This is one of Bob Hope's bad 60's comedy efforts. I found it to be nothing more than an over blown average sit-com episode. The first two thirds of the movie is him throwing out one liners at Elke Sommer, making wise cracks and exchanging barbs with Phylis Diller. The last third of the movie is nothing more than silly 60's slapstick and typical car chase fare. To those who found the movie kinky I saw it as no worse than any other bedroom farce for it's time. It's Bob playing the happy married middle class man with a pretty wife and kids getting into an atypical situation with a sexy woman. Now that's original. Now any movie with Elke Sommer can't be all that bad. So I vote 10 stars for her and minus 8 for the movie.

I just watched this film after taping it among several others from TCM's recent Bob Hope movie marathon. I saw it originally in a downtown theater here as a kid with my parents and sisters in the summer of 1966. I didn't see it again until about 20 years later, upon renting a copy of it from a local video store. My viewing of it the other night made it almost another 20 years since I'd last seen it. I'm a huge Bob Hope fan, so in my eyes he can do no wrong. Although it has its critics, one must realize the context of the times in which "Number" was made. Sex farces were all the rage in the 60's, especially smack-dab in the middle of the decade, when this film was released. Bob appeared regularly throughout each TV season on his NBC specials, and they always got huge ratings, especially his annual Christmas shows from Vietnam. The release of a new Bob Hope movie was a cause for celebration, especially in the long, hot summers of those days. Yes, "Number" essentially is an elongated TV sketch, but it presented a mildly risqué plot in which Bob had to deal with a world-famous sex kitten who suddenly disrupts his life as a married-with-2-children, middle-class realtor, who's experiencing a sales slump. He decides to use runaway movie star Didi as a promotional point for selling an undesirable lakefront cabin he can't sell. His plan backfires, though, but not before he fends off each crisis with his usual breezy one-liners and humorous repartee. Bob's character certainly appreciates Didi's seductive charms, but he's not lecherous. Although he has to control himself at times, the male viewer can really sympathize and identify with his plight. Just when we think he's going to give in and become unfaithful to his marriage vows, his comical responses pull him back from the brink, the viewers laughing at his self-imposed reprieves. I think female viewers enjoy watching these kinds of situations, too. In short, I still like the film. Bob had both discovered and made Phyllis Diller's career, frequently having her on his TV specials in those years. To today's audiences, she may be unrecognizable or of no special consequence in this movie, but to audiences of 1966, she was a household name, her pairing with Bob in "Number" being a big draw. I think the movie was meant primarily as a breezy summer sex comedy, not to be taken seriously. Many of the lines are quite funny, although a few are obvious and uninspired. Still, though, it remains amusing throughout, but it's more in the vein of Bob's TV presence--a huge star who just wanted to stay in touch with the modern film audiences of the mid-1960's, and be seen in the type of sex farce that Americans of that generation enjoyed. One must also realize that Bob had been promoting Elke Sommer on his TV specials at this time, too, so this movie had a lot of built-in publicity and interest surrounding it. True, it's a forgettable film, and hardly one of Bob's classics, but it showcases him as a modern suburban husband and father, and a very witty and likable one at that, thus keeping him in step with how most Americans viewed themselves at the time, or would like to. P.S.: One of my favorite lines in the movie comes during the car chase near the end, where Bob's escaping in a police car while being followed by about 4 other police cars. He looks in his rearview mirror and says, "I've got more fuzz on my tail than a French poodle!" Great stuff!

This movie was selected by Harry Medved as one of the 50 worst films ever made (as of 1979) and I have made it my life's mission to see all 50. While this one isn't bad enough to merit its inclusion, it is pretty bad and it ample evidence that Bob Hope's later films were pretty dreadful.The film begins with European sex-kitten Didi (Elke Sommer) stomping off the set because they insist in putting her in sexy films where she appears in a bathtub. The scene then switches to Tom Meade (Bob Hope) who plays a realtor. He comes home but finds his wife is gone but his snappy housekeeper (Phyllis Diller) is home. His wife, it seems, is at the hair dresser's and so he phones her. In a "kooky" scene, the phone lines are switched and Tom gets Didi instead. Didi is hiding in a hotel and begs him to come to her aid. He wants to help, but is afraid his wife will kill him--after all, Didi's exploits are legendary. So, he sneaks out to see Didi and offers to let her stay at a cabin in a resort that is failing. While his wife would certainly be jealous, Tom's intentions are honorable--after all, if a big celebrity hangs out there, people will naturally flock to Tom to buy in this failing resort.Listening to Hope and Diller throwing out one-liners like they are doing stand-up routines was pretty bad. They really didn't act, but walked through the film spouting clever lines--making the character's unimportant. While some of the quips were funny (though most weren't), it was at the expense of the plot. However, the worst acting in this film definitely goes to Ms. Sommer. In her attempt to portray a temperamental sex-kitten, she comes off as an idiot who looks great but has all the acting talent of a drunk lemur during mating season. It's sad, because she could act--I have seen her in other films giving credible performances. Having her say "Monsieur Tommeade" again and again really began to grate on my nerves--and it seemed like she said this in every other sentence! Then, having her refer to herself in the third person was also a sign of bad writing--no glamor girl is THAT stupid!! Then having her go on tantrums as she throws things and curses Tommeade--oh, the agony! The only thing that might have been worse than this terrible performance was a lame and very unfunny chase scene at the end--which, of course, this film had in spades! In addition to lousy writing of the characters, the film had a big problem. Considering that Tom was NOT trying to cheat on his wife but drum up business by hiding Didi, why didn't he just tell his wife and introduce her to the movie star? This would have solved everything AND there would have been no reason for this film! Instead, many, many lame comedic moments were spent trying to hide Didi from the wife (such as when she slid down the hill--ugghh!). It was an idea that could have been funny for just a few minutes--not most of the film, as this was a 1/2 hour sitcom idea stretched to 98 minutes! Sadly, perhaps the funniest thing in this comedy was Marjorie Lord's hair. It was amazingly bad--even for the 1960s AND compared to Ms. Diller's!

Silly, scrappy comedy with Bob Hope trying to hide sleepy sexpot Elke Sommer from his wife. Low-budget screwball antics looks really bad, with sets which are far too large for the minimal action taking place there (the kitchen in Bob's house is positively drafty), and the poor lighting and awkward camera-work do not help. Once the action swings from suburbia to a cabin in the woods, the picture perks up a bit. The one-dimensional cabin set is another eyesore, but the slapstick involved isn't too bad (and Sommer's shrieks are funny). Phyllis Diller, as the family housekeeper with a hair problem, should've written her own dialogue: the woman is all revved up and ready, yet she's given no funny lines. As for Bob Hope, I have never been a particular admirer of his, but he's not bad here, coasting through without hogging the camera too much. I would have to say "Wrong Number" isn't offensive the way Hope's "Private Navy of Sgt. O'Farrell" was, but--for a comedy--shouldn't somebody be having a good time? ** from ****