For his third teaming with Paulette Goddard following the success of "The Cat and the Canary" and "The Ghost Breakers", it seems like the filmmakers might have restrained Bob Hope from his characteristic one-liners and bon mots. I kept waiting for them, but with a few exceptions, this was not the vehicle for his kind of wit and cowardly charm. In fact, stockbroker Steve Bennett (Hope) is so honest, his associates and boss (Edward Arnold) at the Ralston Company dare him into a bet where he must maintain truthful answers to any question posed to him. Ordinarily, this wouldn't have been a big deal, but they all gang up on him with leading questions that would tend to embarrass if he answered honestly. Complicating matters is the fact that he's invested ten thousand dollars of charity money given him by Ralston's pretty niece, Gwen Saunders (Goddard). Treading a fine line in order to tell the truth, Bennett squirms in and out of awkward situations in the hopes of winning over Miss Saunders romantically.
It seems to me however, that Bennett did lie at least once before the twenty four hour curfew came up. It was when he stated to Gwen that he didn't put her ten thousand dollars into anything foolish. You could probably take sides on that remark either way, but if betting ten grand on a risky proposition wasn't foolish, I don't know what would have been, except for investing in Las Lomas Quicksilver. Funny how that plot line went nowhere by the end of the story.
Eventually, Hope's character comes up on the right side of things when the twenty-four-hour deadline comes up, even when the trio of colluders (Arnold, Leif Erickson and Glenn Anders) attempt to rig the clock by fifteen minutes as a diversion. Bennett's butler Samuel (Willie Best) saves the day with his meticulous timekeeping, and Hope closes out the picture with a romantic kiss and a hug from Goddard. Fortunately for Bob, Bing Crosby was nowhere in sight!
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