Off Limits (1953 film)

Off Limits is a 1953 comedy film directed by George Marshall and starring Bob Hope, Mickey Rooney and Marilyn Maxwell. Hope plays a manager who enlists in the army to keep an eye on his boxer, who has been drafted. The picture was written by Hal Kanter and Jack Sher, and was released in the UK as Military Policemen, as the characters played by Hope and Rooney join the military police.

Synopsis

Wally Hogan (Hope) has things going his way. He is the manager-trainer of Bullet Bradley (Stanley Clements), a fighter who has just won the lightweight championship. Life suddenly takes a not-so-happy turn, however, when Bullet gets drafted. Hogan's gangster partners persuade him to enlist and keep an eye on the fighter, who is subsequently declared psychologically unfit for the Army. Enter Herbert Tuttle (Mickey Rooney), a draftee eager to have Hogan turn him into a fighter. Hogan reluctantly agrees only after he discovers Tuttle's aunt is the beautiful singer (Marilyn Maxwell) at a nightclub. From then on its a case of stringing Tuttle along while trying to get close to his aunt. To further complicate Hogan's life there is a rulebook Military Police Officer who tries to squash the shenanigans.

Cast

• Bob Hope as Wally Hogan
• Mickey Rooney as Herbert Tuttle
• Marilyn Maxwell as Connie Curtis
• Eddie Mayehoff as Karl Danzig
• Stanley Clements as Bullets Bradley
• Jack Dempsey as himself
• Marvin Miller as Vic Breck
• John Ridgely as Lieutenant Commander Parnell
• Tom Harmon as himself
• Norman Leavitt as Chowhound
• Art Aragon as himself
• Kim Spalding as Seaman Harker
• Jerry Hausner as Fishy
• Mike Mahoney as MP Huggins
• Joan Taylor as Helen

Production notes

• During the final bar scene, Bing Crosby, Bob Hope's frequent co-star, is seen briefly, singing on the bar's television set.
• Alan Young was to co-star with Hope in the picture.
• In addition to retired champion boxer Jack Dempsey, the film features Art Aragon, a popular Southern California boxer.
• Orchestra leader and vocalist Nuzzy Marcellino dubbed "wolf-whistles" for the picture, according to Paramount press information, included in the file on the film at the AMPAS Library.
• Publicity also notes that the Provost Marshal General's office in Washington, D.C. gave Mickey Rooney special permission to depict an MP, even though the minimum height requirement was 5'7" and Rooney was only 5'3".
• Hope and Marilyn Maxwell had an affair spanning years that led insiders to refer to her as "Mrs. Bob Hope."
• Rooney wore his World War II uniform in the film, according to publicity.

References

External links

• Off Limits at the TCM Movie Database
• Off Limits at the Internet Movie Database