ON FILM, HOPE KEPT QUIPS COMING.

Byline: Evan Henerson Staff Writer

He sang and danced, often not as skillfully as an on-screen partner. He was a boastful coward who was charismatic enough to get the girl from time to time. Or if not the leading lady, her comely servant. He schemed, bumbled and sandbagged, never admitting defeat.

His characters sported names like Turkey, Painless, Fearless, Sorrowful, Junior and Hot Lips. His romantic partners included Jane Russell, Eva Marie Saint, Joan Fontaine, Rhonda Fleming and Madeleine Carroll. He earned five Oscars, none for acting. Bob Hope made more than 50 movies between 1938's ``The Big Broadcast of 1938'' (which co-starred Hope with W.C. Fields) and his last starring vehicle, 1972's ``Cancel My Reservation.'' Whatever the situation or the locale, you could always count on Hope - no matter how fearless, painless or dauntless his character happened to be - to get himself into, out of, and back into a scrape.

``He was always such an adorable, sweet guy,'' said Saint, who starred opposite Hope in two films. ``I see those clips now, and I get a little choked up.''

Some 17 of his films, including four of his famed ``Road'' pictures, were released on DVD earlier this year in ``Bob Hope: The Tribute Collection.''

``The golden age of Bob Hope's movies was the mid-1940s to the mid-1950s, and they all had that wonderful reluctant coward,'' says William Robert Faith, Hope's public relations representative for 14 years and the author of ``Bob Hope: A Life in Comedy.'' ``You'll hear Woody Allen say that was the character that inspired him the most. This was the era and age of the traveling salesman, the guy who'd be bragging at a convention about what a great womanizer he was.''

Linda Hope, the comedian's daughter, described his on-screen persona as ``the little guy who rose to the occasion and seemed to be more than he usually was, and he'd usually get his comeuppance at some moment in time.''

``One of my favorites is 'Sorrowful Jones,' '' said Linda Hope, referring to the 1949 remake of Shirley Temple's ``Little Miss Marker.'' ``It's still that kind of cocky figure he played, and yet it showed a little bit more vulnerability. The scenes with the little girl (Mary Jane Saunders) were very touching.''

It was a persona that fit the fast-talking, ad-libbing Hope well, and he seldom had reason to deviate from it. The ``stretch'' roles, such as the family man vaudevillian in ``The Seven Little Foys'' (1955) and flamboyant New York Mayor Jimmy Walker in ``Beau James'' (1957) earned buzz of possible Oscar nominations, but it didn't happen. The comic frequently yukked that Oscar season was known as ``Passover'' in the Hope household.

Not that the films were entirely overlooked during award season. ``Road to Morocco,'' the third in the series, earned the writing team of Frank Butler and Don Hartman a best-screenplay Oscar nomination. In 1948's ``The Paleface,'' Hope sang the smash Oscar-winning song ``Buttons and Bows.''

Of his own movies, Hope particularly liked ``Monsieur Beaucaire,'' which saw him as a French barber who must impersonate a nobleman in the Spanish court. He also especially enjoyed ``The Facts of Life'' and ``Fancy Pants,'' two of the films he made with Lucille Ball, says Linda Hope.

The seven ``Road'' pictures, which teamed Hope with Bing Crosby and Dorothy Lamour, were, in Hope's words, like ``stealing money from Paramount.'' The two performers used writers from their respective radio programs to punch up the dialogue and frequently threw in inside jokes and Hollywood references. They bantered, bickered, schemed and harmonized with an ease that no subsequent film partnerships could duplicate.

When Crosby sold Hope into slavery in ``Road to Morocco,'' there was the ghost of Hope's Aunt Lucy (played by Hope in drag) to offer a spirited rebuke. In ``Road to Utopia,'' the one time Hope's character got the girl, the baby ended up looking like, uh huh, Crosby.

The series began with ``Road to Singapore'' (1940) and concluded with ``Road to Hong Kong'' (1962). All but ``Hong Kong'' were decent moneymakers. There was even talk of an eighth ``Road'' picture prior to Crosby's death in 1977.

Hope and Crosby may not have invented the buddy adventure comedy, but the duo's banter - kind of an extension of vaudevillian shtick - proved that the formula, combined with better-than-average star chemistry, could sell tickets.

``They've held up because it's like classic comedy,'' said Randall G. Mielke, author of ``Road to the Box Office.'' ``You know the lines, you see them coming - and they're still funny. And Bob Hope was the glue that held it together.''

The Hope filmography 

Here's a list of Bob Hope's films, along with the names of his co-stars.

``The Big Broadcast of 1938'' (1938) - W.C. Fields, Martha Raye, Dorothy Lamour.

``College Swing'' (1938) - Gracie Allen, George Burns, Martha Raye.

``Give Me a Sailor'' (1938) - Martha Raye, Betty Grable.

``Thanks for the Memory'' (1938) - Shirley Ross, Charles Butterworth.

``Never Say Die'' (1939) - Martha Raye, Ernest Cossart, Paul Harvey.

``Some Like It Hot'' (1939) - Shirley Ross, Gene Krupa and Orchestra.

``The Cat and the Canary'' (1939) - Paulette Goddard, John Beal.

``Road to Singapore'' (1940) - Bing Crosby, Dorothy Lamour, Anthony Quinn.

``The Ghostbreakers'' (1940) - Paulette Goddard, Anthony Quinn.

``Road to Zanzibar'' (1941) - Bing Crosby, Dorothy Lamour.

``Caught in the Draft'' (1941) - Dorothy Lamour, Lynne Overman.

``Nothing but the Truth'' (1941) - Paulette Goddard, Edward Arnold, Leif Erikson.

``Louisiana Purchase'' (1941) - Victor Moore, Vera Zorina.

``My Favorite Blonde'' (1942) - Madeleine Carroll, Gale Sondergaard.

``Road to Morocco'' (1942) - Bing Crosby, Dorothy Lamour, Anthony Quinn.

``They Got Me Covered'' (1943) - Dorothy Lamour, Lenore Aubert.

``Let's Face It'' (1943) - Betty Hutton, Zasu Pitts.

``The Princess and the Pirate'' (1944) - Virginia Mayo, Walter Brennan, Walter Slezak.

``Road to Utopia'' (1944) - Bing Crosby, Dorothy Lamour.

``Monsieur Beaucaire'' (1946) - Joan Caulfield, Patric Knowles, Marjorie Reynolds.

``My Favorite Brunette'' (1947) - Dorothy Lamour, Peter Lorre.

``Where There's Life'' (1947) - Signe Hasso, William Bendix.

``Road to Rio'' (1948) - Bing Crosby, Dorothy Lamour.

``The Paleface'' (1948) - Jane Russell, Robert Armstrong.

``Sorrowful Jones'' (1949) - Lucille Ball.

``The Great Lover'' (1949) - Rhonda Fleming.

``Fancy Pants'' (1950) - Lucille Ball, Bruce Cabot.

``The Lemon Drop Kid'' (1951) - Marilyn Maxwell, Lloyd Nolan.

``My Favorite Spy'' (1951) - Hedy Lamar, Francis L. Sullivan.

``Son of Paleface'' (1952) - Jane Russell, Roy Rogers.

``Road to Bali'' (1952) - Bing Crosby, Dorothy Lamour.

``Off Limits'' (1953) - Mickey Rooney, Marilyn Maxwell.

``Home Come the Girls'' (1953) - Tony Martin, Arlene Dahl, Rosemary Clooney.

``Casanova's Big Night'' (1954) - Joan Fontaine, Audrey Dalton, Basil Rathbone.

``The Seven Little Foys'' (1955) - Milly Vitall, George Tobias, Angela Clarke.

``That Certain Feeling'' (1956) - Eva Marie Saint, George Sanders, Pearl Bailey.

``The Iron Petticoat'' (1956) - Katharine Hepburn.

``Beau James'' (1957) - Vera Miles, Alexis Smith, Paul Douglas.

``Paris Holiday'' (1958) - Fernandel, Anita Ekberg, Martha Hyer, Preston Sturges.

``Alias Jesse James'' (1959) - Rhonda Fleming, Wendell Corey.

``The Facts of Life'' (1960) - Lucille Ball, Ruth Hussey, Don Defore.

``Bachelor in Paradise'' (1961) - Lana Turner, Janis Paige, Jim Hutton.

``Road to Hong Kong'' (1962) - Bing Crosby, Dorothy Lamour, Joan Collins.

``Critic's Choice'' (1963) - Lucille Ball, Marilyn Maxwell, Rip Torn.

``Call Me Bwana'' (1963) - Anita Ekberg, Edie Adams, Lionel Jeffries.

``A Global Affair'' (1964) - Lilo Pulver, Michele Mercier.

``I'll Take Sweden'' (1965) - Tuesday Weld, Dina Merrill, Frankie Avalon.

``Boy, Did I Get a Wrong Number'' (1966) - Elke Sommer, Phyllis Diller.

``Eight on the Lam'' (1967) - Phyllis Diller, Jonathan Winters, Jill St. John.

``The Private Navy of Sgt. O'Farrell'' (1968) - Phyllis Diller, Jeffrey Hunter.

``How to Commit Marriage'' (1969) - Jane Wyman, Jackie Gleason.

``Cancel My Reservation'' (1972) - Eva Marie Saint, Ralph Bellamy, Forrest Tucker.

CAPTION(S):

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Photo:

Dorothy Lamour and Bob Hope share a scene in ``Road to Utopia,'' one of seven films in the series Hope described as ``stealing money from Paramount.''

Box:

The Hope filmography (see text)