Bob Hope & Shirley Ross in "Thanks for the Memory" (1938)

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New York City electrical appliance salesman Steve Merrick (Bob Hope) has acquired quite a collection of eccentric, well-to-do friends, with help from his charming newlywed wife, Anne (Shirley Ross), a former top fashion model. They make a great Depression-era couple who prize drinking and smart rejoinders over responsibility.
The witty, sophisticated couple may be perennially short of dough for such things as the rent for landlord Mr. Flanahan (Edward Gargan) or for their laundry, washed by the building's janitor (Eddie "Rochester" Anderson), but they always manage to have enough money for liquor in the house, and that keeps their quirky, fun-loving, bibulous friends coming back for more, barging in at all hours, eating their food, drinking their liquor and, even worse, keeping Steve from his literary labors.
In his spare time, budding author Steve works on his first novel, but it's Anne's efforts--on the sly--that get Steve's first ten chapters into the hands of successful publisher Gil Morrell (Otto Kruger), who pronounces the chapters promising with considerable merit. This rankles Steve, because Morrell also happens to be a former flame of Anne's, and he's never made a secret of still desiring her.
Finally, Anne induces Steve to take Gil's advice and quit his job, stay home to write full-time, and do the housework, while she goes back to work in her former position as a fashion model to support Steve. So he can write his Great American Novel.
It doesn't work, and leads to adverse circumstances beset by woes and domestic discords, and has disastrous consequences for the couple. Steve can't cook, and he loses his "sense of importance" and his inspiration mires down. Steve struggles being at home and having Anne support him, and he also worries that Anne's ex-boyfriend Gil is still pursuing her. Anne is loyal to Steve, only to then suspect Steve has been carrying on with their very Southern neighbor Luella Mae (Patricia Wilder). A fine mess.
A 1938 American black & whits musical romance comedy film directed by George Archainbaud, produced by Mel Shauer, screenplay by Lynn Starling, adapted from 1930 stage play, "Up Pops the Devil" by Albert Hackett and Frances Goodrich, cinematography by Karl Struss, starring Bob Hope, Shirley Ross, Charles Butterworth, Otto Kruger, Hedda Hopper, Roscoe Karns, and Eddie 'Rochester' Anderson. Final movie of actresses June Brewster and Patricia Wilder.
A remake of "Up Pops the Devil" (1931) starring Carole Lombard and Norman Foster.
When Bob Hope answers the phone using a funny accent, he quotes lyrics from the song "Flat Foot Floogie."
Bob Hope, one of Broadway's better gifts to Hollywood, made his feature film debut in "The Big Broadcast of 1938", a commercial hit that introduced his signature song, the Oscar-winning “Thanks for the Memory.” This film was Paramount Pictures' attempt to quickly capitalize on the overwhelmingly success of the Oscar winning song, as performed by the duet of Bob Hope and Shirley Ross in "The Big Broadcast of 1938", released by the studio nine months earlier the same year. The film plot, based on the stage play, "Up Pops the Devil" (1930), previously filmed by Paramount in 1931, starring Norman Foster and Carole Lombard. Another hit song came from this film, "Two Sleepy People", which is again performed by the duet of Bob Hope and Shirley Ross and is often regarded as the companion to its predecessor, "Thanks for the Memory," the titular song of this film, which remained Bob Hope's theme song for the rest of his unprecedentedly long and successful career.
Ross comes through as if her performance was delivered yesterday, not early last century. There's an indescribable "moderness" to her laid-back, easy performance that seems out-of-time with what we think the typical Hollywood performance was like back in the 1930s. Physically quite sexy (there's a marvelous shot of her at the film's beginning, all dewy and moist, as she steam-irons her husband's shirt), Ross' knowing banter plays perfectly in-synch with Hope's (no small feat), creating that devastating combo in a woman of sexy and smart. And of course, she's quite dishy singing her "Two Sleepy People" duet with Hope out on their fun NYC apartment balcony, the most memorable scene from this film. Ross' film career never reached the front ranks, but she has a Carole Lombard quality here that's very attractive in this stilted comedy.
This breezy, slight but charming, lightweight yet satisfying confection, somehow plays better than it should, considering it doesn't have much of a plot as it agreeably floats along from one loose set-up to the next with plenty of time set aside for low-key banter and jokes, before it meanders to its predictable conclusion. But the very carefreeness of its structure, combined with the shimmering gloss of Paramount's house style, a stellar supporting cast, and a couple great tunes creates an amiable contradiction that's soufflé-light and just as tasty.