The Lemon Drop Kid (1951)

"Silver Bells. Silver Bells. Let's put some dough in the kitty. Chuck it in, Chuck it in, or Sandy will give you a mickey."

Director
Sidney Lanfield

Cast
Bob Hope - The Lemon Drop Kid
Marilyn Maxwell - Brainy Baxter
Lloyd Nolan - Oxford Charlie
Jane Darwell - Nellie Thursday
Andrea King - Stella
Fred Clark - Moose Moran
Jay C. Flippen - Straight Flush Tony
William Frawley - Gloomy Willie
Harry Bellaver - Sam the Surgeon
Sid Melton - Little Louie

I had the Christmas movie, "The Lemon Drop Kid" in my sights since Christmas 2023 when I commented on the other underrated holiday classics I've posted, or have yet to post, this month. 

I meant to watch it with my wife last year but didn't. So, I happened to catch it with her a week ago on the streaming app, "Classic Comedy Channel." 

Looking at the movie poster to "The Lemon Drop Kid" it doesn't look like a Christmas movie, but it is. In fact, for those that don't know, "The Lemon Drop Kid" gave the world the well-known Christmas carol, "Silver Bells" that's still sung and heard among the vast catalog of other Christmas carols sung and heard to this day. 

I find those small informative tidbits of holiday history amusing. You know, like how the movie "Meet Me in St. Louis" gave us "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" or that “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” was popularized thanks to the movie "Neptune’s Daughter" from 1949. It's a fantastic song, by the way. It's certainly more wholesome than that loathsome "song" Cardi B vomited out a couple years back while the woke scolds wagged their finger at "Baby, It's Cold Outside." But on that topic, I really can't stay.

In this movie, Bob Hope plays "the Lemon Drop Kid" who's called that because he habitually eats lemon drops while coning people around New York, especially at the racetrack.

That's where the movie opens. The kid is swindling people at a racetrack by claiming to have inside information on the horses.

One of his hits is a young woman trying to place a $2,000 bet on a horse named Iron Bar. He manages to trick her into betting on another horse. However, he doesn't know this girl is dating one of New York's notorious mobsters, 'Moose' Moran (Fred Clark) who's with her at the track.

The horse she bet on comes in last. And Moran sends some goons out to grab the kid and bring him back to his place for...talking to. 

He demands the kid pay him the $10,0000 he would have won as Iron Horse came in first.

Bob Hope and Marilyn Maxwell in "The Lemon Drop Kid."

Or it's curtains for the kid, and just in time for Christmas, too. The kid may not make it into the new year unless he comes up with the dough.

Christmas is on its way, and the kid is desperate to come up with the cash. 

He goes to his kind-of girlfriend, Brainey Baxter (Marilyn Maxwell) to see if he can milk some cash off of her. When she brings up his lack of long-term commitment in their relationship, he takes a powder.
The kid then pays a visit to another crime boss, Oxford Charlie (Lloyd Nolan) for some help. 

Charlie has his own financial troubles with zero interest in helping the kid. Strike two!

Meandering the New York streets, the kid spots a Santa Claus ringing his bell for donations. This gives the kid an idea. He dresses as Santa and starts panhandling for donations...for himself, of course. 

A cop recognizes him, shuts down his little operation, and takes him in. 

After appearing in court, and landing in the pokey, Brainy bails him out. 

The kid comes up with a master scheme by coming up with a fake charitable organization and obtaining a city permit to organize his fraudulent charity. 

He sets it up for his sweet old neighbor, Nellie Thursday (Jane Darwell) who has been denied entry into a retirement home because her husband has been to jail. 

The kid goes to some of his con-artist buddies around New York for help, as well as Brainey, who thinks he has turned over a new and more kind-hearted leaf.

Together, they turn an old, abandoned casino into the "Nellie Thursday Home for Old Dolls"

With that, a collection of old ladies moves in, and all the necessary accommodations are made using makeshift items such as roulette tables as beds and so on. The city therefore grants the kid his much-needed license. 

Now, he and his pals can dress up as Saint Nick, and go out there with their own bells and buckets to collect donations all around Manhattan without being hassled by the fuzz. Of course, the kid failed to inform Santa's helpers that he really intends to use the money they collect to pay Moran his $10.000. 

The donations add up fast and plentiful. Kid's con is working. 

This impresses Brainey so much that she quits her job and starts working full time at the Nellie Thursday Home. 

Oxford Charlie gets in on the scheme thanks to Brainy. He thinks whichever home Nellie Thursday resides in can also be considered one of "Nellie Thursday's Home for Old Dolls." 

He has his muscle kidnap all the old ladies and move them into a large estate mansion in Nyack so he can reap some cash benefits. 

The kid returns home soon after to find the old casino empty and all the money collected from the panhandling, which he hid inside a hollowed-out statue, gone. 

He indulges in his self-pity while his helpers, as well as Brainy, learn what the kid's scheme really was. 

The kid soon figures out Oxford Charlie is behind this major setback. So, he goes to his office to steal the money back. And, maybe, he really does turn over a new, and much less self-centered, leaf.

Bob Hope is natural at bringing in some warmth to the story, but seeing as how the story is about a con artist, too much warmth would feel out of place. 

This movie doesn't overdo it. It's a different sort of redemptive story. I'm mentally comparing it to Scrooge's story from "A Christmas Carol." It's a story of a good-hearted guy making bad decisions. And Christmas is there to show that its never too late to start doing the right thing while casting off our bad habits, no matter how deep they run. It may be hard but it's not impossible. The kid doesn't need ghosts to get to where he needs to be. But a little fear, and seeing the problems of others, certainly pushes him

Christmas movies generally aim at sprinkling its audience with all those holiday movie feels. "The Lemon Drop Kid" is different in that sense for a Christmas movie. 

Hope puts in just enough and fills the rest in with his typical Bob Hope one-liners. I think that's what distinguishes this movie, which is a comedy, from something like "The Shop Around the Corner" and "It's a Wonderful Life." 

I think the term "timeless" doesn't apply as well as it could to "The Lemon Drop Kid" as it does to the other movies I've posted, or will post. A lot of that has to do with Bob Hope's period jokes. For instance, in one scene Hope jokingly refers to a cow as "Crosby." In another scene, when that same cow shows up at the home, and someone asks what it's doing there, he replies that Milton Berle is on tonight. They're period jokes and typical Bob Hope one-liners. They'll go over the heads of audiences who aren't up on their classic comedy.

Today this movie would likely appeal more to aficionados of old movies rather than audiences looking for something warm, relatable, and Christmassy to watch around the holidays, although it does have some of that.

The humor is very much a product of its time. That's not to say the movie isn't funny. 

It's wonderfully different for a Christmas movie; and it truly is a Christmas movie. That is, not only does the movie take place at Christmas, but the holiday season plays a critical role in the plot. This story, based on a short story by Damon Runyon, was previously depicted in the 1934 movie, "The Lemon Drop Kid" starring Lee Tracy and Helen Mack.

I found the 1951 movie streaming on the classic comedy streaming app. And to my absolute disgust, they cut out the song "Silver Bells" completely.  

Cutting the musical number out is uncalled for and hugely disappointing. It's shameful and unnecessary. Shame on you, app. SHAME ON YOU! 

Otherwise, it's a fun, innocent period comedy that's certainly different from the "home for the holidays" style of Christmas classic, although it has its own unique version of that style that fits the respective story.