Eight on the Lam (1967) User Reviews

Hope On The Run

[bkoganbing · 6/10 · 23 March 2007]

In a plot borrowed somewhat from Double Dynamite, bank teller Bob Hope finds $10,000.00 in thousand dollar Grover Cleveland notes in a parking lot. He's real happy until it's discovered at his bank that they're short $50,000.00 in their books. Who seems to have come into some money? Nobody but old ski nose so he has to take it on the lam.

That's not easy considering he's a widower with seven kids. Hope's also got a babysitter played by Phyllis Diller. He leaves her behind, but she proves to be quite an asset behind enemy lines so to speak, especially with her cop boyfriend, Jonathan Winters.

Bob Hope gets only about a third of the laughs with Diller and Winters nicely splitting the rest. Winters does a repeat of his role as the dim bulb truck driver from It's A Mad Mad Mad Mad World only here he's a dim bulb of a cop. If it isn't Hope, it's Diller constantly getting the better of him. Winters does a cameo appearance also as is own mother in that little old lady masquerade he was known for.

Of course the mystery is solved, in this case almost by sheer dumb luck and Hope winds up with school teacher Shirley Eaton and Diller with Winters despite all her obstruction of justice. It's how it is done that you have to see the film for.

Look also for a nice performance by Jill St. John as the gold digging femme fatale who inspires embezzlement. Eight on the Lam is nicely directed by comedy veteran George Marshall who's put Hope through all his paces before. It's a bit better than most of Hope's later work in the sixties.

Longest laugh I have ever seen in a theater (in 50 years) !!!

[pwk69 · 6/10 · 7 February 2009]

I remember seeing this movie back in high school. The final chase seen had an incident that garnered a FIVE minute laugh from the audience. We laughed almost through the final credits. But today, no one would find it as funny.

It was a take-off on an immensely popular TV commercial of the day. Does any one remember the Ajax laundry detergent commercials with the Ajax White Knight? Well, Bob Hope is zooming on a golf cart across a golf course (as a banker he is wearing a white shirt)and runs through a puddle and gets splashed with mud. TAH DAH TAH DAAHH. Here comes the Ajax White Knight galloping across the golf course and zaps him. He exclaims, "Hey! I'm whiter than white!" You had to grow up with the commercial to understand just how funny it really was at the time. If the movie was shown today, they would probably have to delete that scene because no one would understand where the White Knight came from. Just some non-sequitor that doesn't make sense.

Sigh! I guess I'm just waxing nostalgic for the old days.

So, an average looking poor man in his 60s with seven kids has a girlfriend like Shirley Eaton....sure, I could buy that.

[planktonrules · 5/10 · 2 May 2017]

"Eight on the Lam" is not a bad film at all. But one part of it made me laugh. Bob Hope plays a widower with seven children, lots of bills and a girlfriend played by Shirley Eaton...that's Shirley Eaton who was a Bond girl in "Goldfinger" (the one who got gilded, by the way)!! This sort of strange casting always makes me laugh. Now I am not saying that the guy Hope plays isn't a nice guy...he is...but with a gorgeous blonde like Eaton?!?!

When the story begins, you see Henry Dimsdale (Hope) leaving his job at the bank to pick up his kids. So, driving a tiny VW you see him pick up seven kids AND a dog!! Obviously, things are tight when you have that many mouths to feed. But Henry's luck changes when he finds a money clip with $10,000 in a parking lot. He's basically an honest guy and waits a couple weeks to see if anyone claims it...and they don't. So, he begins to spend the money...and the timing couldn't be worse. This is because a bank examiner has found $50,000 missing from Henry's books...and all these recent huge purchases sure make it look like he's been embezzling. Instead of staying and trying to clear himself, he follows a co-worker's advice and runs...with his kids in tow. What's next? See the film and find out for yourself.

Like several other films from this era, Phyllis Diller is in this one as well. However, instead of acting WITH Hope, she mostly is in a parallel story with her boyfriend (Jonathan Winters). I liked this, as the films where she and Hope traded barbs were pretty limp (such as the aptly named "Boy, Did I Get a Wrong Number").

So is this any good? It's not bad...and that's something you can't say about many of Hope's later films. For the most part, they are an unfunny and sorry lot...with Hope delivering asides that aren't particularly funny and are mostly annoying. This one, in contrast, works better because most of it's not played for laughs and Hope's limp quips are at a minimum. Now I am not saying it's a great film, but it is pleasant and watchable...though towards the end they did try more comedy and it was the low point of the movie. An amiable time-passer and not much more.

By the way, this film also features another Bond girl, Jill St. John ("Diamonds Are Forever").

Funny stuff

[jlm_write · 30 May 2002]

This is a classic -- if predictable -- 60s comedy, complete with smart-aleck kids and Bob Hope's one-liners delivered in his deadpan style. Like the big family in "Yours, Mine and Ours" some of the kids just stand around and we're to blithely accept the fact that middle-class families reproduce like rabbits, but those of us with *only* three or four kids can still identify.

Unlike the Disney movies of the same era, or the Hepburn-Tracy movies of a few years prior, the situations, clothes, and other styles truly reflect middle-class America. Oh, and it's actually funny!

Stagnant Bob Hope vehicle...one part light comedy, one part silly slapstick

[moonspinner55 · 5/10 · 5 November 2009]

Try as he might, Bob Hope just couldn't change with the times. With "Eight on the Lam"--for a few minutes anyway--Hope seems on the verge of creating an actual character, but he is ultimately defeated by the script. Story has a widower banker with seven children stumbling across 10 G's in a supermarket parking lot; while he decides what to do with the money, the head of the local bank where he's employed blames Hope for a shortage in the receipts. After an airy, funny opening, the plot suddenly becomes illogical and foolish. One (or possibly more) of the four writers credited with this project were obviously instructed to concoct his part of the screenplay from a Bob Hope Comedy Rulebook. Screwball chases and kooky disguises take away all that was charming from the earliest part of the picture, and Bob's wisecracks get more and more desperate. Results aren't shameful, though they are depressing. Director George Marshall gets a likable, easy rhythm going...and then fritters it away on corny gags and Hope in drag. ** from ****

Not a bad period piece

[tforbes-2 · 7/10 · 11 June 2016]

"Eight on the Lam" was clearly filmed some time in 1966 and released the following year. It tends to plod along, but it has its share of fun stuff. I could see connections to 007 (Shirley Eaton and Jill St. John), as well as connections to "The Fugitive," which would end its run four months later.

I am sure both Shirley and Jill provided plenty of eye candy, but it really is both Phyllis Diller and Jonathan Winters who really carry this film through. And yeah, I get the Ajax cleaner bit! I was a child when that ad aired in the Sixties.

Overall, not a bad film.

2nd Hope/Diller comedy better than their 1st, but that's faint praise

[s007davis · 4/10 · 31 March 2004]

Bob Hope, Phyllis Diller and director George Marshall("Monsieur Beaucaire", "Fancy Pants") reunited for their second film as a team after the abysmal "Boy, Did I Get A Wrong Number!" "Eight on the Lam" is definitely an improvement over their first film together but that's not saying much. "Lam"'s harmless enough and watchable in a "Brady Bunch"/"Yours, Mine and Ours" kind of way if you catch it on a late night TV movie run. But it's never really "good" in the way Hope's best comedies were and still are. I recommend watching a true Hope classic like 1943's "They Got Me Covered" or 1951's "My Favorite Spy" instead.

Best part of "Eight on the Lam": the novelty value of seeing 2 classic era James Bond girls, Jill St. John alias Tiffany Case from 1971's "Diamonds Are Forever" and Shirley Eaton a.k.a. Jill Masterson the "Golden Girl" from 1964's "Goldfinger", in the same film and even briefly in the same scene! Hope obviously exercised his producer power by casting Miss Eaton as his devoted love interest and she is given a decent amount of on-screen time.

Bottom line: ** out of ****, mainly for Shirley and Jill.

Dont expect anything but laughs

[hillglass · 7/10 · 30 November 2000]

My impressions from this movie is, Great Cars, God awful furniture (I wouldn't even offer it to my friends), Clothes are funky, and Humor is timeless!. This a great movie to watch for a time capsule of 1967. Bob Hope is funny (Korny), and J. Winters and P. Diller both do a great job of being weirder than life as supporting characters. Tina Louise sure did a good job as the "hot" babe too. don't expect a complicated story, this is a HAHAHA movie worth seeing

Ludicrous

[mls4182 · 1/10 · 19 March 2023]

First of all, bank tellers have never been paid fairly. There is no way a teller could support seven children. He certainly couldn't even afford the property taxes on that large home let alone a mortgage.

As another review pointed out, why would gorgeous Shirley Eaton go for wrinkled, lined and flabby Hope with all his problems?

In sure this was touted as a family film. No wonder we ended up with the Summer of Love this year. After seeing this film in sure many wanted to drop out, tune out and shoot up.

Both Bob Hope and Lucille Ball should have retired in 1960. They were too painful to watch afterward.

Laughless

[JasparLamarCrabb · 1/10 · 28 November 2012]

As with most of the movies he made in the 1960s, this is a strong contender for the worst movie Bob Hope ever made. A lame-brained, poorly assembled extended sitcom with Hope as a bank teller accused of embezzlement. He hits the road with his seven(!) children in tow. They're pursued by nincompoop cop Jonathan Winters. Any promise of comic sparks between Hope & Winters are quickly doused by a barrage of unfunny one-liners (the script had FOUR writers!?!). Most of the jokes have Hope insulting everyone from the seven kids to Phyllis Diller, who plays a wild-haired harridan babysitter. Shirley Eaton plays Hope's love interest and Jill St. John is in it too as a gold digging party girl. The direction, by the once great George Marshall, is inert to say the least. The only stylish touches being the frequent screen swipes and flips. A sloppy mess.

Very Funny Movie

[The_Professor_Scary · 10/10 · 29 August 2022]

What do you get if you have Bob Hope, Phyllis Diller and. Jonathan Winters all together - you have a very funny movie.

The movie is about a widower - Bob Hope, who has seven children and a dog; who works as an accountant at a local bank. One day he finds a lot of money. By coincidence, it is discovered that $50,000 has been.embezzled at the same bank that Hope works at. You guessed it, the bank believes that Hope has stolen the money.

Fearing that he will be arrested, he gathers up his seven children and the dog; and hits the road.

The movie is full of skits and site gags; featuring the very talented comedians of Hope, Diller and Winters. It reminded me of a Jerry Lewis movie.

Well worth watching.

Stinko but fun to watch

[Briarbruin · 3/10 · 7 November 2023]

This movie is a thinly disguised rejiggering of "Boy Did I Get a Wrong Number", which also featured Bob Hope and Phyllis Diller. An aged-appearing Bob Hope, the father of a brood of young children, is a bank teller accused of embezzlement. As in "Wrong Number", both Bob Hope and Phyllis Diller coast through the film popping off one-liners which must have been boffo in 1967. Bob Hope goes on the lam with his kids, setting up a series of unconvincing and improbable situations. While "Wrong Number" had Elke Sommer as a femme fatale (speaking in an accent somewhere between Zsa Zsa Gabor and a sassy French maid), this film has Jill St. John as a scheming golddigger who seems to be basing her performance on Betty Boop. The film, like "Wrong Number", ends with a tedious and overextended chase sequence featuring a hilariously unconvincing stunt double in a scary Phyllis Diller wig. This is one of those bad movies that for some reason is fun to watch. If anything, the film (like "Wrong Number", is a time capsule of hideous 1960's design and fashion.

Excruciating

[Ripshin · 27 July 2022]

By this time, in the late 60s, Hope was churning out absolute garbage films. This one is cheap, and stupid. He's something like 63 years old in this thing, and has a bunch of young children.

He never stopped milking the name. His family continued the practice till his death. I worked on one of his last TV specials, and it was extremely sad. He was barely lucid until the camera started, and then he was on auto-pilot.

It took eight people to write this mess?

[mark.waltz · 3/10 · 6 January 2019]

If it wasn't for Phyllis Diller, this film would be a complete bomb. Even with pro's like Bob Hope and Jonathan Winters build above the title, there is barely anything funny about it. The second film for Hope and Diller after "Boy, Did I get a Wrong Number!" shows why comedy in the mid-to-late 60s was a mixed bag. Bob Hope is a bank clerk who claims he found $10,000 in a grocery store parking lot, but when $10,000 shows up missing from the bank, he is accused of being the embezzler. so rather than stay and try to clear himself, the widower hope gathers his seven children together and their big dog and gets into a volkswagen bug and goes on the run. School teacher girlfriend Shirley Eaton AKA Goldfinger, joins him and trying to take care of the children while how to prove his innocence.

Hope, who is nearing 70 when he met this film, seems rather odd when paired with the gorgeous 30-something eating. Then his children range from preschool to high school age, another ridiculous element of this unfunny disaster that makes even the worst of the 1960s sitcom's seemed good. Winters is completely wasted as Diller's dumb cop boyfriend who helps her try to find him so they can help clear him. It only gets funny when Diller jumps out of their car in the middle of a Los Angeles freeway and uses the tops of cars to run up the highway so Winters can get through. She's a hoot to watch in her purple skirt and matching boots. Jill St. John appears in a brief part as the mistress of the bank manager.

Of course, there's the inevitable chase sequence at the end that is filled with slapstick, and moments of that are truly hysterical which in addition to Diller up'd my rating. I can envision this playing in drive-in's in the 1960's where large families like mine would gather for a family night out, with mom and dad look into each other in confusion as the kiddies all howled over what day then considered humor. Many of the comedies of this time had similar elements that makes the decade a strange period of film history.

Sporatic fun...

[mattk1 · 26 December 1999]

This is a rather silly comedy about Bob Hope, Phyllis Diller and Jonathan Winters on the run from the law. While there are occasional funny moments, the movie is an overall waste of these people's talents. It definitely could've been funnier.