Smalltime racetrack hustler, the Lemon Drop Kid (Bob Hope) must raise $10,000 before Christmas to pay back a gangster. He tricks the lesser criminals of New York city into gathering the money for him as street-corner Santas.
If there is a valid complaint against Bob Hope’s comedy shtick, it’s that it is repetitious. He told more-or-less the same jokes as more-or-less the same character for over forty years. A Bob Hope movie is just him doing his routine; plot falls by the wayside. But The Lemon Drop Kid is an exception. It puts Hope into Damon Runyon’s world of good-natured petty thieves and conmen. Sure, Hope is still doing Hope, but this time the rest of the film can stand up to him and even gives him a bit more depth. Sidney Melbourne, aka The Lemon Drop Kid, is an actual character (OK, yes, with lots of Hope’s normal behaviors) that I could care about.
Supplying as much of the humor as Hope is an excellent supporting cast including Lloyd Nolan, Fred Clark, William Frawley (Fred Mertz on I love Lucy), and Tor Johnson (of Plan 9 From Outer Space fame). Making this a Christmas tradition film is Hope and Marilyn Maxwell’s introduction of the now classic Silver Bells. Better still, it is first sung by the gravelly Frawley. Comedy, a little sentiment, a touch of romance, and some Damon Runyon—I wouldn’t let a December pass without The Lemon Drop Kid.