What can be said about Bob Hope that hasn’t already been said? The man was an iconic entertainer for decades and one Christmas classic he left us with is “The Lemon Drop Kid”. It’s a comedy film made in 1951 featuring Hope and Marilyn Maxwell.

Hope plays a loveable con artist known as The Kid (real name is Sidney Milburn) whose shtick is sucking on lemon drops and of course conning people out of their money at the racetrack. When he swindles the wrong person at the racetrack right before Christmas, he finds himself in a precarious situation. Because the wrong person he has wronged is a gangster named Moose Moran (played by Fred Clark). Moose is out $10,000 and Kid has until Christmas to pay him back.

Kid encounters his old friend Nellie Thursday back in New York and learns that she has had her application for a retirement home denied. This comes into play later in the story. Kid then visits his on-again-off-again girlfriend Brainey Baxter (Maxwell) and swindles her out of ten bucks and takes off. Then he tries to get the ten grand from Oxford Charlie, a crime boss he’s had past dealings with. With no luck from Charlie, Kid gets tossed out. As he’s walking down the street he encounters a Santa ringing a bell and declaring “help the needy”. Santa says to Kid “put something in the pot?” and Kid replies “at least you’ve got one”. But Santa gives Kid an idea and in the next scene we see Kid dressed as a street corner Santa ringing a bell. He is soon recognized by a police officer and is charged with panhandling. He calls Brainey for help and initially she refuses but she ends up bailing him out.

Kid then comes up with a scheme to not only save himself but help Nellie out as well. Along with his swindling friends such as Brainey and Gloomy (played by William Frawley), Kid converts an abandoned casino (ironically belonging to Moose Moran) into the “Nellie Thursday Home For Old Dolls”. Now that they have a license, Kid and his cronies stage themselves as Santas around the city to collect money for their “legitimate” charity. However, the others are unaware of Kid’s plans to keep the money for himself to pay off Moose.

Once Charlie gets word of the charity all hell breaks loose and the inhabitants at the home are kidnapped while Kid is away. The story ends with a twist, putting Moose and Charlie in jeopardy and making Kid a hero, at least to his allies.

One comical scene in the movie shows Frawley’s character dressed as Santa and singing an off-key mixed up version of “Silver Bells”. Kid and Brainey come along and Kid berates him for his poor singing. Then Kid and Brainey break into the well-known and first-aired rendition of the popular Christmas song.

Although I have only seen “Lemon Drop Kid” once, I found it very entertaining and intend to add it to my yearly Christmas watch list.