Nothing But the Truth

Nothing but the Truth is a 1941 American comedy film starring Bob Hope and Paulette Goddard, their third movie together in three years. The movie was directed by Elliott Nugent. The premise of the film, that the protagonist must tell the truth for the next 24 hours, is based on a play of the same name written by James Montgomery, itself loosely adapted from the 1914 novel Nothing But the Truth by Frederic S. Isham. The book and play had previously formed the basis of a 1929 movie, also called Nothing But the Truth, starring Richard Dix and Wynne Gibson. The 1941 film follows the plot of the play much more closely than the 1929 version. The same premise was used for a 1997 Jim Carrey movie, Liar Liar. Plot Steve Bennett is a stockbroker in Miami, Florida who has just accepted a position working for a man named T.T. Ralston. He is persuaded by Ralston's beautiful niece, Gwen Saunders, to invest a sum of $10,000 that she needs doubled in 24 hours. Ralston has promised Gwen that if she raises $20,000 he will double it, but has been working behind her back to prevent her from raising the initial funds. When Steve objects to Ralston's practice of pushing bad stocks onto his clients, he claims that he could get by just as well by telling the truth as by lying. Ralston and his partner Dick Donnelly, along with client Tom van Dusen (Gwen's boyfriend), bet Steve that he can't be completely honest for twenty-four hours straight. Steve bets the $10,000 he got from Gwen. One of the conditions is that no one can reveal the bet to an outsider and it can't be cancelled.