The Lemon Drop Kid

A small-time racetrack tout known as the Lemon Drop Kid, for his weakness for lemon candy, swindles exactly the wrong man: the gangster Moose Moran. If the money is not back by Christmas he is in serious trouble. His solution is to invent a charity, put every grifter he knows into a Santa suit, and set them collecting on street corners for old women with nowhere to live. Sidney Lanfield's Bob Hope comedy takes its name from a Damon Runyon story and builds almost everything else itself. Its real legacy is the song: "Silver Bells", by Livingston and Evans, was heard here first. When Bing Crosby's recording became a hit before the film even opened, the studio called Hope and Marilyn Maxwell back to shoot the number again on a bigger scale.