Worst contender.

Earlier in his career, including in the famous "Road" pictures with Bing Crosby, Bob Hope made some pretty funny movies. But as he matured the type of role he took in movies changed. Where he used to play the likable sap who usually didn't get the girl, in later years he seemed to want to be seen as a sex symbol (which wasn't going to happen!), showing up in films with the likes of Elke Sommer (here), Lana Turner, and Anita Eckberg. And, more and more, the dialog he had in movies tended toward a conveyor belt of one liners, delivered as such. This particular film has ended up on some "worst movies ever made" lists. And, while I wouldn't go that far, it's no gem.I guess the thrill is seeing Elke Sommer prance around in soap bubbles. Other than that, the plot is simple -- too simple -- real estate agent (Hope) offers to help sexy starlet (Sommer) get away from it all. He tries to keep it clean (therein the long running slightly off-color gag), but still gets in trouble with his wife (Marjorie Lord) and often egged on by maid (Phyllis Diller).The problem with Hope here is that he puts no more effort into this film than the skits on his television shows...and cinema is supposed to be something more than blackout sketches. I have quite a few of Hope's television specials in this general time frame, and trust me, they were often funnier than this film.Elke Sommer...well, I have no problem with her, but she was never one of the great actresses or comediennes. But, she could be enjoyable in films, but not when the whole purpose of her presence was to just see how beautiful she was (I can get that in Playboy). And here she plays...well...a dumb blonde. Been done so many times.Phyllis Diller was a very funny lady, but more appropriately cast in television. Again, her dialog sounded too much like one-liners.I very much liked Marjorie Lord in Danny Thomas' old television series, but here I couldn't stop staring at her hairdo...it should have been a hair-don't. Very distracting, and a disappointing role for her.A chase scene can be very funny in a film. Can be. Wasn't here. At all.This film is solely for big fans of Hope or Sommer or Diller. I didn't think much of it when I saw it at the theater in 1966 (when I was 17), and I think less of it today. Sorry, Bob, America loves you, and rightfully so, but not for this little fluff.

This is one of Bob Hope's bad 60's comedy efforts. I found it to be nothing more than an over blown average sit-com episode. The first two thirds of the movie is him throwing out one liners at Elke Sommer, making wise cracks and exchanging barbs with Phylis Diller. The last third of the movie is nothing more than silly 60's slapstick and typical car chase fare. To those who found the movie kinky I saw it as no worse than any other bedroom farce for it's time. It's Bob playing the happy married middle class man with a pretty wife and kids getting into an atypical situation with a sexy woman. Now that's original. Now any movie with Elke Sommer can't be all that bad. So I vote 10 stars for her and minus 8 for the movie.

I just watched this film after taping it among several others from TCM's recent Bob Hope movie marathon. I saw it originally in a downtown theater here as a kid with my parents and sisters in the summer of 1966. I didn't see it again until about 20 years later, upon renting a copy of it from a local video store. My viewing of it the other night made it almost another 20 years since I'd last seen it. I'm a huge Bob Hope fan, so in my eyes he can do no wrong. Although it has its critics, one must realize the context of the times in which "Number" was made. Sex farces were all the rage in the 60's, especially smack-dab in the middle of the decade, when this film was released. Bob appeared regularly throughout each TV season on his NBC specials, and they always got huge ratings, especially his annual Christmas shows from Vietnam. The release of a new Bob Hope movie was a cause for celebration, especially in the long, hot summers of those days. Yes, "Number" essentially is an elongated TV sketch, but it presented a mildly risqué plot in which Bob had to deal with a world-famous sex kitten who suddenly disrupts his life as a married-with-2-children, middle-class realtor, who's experiencing a sales slump. He decides to use runaway movie star Didi as a promotional point for selling an undesirable lakefront cabin he can't sell. His plan backfires, though, but not before he fends off each crisis with his usual breezy one-liners and humorous repartee. Bob's character certainly appreciates Didi's seductive charms, but he's not lecherous. Although he has to control himself at times, the male viewer can really sympathize and identify with his plight. Just when we think he's going to give in and become unfaithful to his marriage vows, his comical responses pull him back from the brink, the viewers laughing at his self-imposed reprieves. I think female viewers enjoy watching these kinds of situations, too. In short, I still like the film. Bob had both discovered and made Phyllis Diller's career, frequently having her on his TV specials in those years. To today's audiences, she may be unrecognizable or of no special consequence in this movie, but to audiences of 1966, she was a household name, her pairing with Bob in "Number" being a big draw. I think the movie was meant primarily as a breezy summer sex comedy, not to be taken seriously. Many of the lines are quite funny, although a few are obvious and uninspired. Still, though, it remains amusing throughout, but it's more in the vein of Bob's TV presence--a huge star who just wanted to stay in touch with the modern film audiences of the mid-1960's, and be seen in the type of sex farce that Americans of that generation enjoyed. One must also realize that Bob had been promoting Elke Sommer on his TV specials at this time, too, so this movie had a lot of built-in publicity and interest surrounding it. True, it's a forgettable film, and hardly one of Bob's classics, but it showcases him as a modern suburban husband and father, and a very witty and likable one at that, thus keeping him in step with how most Americans viewed themselves at the time, or would like to. P.S.: One of my favorite lines in the movie comes during the car chase near the end, where Bob's escaping in a police car while being followed by about 4 other police cars. He looks in his rearview mirror and says, "I've got more fuzz on my tail than a French poodle!" Great stuff!