Off Limits

1953 "It's Hilarious!"
6.1| 1h29m| NR| en| More Info
Released: 25 March 1953 Released
Producted By: Paramount Pictures
Country: United States of America
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website:
Synopsis

Wally Hogan has things going his way. He is the manager-trainer of Bullet Bradley, a fighter who has just won the lightweight championship. However, life suddenly takes a not-so-happy turn when Bullet gets drafted.

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Reviews

Tetrady not as good as all the hype
Stellead Don't listen to the Hype. It's awful
ChampDavSlim The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.
Brennan Camacho Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.
tavm In this Bob Hope vehicle, he's a fight manager who trains a champ and has all the women he wants and more! Then the champ gets drafted and Hope enlists with him. Well, something else happens but let's skip there and just say that Mickey Rooney and Marilyn Maxwell then get involved with him and lots of funny lines and scenes and a number or two gets performed and there's a chase because of another messy visual comedy scene. Oh, and there's also their military police superior (Eddie Mayehoff) to deal with and the champ's flunkies and...well, just watch the thing if you're so inclined. It's on YouTube right now. It's one of few Hope movies that's not in the public domain that's available there...
MartinHafer Hollywood made quite a few military films starring the most ridiculous actors. In "Great Guns", a 300-400 pound 49 year0old Oliver Hardy joins up. And, in "Buck Privates", a 46 year-old Bud Abbott also joins the army. So, the notion of a 50 year-old Bob Hope in the army is ridiculous but not without some precedent. My advice is to completely block this out of your mind--as a case of temporary amnesia will definitely make this better viewing.Now some might also laugh at the notion of the very diminutive Mickey Rooney serving as well in this film. However, he WAS not too old to serve (33) and he actually did serve with some distinction during WWII.The film begins with Hope playing the role of a manager-trainer for the newest boxing champ. He's on top of the world...until his fighter is drafted. Oddly, he, too, decides to join up so can follow his client--though if they both did serve, the chances of them staying together would have been negligible. However, it appears that the boxer's draft notice was all part of a ruse to get Hope out of the way and break his contract with the champ. When this champ is ruled psychologically unfit for service (he seems to have faked being crazy), Hope is stuck in the army while this promising boxer gets a new manager with more clout. Hope is irritated but there is nothing he can do....or is there? In the service he meets a game guy (Rooney) who also wants to become a boxer. However Rooney's platinum blonde aunt (Marilyn Maxwell) insists that he will NOT become a boxer--she didn't want to see him become a punch-drunk idiot. And, because Hope has become smitten with her, he is inclined to agree.Later, when their commander (Mayehoff) hears that Rooney wants to box, he arranges some fights--and Hope is unable to stop it. However, inexplicably, Maxwell's insistence that Rooney not box suddenly vanished and Rooeny begins working his way through the professional boxing ranks. And, when the 'big match' occurs, thugs are determined to do anything to stop Hope from helping his protégé. Will Rooney manage to become the next champ? And what about Hope? Overall this is a reasonably pleasant film with one serious problem--it is well made but not funny. And, considering it's supposed to be a comedy, that is a BIG problem. It's not a bad film--but I never laughed once. So, provided you don't mind its lack of humor, it's a decent enough film. But funny, it ain't.
bkoganbing Off Limits is a very typical Bob Hope product with Hope playing a character that he's done before, a guy who thinks he's a sharpie, but is really quite the schnook. Hope is a fight manager who finally gets himself a champion in Stanley Clements only to be done out of his end of the champ by partners, Marvin Miller and Richard Weil.It's quite the con they pull, sending a fake draft notice to Clements and then having Hope enlist to protect their investment. Of course Clements gets rejected by the Draft Board, but Hope's in for the duration.While there he buddies up with Mickey Rooney who was also a fighter and thinks he can be lightweight champion himself. Hope kids him along because he's got his mind on Marilyn Maxwell who is Rooney's aunt if you can believe that one. Later on Hope and Rooney get real earnest in their championship quest.All this is done mind you while the two of them become Military Police. That's another thing I found hard to swallow in Off Limits. Still Rooney and Hope work quite well together and I'm surprised they never did another film together. All their shenanigans are watched with a jaundiced eye by the Captain of the MPs Eddie Mayehoff who probably has the best performance in the film.Off Limits was the second of two films Bob Hope did with Marilyn Maxwell the first being the infinitely better The Lemon Drop Kid. The two of them were involved with each other at the time though that would shortly come to an end. There's a little bite in their scenes together as Maxwell was realizing Hope wasn't going to leave Dolores for her. If you look quick you'll see Charles Bronson in a brief appearance as a fighter training in a gym in one scene. Bing Crosby makes his obligatory appearance in Hope film via a clip from Welcome Stranger. As in The Lemon Drop Kid, Jay Livingston and Ray Evans wrote the score though nothing as memorable as Silver Bells came out Off Limits. Still it's a pleasant enough service comedy, though far from Hope's best work.
$conan$ This movie was very funny. Hope plays a Prize fighters manager who gets swindled into the army by his corrupt partners, where he finds another fighter. He trains the kid to beat his ex-fighter and win the belt. While doing this he gets into his usual Bob Hope trouble with the MP and a woman. This is another good move by Bob Hope.