Customer Reviews

Sorrowful Jones [VHS]

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4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
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I have loved this movie for so many years. Bob Hope has never been better than in "Sorrowful Jones". The little girl is an absolute doll and you will fall in love with her instantly. Lucille Ball has an excellent chemistry with Hope and that is why I suppose they made three other pictures together. The whole movie is just wonderful and I promise you that if you haven't seen it, you will love it. I have seen the original "Little Miss Marker" and all the remakes but this film is the best of the lot. Have some Kleenex close by also because along with being very funny, it will pull at those ol' heart strings too. Don't miss it!

This movie, a re-make of Shirley Temple's "Little Miss Marker" gets little respect from the national critics. As usual, I disagree with them: this is fun movie and one you should enjoy if you like Temple and laugh at Bob Hope's jokes.

I didn't always think Hope was funny but this movie had a lot of laughs, a great story and a cute kid. It isn't as hokey or dated as most of Hope's films and some of his lines in here are downright clever.

Mary Jane Saunders does a nice imitation of Temple-Margaret O'Brien, a combination of those two child stars. You also get Lucille Ball in here, although she's just okay, nothing hilarious. She does get some good wise-cracks in, however.

This is a solid, underrated comedy. I'm sorry to see I am only the fourth person to review this film here at Amazon. A lot of people are missing out on a funny movie.

SORROWFUL JONES is based on the Damon Runyon short story, as was its 1934 predecessor, LITTLE MISS MARKER (VHS) (DVD) with Shirley Temple (and Adolphe Menjou as Jones).

Here, Bob is the title character, a soft-hearted bookmaker who accepts an indigent gambler's five-year-old child as collateral on a "sure thing" $20 bet. When Mary Jane's daddy doesn't return for her after his horse loses, the penurious Sorrowful in order to guarantee he'll get paid decides to take the girl home rather than turn her over to the police.

The girl's father, Orville Smith is found floating in the river. Sorrowful intends to drop "Shorts" off at an orphanage, until thuggish Big Steve Halloway hatches a plan to name Shorts the owner of a horse scheduled to be "speedballed" for a fixed race. Jones and Shorts visit the stallion and she falls in love with him. As events unfold, the thoroughbred just may be able to save his young owner's very life.

The cast includes Lucille Ball as nightclub singer Gladys O'Neill-- she does an imprecise lip sych to the film's only song and has the unenviable task of acting as Sorrowful's "conscience." It's no surprise that Bill Demarest as Jones's buddy, Regret is most consistently amusing, while Hope is by turn comic and serious.

"Sorrowful Jones" is available on DVD as a Bob Hope double feature, along with THE PALEFACE (1948).

Related item:
In THE LEMON DROP KID (1951) (VHS) (DVD), Bob is Damon Runyon's bumbling race track tout.

Parenthetical number preceding title is a 1 to 10 viewer poll rating found at a film resource website.

(6.9) Sorrowful Jones (1949) - Bob Hope/Lucille Ball/William Demarest/Bruce Cabot/Thomas Gomez/Paul Lees/Tom Pedi/Mary Jane Saunders/Walter Winchell (narrator)

Its the type of movie that you cry and laugh with. Bob Hope being serious, something you don't see very often. Just shows what a great actor he could be. Put him and Lucy together makes for a great movie. I love the Damon Runyon type movies. If you haven't seen The Lemon Drop Kid, its good also. Get the puffs out, you'll need them.