The Lemon Drop Kid (1951)
The story rolls like this, ya see:
The Lemon Drop Kid (Bob Hope), has been touting the ponies in Florida, when he lays a 10G on Moose Moran (Fred Clark) -by mistake, of course. Moose don't like no mistakes, so he's tellin' the Kid he has to pay Moose back by Christmas Eve, or the Kid "won't make it to New Year's."
The Kid is rattled enough to head home to friendlier grounds in NYC, and there, when his first touches don't pan out, he gets the clever idea to just play Santa with a kettle and hoping his 'charity' will let him clean up to pay off Moose Moran. The Heat smells a scam on him like yesterday's fish and they drag him to the hoosgow for 10 days. By the time he gets out, the Kid figures out where his scheme went south (he needs a license from the city), and with the help of friends sets up a pleasant retirement plan called, "The Nellie Thursday Home for Old Gals" --using Moose's closed-up casino. Sounds Legit... while being a pretty tidy house that also can cleanup.
This causes complications. You gotta see how the Kid gets out of it.
The last line by the Kid always makes me burst out laughing.
Found on YouTube and Amazon video
Reprinted from December 2017