recommended

I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

Most of Bob Hope's movies from the 1940s and 1950s are okay to good. The style of humor is dated, especially that with Bing Crosby in the Road shows. Also, Hope's technique of speaking to the camera just didn't carry much comedy. But, "My Favorite Spy" has none of that. It still has some of his corny one-liners, but it also has some very good zingers. The final half hour with some very crazy antics helps raise this film considerably. Hope plays Peanuts White and Eric Augustine – two look- alikes. One's a corny comic and the other is a ruthless international espionage free agent. The place of his frequent female opposite, Dorothy Lamour, is taken in this film by Hedy Lamarr as Lily Dalbray. This is one comedy in which Bob gets the girl. It's nice fun, with lots of action and mayhem. Some of the other cast members who shine are Francis L. Sullivan and Karl Brubaker, Mike Mazurki as Monkara and Marc Lawrence as Ben Ali. Here are some of my favorite lines from the movie. All are by Hope unless otherwise noted. "Remember you guys. Your salaries are paid by the taxpayers, and I may be one someday." "I can just see it now – the unknown civilian.""No, never mind. No memories. Tonight will make memories for tomorrow. Let's hope that tomorrow we can remember them.""I don't remember what I said. But if you liked it, I meant every word of it.""Ach du lieber! Augustine!"Augustine (Hope) is sitting at a table, pulling the petals off a corsage, looking for a message. A woman sitting at his table asks, "What are you doing?" Augustine, "Oh, this? I was just helping the native farmers. I'm looking for Japanese beetles."

I read somewhere here in this forum a readers take on the Bob-Hedy friction. Let me settle this once and for all. Hedy was always Bob favorite...look at some of the old war newsreels with the stars getting involved in the war, in their own way. There's a clip where Bob is surprisingly sharing a bed with his crony, Bing Crosby and in his dreams, he keeps calling out for Hedy. Hedy was an MGM player, so odds were against them making a movie together, each under contract to different studios. It turned out that some of Hedy's best funny scenes were cut, because the studio head at Paramount, didn't want anyone to be more funnier than their bread and butter comedian. She resented it, after all she was in the midst of making a comeback, as they called it in those days, after her terrific success in Samson and Delilah for that same studio a year before. Its odd that in 1951, Bob and Hedy made a comedy radio stint on top of a U.S.Navy flattop, in front of the sailors, in San Diego port. They even made jokes about appearing together in that movie. So, if there was friction, it was short lived. As far as her role, she was suppose to be playing it straight to Bob's antics. To me,the funniest scenes involved Hedy, mainly because I was surprised at how well she did handle comedy. Her hitting Bob like a wildcat, after he 'punched' her. Her double take upon seeing "both" Bob's was priceless...and that ending, with her driving the fire truck.

Haven't movie fans wondered how Bob Hope has managed to have so many glamorous leading ladies fall for the schnooky characters he played in his career? It's a source of amazement and amusement too. But I've always thought that was part of the secret of Hope's appeal, that if he could get the glamor girl, anyone could.They don't get much more glamorous than Hedy Lamarr who was in the midst of a mini-comeback because of Samson and Delilah. Unfortunately the roles she got post DeMille didn't sustain her career.When one works on a Bob Hope film as a leading lady you will definitely be second banana. Hedy Lamarr was not second banana material and that was a source of some friction between her and Hope. But being second banana was something she should have known walking in.In My Favorite Spy, Hope was spoofing all those espionage/adventure films set in various exotic places like Casablanca. He gets to play a dual role here. First as Eric Augustine, Bogart like adventurer, and secondly as Peanuts White burlesque comic who is a dead ringer the U.S. government drafts into getting some secret microfilm before Sidney Greenstreet stand-in Francis L. Sullivan does. Of course Hope has a Peter Lorre type factotum in Arnold Moss.Though uneven in spots, mainly because Hope doesn't have the chemistry between him and Lamarr the way he did with Jane Russell or Madeleine Carroll, or Dorothy Lamour, My Favorite Spy does have some good moments. My favorite moment is when the truth serum is administered to Peanuts White and he starts doing his burlesque shtick for Sullivan.It's not the best of Hope's Paramount films, but it does have some good moments.And besides only Bing Crosby could ever really expect to not be a second banana.

Typical enjoyable Bob Hope movie, enhanced by the lovely shimmering beauty of Hedy Lamarr that makes it all worthwhile. You might notice at the start of the night club scene before Lily (Hedy) sings, they play music from "Samson and Delilah" which had been a big hit for Hedy two years earlier. I agree that at times the plot seems rather thin but if you're a regular fan and hooked on Hope's films you'll like it and not worry about wondering why. Just enjoy!