"Off Limits" is one of the many comedies that Bob Hope made during his period of prolific 1940s-50s filmmaking. It's above the average of that batch, with a better and more detailed plot. This is one before Hope begins talking to the camera, and it comes across as more natural. Here, he shares the main lead time with Mickey Rooney and Marilyn Maxwell. And, the film has a handful of good supporting players of Hollywood of the 1940s-50s. Stanley Clements plays Bullets Bradley, Norman Leavitt is Chowhound, and Marvin Miller (of TV's 1955- 60 series, "The Millionaire") is Vic Breck. Eddie Mayehoff made only half a dozen movies in his 25-year career, but his character is easily identified from the many appearances he made in TV series from 1946 to 1970. Mayehoff plays the nemesis of Bob Hope's Wally Hogan, the MP who rises from corporal to sergeant to lieutenant to captain during the movie. Legendary world-heavyweight boxing champ Jack Dempsey has some film time, as himself, refereeing two fights in the film. This film isn't loaded with one-liners as many of Bob Hope's movies are, but it has some funny and very good lines. In place of more dialog, it has some very funny situations. A scene toward the end is hilarious. With few words, Hope smashes, paints, breaks, scratches and otherwise ruins a brand new car that he mistakenly takes for the car of a couple of bad guys. Instead it was a gift to a general from his wife. This is a fun film – a rare one in which Hope serves in the military. For several decades, he was the top performer to entertain American and Allied troops in the Armed Forces around the world. Often times, he put on shows for troops in areas that were close to the front lines or under fire (Korea and Vietnam). He was too young to serve in WW I, and beyond service age for WW II. Here are a couple funny lines from the film. For more humorous dialog, check the Quotes section here on the IMDb Web page for this film. Wally Hogan: A zebra's covered with stripes, but underneath he's still a jackass.Wally Hogan: When I was born, the doctor said, "Boil some hot water," and I've been in it ever since.

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.

Not only do Bob Hope and Mickey Rooney deliver enjoyable performances, there is a great character, "Chow Hound" portrayed by Norman Leavitt. Mr.Leavitt is one of those wonderful character actors whose face you have seen a million times but might not remember his name. After watching "Off Limits", you will never forget him. For years I have enjoyed his performances in many "Andy Griffith" and "I Love Lucy" episodes as well as his performance in the feature "The Blue Gardenia" directed by Fritz Lang. Also, he was in one of my all time favorite films, "Harvey" as one of the cab drivers. The cast of "off Limits" should have gone on to make a sequel, it was like watching a charmed ensemble cast movie.

This is a very good Bob Hope movie. He does a wonderful job of playing a military person that really isn't very military minded. His usual pranks to get out of something he doesn't want to do, doesn't let you down, and I love the way he always gets a jab at his old buddy Bing in his solo movies, and he has a very neat way of doing it in this movie. The only thing I don't understand in the movie is that the champ refers to "women" as buffaloes. Does anyone know where or why that term was used in those days. This is the only movie I've ever heard them refered to as.