The Great Lover 1949

In a Paris hotel, two American men raise glasses of champagne to toast a string of gambling wins, and the mood turns deadly when the younger man is strangled from behind. The killer’s method is instantly recognizable: a signature napkin knot around the throat, the calling card of the infamous card-playing mastermind C.J. Dabney [Roland Young]. The police quickly deduce that the next victim will fit the same pattern—a young American man. Yet American detective Higgins [Jim Backus] urges the French authorities to wait, hoping to trap Dabney red-handed rather than simply arrest him on a pattern.

Into this tense setup comes Freddie Hunter [Bob Hope], a sharp-witted newspaperman from Ohio who has come to Paris escorting eight Boy Foresters. He’s in the city for romance as much as for business, and his path crosses with Duchess Alexandria [Rhonda Fleming], a striking young woman traveling with her father, Grand Duke Maximilian [Roland Culver], who is secretly broke and dreaming of a fresh start in the United States. Dabney, ever the opportunist, appears on the scene and offers to introduce Freddie to the duchess, setting in motion a dangerous game of deception. Freddie, seizing the moment, plays along and pretends to be a man of means, instantly falling for Alexandria’s charm. The duchess, perhaps sensing something of Freddie’s bravado, finds herself drawn to the idea of a new life and to the illusion of wealth that Freddie projects. The pair soon find themselves caught up in a social whirl that the ship’s corridors and ballrooms only intensify.

On the crowded ship, Freddie’s posture as a wealthy suitor is tested when he becomes entangled in a running card game with Dabney and Maximilian, each round more perilous than the last. Dabney’s hands move with practiced ease, ensuring Freddie’s luck stays favorable outwardly while carefully steering the outcome toward a losing fate behind the scenes. Freddie’s status within the Boy Foresters complicates matters: he cannot smoke, a restriction he secretly resents, and the troop’s sharp-eyed leaders and tough-talking scouts begin to sniff out inconsistencies in his story. The tall Boy Scout Stanley Wilson [Richard Lyon] and the other youngsters are pivotal observers in the unfolding drama, and their presence heightens the tension as Freddie bluffs his way through the escalating game.

As the fog of pretense thickens, Freddie learns a painful truth: Alexandria is nearly penniless, and her grand, romantic image masks a practical desire to secure a future in the United States. In a twist of fate, Freddie’s apparent wealth buys him access to a dangerous circle, but Dabney’s true plan remains hidden behind a carefully constructed facade. Freddie’s winnings grow, but the danger also deepens: Higgins, who has been shadowing the proceedings, becomes a casualty when Dabney murders him and seizes the evidence, striving to erase Dabney’s fingerprints from the crime. Freddie is framed in Higgins’s death, and the ship’s authorities are drawn into a web of deceit that places Alexandria and Freddie on opposite sides of a spiraling conspiracy.

The tension peaks as Alexandria, armed with this new knowledge, confronts the implications of Dabney’s manipulation. She learns that Freddie’s apparent wealth is a ruse and that Dabney has orchestrated more than a few lucky hands. Dabney’s next move is ruthless: he follows through on a deadly plan, cornering Alexandria in Higgin’s cabin and attempting to finish what he started. Freddie, meanwhile, narrowly escapes a murder room and hides in a lifeboat, a tense sequence that culminates in a dramatic retrieval from a dockside threat of a shark as Freddie is lowered over the water and then drawn back aboard.

Unaware of the dangerous ruse but undeterred, Freddie and Alexandria piece together the truth from Higgins’s diary—an undercover record of Dabney’s schemes. Dabney’s cunning is on full display as he tries to silence the pair and cast Freddie as the murderous fraud in disguise. The couple’s confidence is restored only when Freddie intervenes at the last moment to rescue Alexandria, disrupting Dabney’s plan and turning the tables on the con artist. In a moment of defiant romance and renewed trust, the two share a kiss in the eyes of the boy scouts, who have watched the drama unfold with a mix of awe and approval. The ship’s atmosphere lifts as justice closes in, and Freddie’s brave act earns him a kind of hero’s redemption in the eyes of Alexandria and the scouts alike.

Throughout the voyage, the supporting cast threads a rich tapestry that colors the suspense with humor, danger, and a touch of old-world glamour. The mysterious Attendant [Sig Arno], the ship’s occasional observers, and the various minor players weave in and out of the plot, adding texture to the unfolding thriller. A cameo by Jack Benny punctuates the film’s brisk pacing, offering a light counterpoint to the more perilous moments. Even as Dabney’s carefully constructed web threatens to pull Freddie and Alexandria apart, the story maintains a steady rhythm of wit, romance, and peril, never losing sight of the core dynamic: two people from very different worlds who discover in each other a genuine connection amid danger and deceit.

In the end, the danger is defeated not merely by luck but by a combination of courage, cunning, and the willingness to trust one another. Freddie Hunter [Bob Hope] and Duchess Alexandria [Rhonda Fleming], joined by a few steadfast allies such as Grand Duke Maximilian [Roland Culver] and Detective Higgins’s memory, navigate a treacherous landscape of counterfeit wealth, true motives, and a chase that moves from a Paris hotel to the ship’s deck and beyond. Their bond holds firm through the crisis, culminating in a quiet affirmation of trust and a shared resolve to pursue a future built on honesty rather than illusion.