Steve D
Ridiculous but quite amusing,
Rated 3/5 Stars •
Rated 3 out of 5 stars
05/27/23
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Audience Member
another bob hope parody of spy/detective pix
Rated 2.5/5 Stars •
Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars
01/21/23
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Audience Member
Enjoyably goofy. I like this Bing Crosby cameo!
Rated 3.5/5 Stars •
Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars
01/26/23
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Audience Member
A Curiously Generic Spy Pic
At one point, the movie makes a confused reference to Nazis, but mostly it's "their side" or "the enemy." The truly odd thing about that is that the film was released late enough in 1942 so that it was almost certainly made after Pearl Harbor. After all, it's not as though the average Bob Hope movie took a lot of work. There's one shot which has obvious optical effects, but other than that, special effects weren't a big issue. Filming would not have been complicated. In short, I can't see that this would have taken more than a month or so to make, and while I don't know how long it would have taken to get into the theatre after that, it still seems odd. The Hollywood system was another aspect of US industry gearing up for war, and it's true that there was a little bit of lag between the declaration of war and the real era of Hollywood war movies. But this is a war movie that's basically ignoring the fact that there is a war.
Karen Bentley (Madeleine Carroll) is a British agent carrying plans for the deployment of some bombers, I think. She is being pursued by every spy in Manhattan. While she is hiding, she ducks into a vaudeville theatre, where she claims to be a friend of Percy and Haines--but Percy is a penguin, with Bob Hope as Larry Haines, the penguin's partner. Through a convoluted series of events, she ends up on a cross-country chase dragging man and penguin along. They go to Chicago, to various small rural towns, to Riverside, to Los Angeles. Pursued by the same group of spies, so I guess it's every spy in the US. Along the way, the spies convince the police that the pair are the killers, and I suppose it's true that there is a body in the Chicago apartment they go to. They're also taken out of there by the police. But the whole thing gets a little ridiculous, because this is a Bob Hope movie. There's even a gratuitous Bing Crosby cameo.
Really, the point of any Bob Hope movie is to listen to Bob Hope make wisecracks. The plot is basically superfluous, and we all know it. Including Bob, of course. He tended to use a gimmick of some sort; in this case it's the penguin, to which his character really does seem genuinely attached. Oh, he cares about the money he'll get from putting the picture in show business. A penguin act can pay for a lot of fish. But probably one of the reasons the penguin is such a great gimmick for him is that it doesn't have any lines. Meaning that, unlike Bing, the penguin can't step on them. Though I'm not sure there was ever a girl in a Bob Hope picture who wasn't there to feed him straight lines, and it's true that the penguin can't do that. Still, he gets to make all sorts of snarky comments about her, about the penguin, about the spies. About anyone who'll hold still long enough, in short. And that's exactly what we expect from him and from the picture.
I don't know if it was the intent, but movies like this serve to remind us that the war wasn't just fought by heroes. At the same time that Bob Hope was battling Nazis, whether the word was used or not, a lot of ordinary guys were heading to recruiting offices. Many of them would see Bob Hope perform, wherever they ended up, and not all of them would make it home. Oh, yes, Bob Hope's character wasn't exactly planning to go into uniform; no one even suggested that he would. And Bob Hope himself didn't actually join. I feel certain I must have read why once, though I don't know quite when, and I don't remember the reason anymore. (I read a book about the USO, and it was probably in that.) I know the British government told Cary Grant he was doing more for the war effort by not joining, and it's possible Bob Hope had that going. Not to mention that he wasn't exactly a young man anymore, though that didn't stop a lot of the greatest names in Hollywood. Even if they weren't attempting suicide through it, like Clark Gable.
This is light, whimsical fare--well, it's a Bob Hope movie. It never even really feels as though Bob Hope and the girl (she has a name, but it really doesn't matter any more than the name of his character matters) are in serious danger. About the only people we see in uniform are cops. There's a plane crash, but it happens offscreen and no one is even injured. Really, the villains of this piece could have killed Bob Hope half a dozen times with no worries before he even knew what was going on, and they never do. The fact that the story doesn't entirely make sense also doesn't matter. A lot of this sort of movie was made, and the goal was to be a mild distraction from what was actually happening at the time. Bob Hope chases a girl and dodges danger all at once. Accompanied by a penguin. If you're looking for something more complicated than that, what are you doing watching a Bob Hope movie in the first place?
Rated 3.5/5 Stars •
Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars
02/12/23
Full Review
Audience Member
My Favorite Blonde is essentially a comedic take on Hitchcock's 39 Steps. Bob Hope stars as Larry Haines an entertainer who gets mixed up with Madeline, a beautiful british spy, who needs his help. She has microfilmed plans to a new type of plane which cannot get into the wrong hands. This leads them on a journey as they are both framed for murder and forced to work together. Lots of good, old school humor throughout as Larry is essentially forced to help against his will. Bob Hope isnt the only comedic element in the film as Madeleine Carroll does have some fun moments particurlarly early in the film where she acts as if she is Larry Haines, loving and adoring wife to evade the Nazi's who are looking for her. My Favorite Blonde is the type of whimsical, witty comedy that you would expect from Bob Hope. It's charming and fun with that 40/50's humor you would expect and definitely one of Bob Hope's better films that I have seen.
Rated 4/5 Stars •
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
02/17/23
Full Review
Audience Member
Another very funny Bob Hope movie. It has humor, excitement, and a bit of suspense. If you're a fan this is a must see.
Rated 4/5 Stars •
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
01/22/23
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