The Bob Hope Collection – Volume 2 DVD Review

The Bob Hope Collection – Volume 2
2011, Shout! Factory

Since I’ve made if my life mission to own every Bob Hope movie, Shout! Factory’s second volume of The Bob Hope Collection was a great addition to my own collection. Six movies and five of them I had never seen (I already owned (Son of Paleface on DVD). Sadly, this is another collection of public domain flicks and some of Hope’s lesser known films other than the Paleface sequel.

Shout! Factory claims these are high-definition transfers but I’ve seen reviews stating this is not true though other reviews say they have been cleaned up considerably compared to other versions floating around. The Great Lover is a poor transfer but maybe that was the best Shout had to work with. Everything else looks very good to my eyes with The Private Navy of Sgt. O’ Farrell looking the best of the bunch.

The Great Lover
(1949, Paramount Pictures)

This film had the working title of My Favorite Redhead which would’ve placed it as the third film in Hope’s My Favorite… series (that honor eventually went to 1951′s My Favorite Spy). Easy Does It was another working title. It was written by Ed Beloin who I’ve already mentioned before was a writer for Jack Benny’s radio program but by this point he had left radio behind for a career as a screenwriter.

There’s something a bit off about this movie. I can’t quite place it. Bob does well but the whole premise isn’t very interesting to me and there just aren’t many funny scenes. Bob plays a scout leader on a cruise with his troops and he finds himself getting mixed up with a beautiful redhead and a murderer.

It didn’t help that the transfer is very poor and that took some of the enjoyment out of the movie for me. The movie’s title doesn’t really make much sense either. B-level effort all around.

The best part of the movie for me was seeing a cameo by Jack Benny. This was my first time seeing the movie so it completely caught me off guard. Jack & Bob have a hilarious moment over a $20 bill. Two years before taking the role of Superman on television, George Reeves has a small part in the movie as well.

Paris Holiday
(1959, United Artists)

Paris Holiday was a pet project of Bob’s. He came up the story idea, was executive producer and wanted it to be a showcase for himself and popular French comedian Fernandel. Even with the talented Ed Beloin getting a co-writing credit, there’s not much to report about this movie. Fernandel apparently knew very little English so his character doesn’t really add much to this comedy-thriller other than wild facial expressions.

True to Bob’s intentions, both actors were showcased. The story revolves around Hope as movie star visiting France  in order to secure the rights to a movie script. He ends up getting mixed up with a criminal organization that are after some important documents but Fernandel has a few scenes of his own to strut his stuff and basically acts as an accomplice to Hope’s character throughout the movie

I guess there were hopes that this movie was going to be a success because although it does have an ending there is a twist at the end to let you know that members of the crime ring are still at large and the movie ends with “The End ?”

There’s a few zany acts of physical comedy but the movie falls flat overall and as I’ve said before, at this point, Bob should’ve been acting more age appropriate and not still lusting after and falling in love with young women.

The Private Navy of Sgt. O’Farrell
(1968, United Artists)

This is one of Bob’s better movies from the second half of his career and it’s pretty surprising because this was his third-to-last starring theatrical role. His movies by this point were getting to be very hit-or-miss.

Hope plays a sergeant in the army stationed out on a Pacific island during WWII. The Japanese had sunk a ship carry supplies (beer, most importantly) and in order to improve morale Bob go to where the ship was sunk and get the beer for the rest of the boys.

Although it’s tough to buy Bob as a sergeant in the military at the age of 65, at least he’s not still skirt-chasing young women. It’s a refreshing change of pace to see Hope play a heroic and somewhat mature and more intelligent (yet still funny) character. A movie like this would’ve been ripe for Hope to partake in back in the ’40s as well but you’d have to make him a skirt-chasing coward during that decade.

The cast on this one is pretty good. Even Phyllis Diller (who I can’t stand) does well in her role and luckily she’s not much of a main character. I wasn’t expecting any good to come of this movie but it’s an enjoyable late Hope comedy and this particular print is as beautiful as Gina Lollobrigada in a floral bikini sitting on a Hawaiian beach.

There’s a couple of funny jabs at Bing Crosby in this one.

Directed by Frank Tashlin, who also directed Bob in Son of Paleface.

How To Commit Marriage
(1969, Cinerama Releasing Corp.)

Of all the Bob Hope movies I’ve seen, How To Commit Marriage is the second-to-worst and it was also the second-to-last feature for Bob and it was an independent release. By this point, Hope’s movie career was in serious decline and he was having trouble scoring roles and financing for movies. You really could’ve placed anyone in Bob’s role here because with some of Hope’s later movies you lose the feeling that you are watching a “Bob Hope movie” as opposed to it simply being “a movie starring Bob Hope”.

Most of this movie is played as a sophisticated comedy (other than Gleason’s chewing on the scenery and some old-school Hope humor towards the end) that deals with love, sex, drugs and the generation gap but it’s just soooooooooooo dated with the music and the hippies and the guru philosophy and free love ideas. I don’t know how Bob felt about doing this movie but as a huge Bob Hope fan, I can’t imagine he was proud of this effort.

Son of Paleface
(1952, Paramount Pictures)

Son of Paleface is an absolute classic Bob Hope movie and is the crown jewel in this whole collection. It’s often been said this sequel is even better than The Paleface itself but I think they are on equal ground.

Everything you could want is here. It’s that classic Bob Hope role of being the bumbling girl crazy fool who thinks he’s smarter, stronger, braver and sexier than he actually is.

I already owned this on DVD but its inclusion in this set certainly helps improve the collection’s overall appeal.

Cancel My Reservation
(1972, Warner Bros.)

The end of Hope’s leading man career. After this movie was released, he made only two cameos on the big screen (The Muppet Movie in 1979 and Spies Like Us in 1985) and then starred in the made-for-TV movie A Masterpiece of Murder in 1986 with Don Ameche.

What a way to go. This movie is terrible. Even the theme song is absolutely terrible. Pure ’70s soul/funk/pop garbage that’s trying to come off as The Jackson Five. It’s a weird mix of zaniness plus murder mystery and it doesn’t quiet balance out like some of Hope’s previous mystery-thrillers did. It doesn’t help that we’re supposed to believe Hope’s character is 42 years old when in truth Hope himself was 69 years old!

They made an honest attempt to capture some of the slapstick humor that had been a trademark of Bob’s movies (while taking more digs at Bing Crosby in the process) but the magic was gone by this point. Bob does a decent joke but the script is terrible and this was not the right type of role for him nearing 70 years old.

The movie’s real saving grace is the gorgeous Anne Archer. No, Bob isn’t lusting after her. He’s married to Eva Marie Saint in this one. Bob & Eva had previously been paired up in That Certain Feeling (1956).

It’s really sad this was Bob’s final movie.

Overall:

It’s really hard to recommend this set to anyone other than the hardcore Bob Hope fan. I’ve been trying to acquire all of Hope’s movies for quite some time so picking this collection up for a no-brainer for me. For anyone else that is a casual Hope fan and prefers his wise-cracking ways from the Road movies with Crosby, I suggest you stay away because there’s really only one classic here and the rest ranges from passable to poor.

Buy ‘The Bob Hope Collection: Vol. 2′ at Amazon.com

Here Come the Girls (1953) Review

Here Come the Girls
(1953, Paramount Pictures)

Yet another Bob Hope vehicle that has fallen into obscurity. As if you can’t tell by the poster, Here Come the Girls is a comedy-musical. The emphasis is on the musical. There are lots of numbers in this one because most of the movie takes place at a theater during a musical called, appropriately enough, “Here Come the Girls”. Working titles for the film were Champagne for Everyone and Girls Are Here to Stay.

The movie is set during the early 1900s and the plot is there’s a jealous killer on the loose who is out to murder the musical’s leading man because the killer wants the lead starlet (Arlene Dahl) all to himself. The cops & the musical’s director decide to put a chorus boy (Hope) in place of the leading man (Tony Martin) in order to lure “Jack the Slasher” out into the open. There’s some dark humor here as the play’s director didn’t want to risk the real leading man’s life and at one point he is disappointed when he is told the slasher didn’t kill Hope’s character. Of course, Hope’s character doesn’t realize he’s being used as bait and thinks that fortune has finally found its way to him and he believes he’s become a big star.

1993 VHS release

Supposedly the movie was originally shot for 3D but for whatever reason wasn’t released as such. They definitely made use of Technicolor though. Lots of elaborate flashy costumes and big bright stage settings.

I’m a bit confused as to who actually owns this movie. The only video release I can find for it is a 1993 VHS edition which was released by Paramount. So that tells me it’s not in the public domain but yet there is no DVD release. Now, the weird thing is the movie is available to stream from Netflix. I was thinking since Olive Films has gained the license to release a number of Paramount films (including Hope’s My Favorite Spy and Off Limits) and are streaming them through Netflix that maybe they held the rights to this movie but that doesn’t appear to be the case. I’m assuming that ultimately Paramount still holds the rights to the movie so hopefully the studio will see to it that this movie gets a new video release at some point. I think it’s only been in the last year or that so this movie has been available on Netflix.

While I certainly think this movie deserves to be release on video because it stars one of the greatest entertainers of all time I will say that this movie is not very memorable. Sure, there’s a great cast here but I think Here Comes the Girls focuses too much on being a musical and not enough on being a comedy.

EDIT (May 8, 2012):

I’ve been reading Donald McCaffrey’s book The Road to Comedy: The Films of Bob Hope and a little more light is shed on this movie. According to the original scriptwriter Edmund L. Hartmann, the film was NOT intended to be a musical. When asked about it turning from a comedy to a musical, Hartmann’s reply was “they fucked it up”. According to Hartmann, the script was considered to be the best Bob Hope movie yet by a number of people close to the project.

Bob Hope & Mickey Rooney in… OFF LIMITS (1953)

Off Limits
(1953, Paramount Studios)

Off Limits (released outside the U.S. as the blandly titled Military Policemen) is one of those obscure Bob Hope films that somehow has ended up online at a ridiculous price that I’m sure I’ll eventually pay. I don’t believe this is a public domain film so that would explain why it appears Olive Films has the only DVD release for it and are charging $24.95 (they are also doing this with My Favorite Spy). Luckily, before I decide to spend the money on it, it’s available for streaming on Netflix.

Having not heard much about the film, I wasn’t sure what to expect. Once you get into the 1950s, Bob’s movies could be hit or miss (even if his performances stayed top notch). Knowing that and coupling it with the fact this movie seems to become forgotten by most, I figured it was going to be an uninspired effort.

On the contrary, it’s an enjoyable movie that fits the mold of the typical Bob Hope film. Hope himself is still in top form (in what I think might’ve been one his last B&W films) and I’m sure that was helped by the fact that George Marhshall directs. George & Bob first worked together in 1940 on The Ghostbreakers and would work together on a total of 8 films.

Olive Films' DVD Release (2011)

The story is that of a boxing/military comedy hybrid as Hope plays Wally Hogan, a boxing trainer. When Wally’s world champion fighter is drafted into the Army, Hogan enlists as well to keep watch on him (a reversal of roles for Bob in regards to 1941′s Caught In the Draft). The problem is the boxer is rejected because he was deemed to be manic-depressive and not fit for enlistment. Hogan of course wants to get out since his boxer has been rejected but it doesn’t work like that.

Once enlisted, Wally ends up running into wanna-be boxer Herbert Tuttle (Mickey Rooney) and they both sign up as MPs (because it’ll be easier work) and Hope tries to make time with Herbert’s Aunt Connie (Marilyn Maxwell) while training Rooney’s character to become a top boxer.

By 1953, Bob was 50 years old. The premise that he was still a skirt-chaser and enlisting in the Army is a bit hard to swallow but he already had 15 years put into this on-screen persona, so why change it? Sure, it’s getting slightly creepy by this point but it still works.

And yes, just in case you’re wondering, there is a very brief Crosby cameo in the form of singing on television.

Off Limits may not rank with some of the best of Bob but it’s certainly better than most of the movies I’ve seen him in from the mid-1950s and into the 1960s. It may be one of the last Bob Hope movies that feels like a Bob Hope movie. If you can catch it on Netflix, I recommend it. Other than that, hardcore Hope fans will probably have to spring $20 or so to own a DVD copy.

Buy it at Amazon.com

Don’t Shoot, It’s Only Me by Bob Hope

Don’t Shoot, It’s Only Me
By Bob Hope with Melville Shavelson
(1990, Putnam Books)

I’ve read a couple of Bob Hope books (about him and by him) over the years and had this one on my Amazon wishlist for awhile (it’s only a PENNY for a used copy) but then I came across it at the local library and decided to check it out.

I wasn’t sure what I was getting into. I know Hope wrote TONS of books over the years so I had no clue what the material was going to be but I guess the title should’ve been my first clue because this book details Hope’s tours around the world (with his ever-changing cast of “Hope Gypsies”) entertaining for U.S. troops from World War II up through Desert Storm.

The book is full of the typical funny one-liners that Hope is known for and many of the jokes while performing for the troops are repeated. There are a few stories in regards to his career but the book mostly sticks to talking about the wartime tours: living conditions, morale, the close-calls and the laughs. There’s a lot of talk about U.S. presidents too as Hope had met them all from FDR up to George Bush Sr.

Obviously, the bulk of the book details World War II, which is when Hope was most active entertaining the troops. Bob & his gang not only toured military bases putting on a stage show for the troops but during WWII his radio show was broadcast from U.S. bases as well. Vietnam also gets a good chunk of space since the war went on for so long and Hope went over every time around Christmas to help spread some cheer where there was none to be found and no one was really in the mood for it anyway. Words are devoted to the Cold War as well.

This is a good read for Bob Hope fans and people who have an interest in World War II. I’m sure Melville Shavelson had his share of input (like in regards to jokes about some the then-current events) but it really reads as if Bob Hope was speaking.

Buy ‘Don’t Shoot, It’s Only Me’ at Amazon.com

Ranking the Hope & Crosby ‘Road’ series

I’ve been on a serious kick lately with the Hope/Crosby ‘Road’ movies, so what better time to rank them than today?

For those of you not familiar with the franchise, the Road movies (referred to on/off as the Road to… movies or the “Road Pictures”) were a series of films that were equal parts comedy, romance, adventure, genre spoof and music.

Though the series was most prolific during the 1940s, seven films were made from 1940 – 1962 and they all starred two of the biggest entertainers of the era: Bing Crosby & Bob Hope. For the first six films, Dorothy Lamour c0-starred (and received billing over Hope for the first film) with Joan Collins co-starring in the series’ final entry while Lamour is relegated to a cameo role.

None of the films are direct sequels to the movies that came before it. Hope & Crosby basically play the same characters in each movie (Crosby is the smooth, girl-chasing con man and Hope is his not-so-smooth girl-chasing cowardly friend) but the names are always different. Dorothy Lamour is always the object of desire for both of the boys (except for the last one).

7. The Road to Hong Kong (1962, United Artists)

The only movie in the series not made for Paramount Pictures. Definitely the weakest in the entire series. By far. The guys had zero chemistry with Joan Collins, the age gap made for a creepy love triangle and it just doesn’t feel like a Road movie. I hate to say it but it was a sad, tired attempt to bring the franchise back to life. Despite spoofing the popular spy genre, Hope & Crosby seem a bit out of date here. They should have gone for a more classic Road feel rather than try to appeal to a younger generation with some of their jokes & gags.

For more of my thoughts on this movie, check out my review that I wrote back in 2010.

6.  Road to Rio (1947, Paramount)

By 1947, four years had passed since the last Road movie was in production (yes, Road to Utopia was released in 1946 but more on that in a bit). With this one, I think it shows that maybe everyone had gotten a bit rusty from that layoff and maybe the studio & crew forgot why the series had been so enjoyable in the first place. Road to Rio is nowhere near as out of place as The Road to Hong Kong but it doesn’t really click.

On paper this has the makings of a Road movie but for me the series really depends on the snappy dialogue between Hope & Crosby (who both ad-libbed a lot throughout the series) and it’s just not there for the most part. You might be able to chalk that up to the fact that they hadn’t worked together in four years and hadn’t gelled fully together again.

It also seems like Lamour is featured less in this movie than she previously had been. Hmm… I wonder if that has something to do with the fact that this was the first in the series to be co-produced by Hope Enterprises and Bing Crosby Enterprises. Even though I like the movie just for the fact that it stars Hope & Crosby, it’s nothing special and the ending is a cop-out (most of the endings kinda were, but this one even more-so).

An interesting note, and I didn’t even realize this until watching it again last night, is that the movie was written by Ed Beloin. Along with Bill Morrow, Beloin co-wrote Jack Benny’s radio program from 1936-1943. That’s a great era for Jack Benny, so it’s surprising I wasn’t really feeling this movie because I know just how funny Beloin can be.

5. Road to Bali (1952, Paramount)

The first movie in the series to be filmed in Technicolor and the first Road movie I ever watched. It’s also the only Road movie in the public domain so I picked it up as part of a 2-disc collection featuring a few other public domain comedies. In fact, the print of the film used on the copy I have comes from the UCLA Library. I really don’t understand how Paramount could let something like this fall into the public domain but then I don’t claim to have some great knowledge of how copyrights work in the first place.

Road to Rio showed a rusty Road crew after four years of inactivity but, surprisingly, the five years of rest before Road to Bali doesn’t seem to matter a bit. Bali isn’t a classic Road picture but it is very good. It meanders about for a very long time while we wait for the film’s antagonists to appear but it’s during these plot-thin moments that Hope & Crosby start trading quips & insults like it was the 1940s all over again.

Lots of fun cameos in this one: Bob Crosby (Bing’s brother), Humphrey Bogart (via footage from The African Queen), Dean Martin & Jerry Lewis and Jane Russell (co-star of Bob’s for 1948′s The Paleface and 1952′s Son of Paleface).

4. Road to Singapore (1940, Paramount)

It doesn’t feature all of the running gags that would later become synonymous with the series and the comedy isn’t as slapstick, silly or over the top but Road to Singapore (the first film in the series) is a classic in its own right.

It’s much more of a traditional movie than what would later come: there’s some romance, some drama, some comedy, some singing. Nothing really out ordinary for the era. This one has the most solid plot out of all the movies too and probably features the most romantic drama. Plot is something that becomes less and less important with later releases when basically you’re watching an hour and a half of Hope/Crosby trading one-liners.

There is actually a story being told here but I have to agree with Turner Classic Movies’ online review where they state that something about the film feels “off”. They chalk it up to no one really knowing in what direction to take the movie by way of dialogue. Both Hope and Crosby were ad-libbing and had their own personal writers on the set to feed them lines as well. The legend goes that once Hope & Crosby read the script, they tossed it out and pretty much ad-libbed the entire movie (which caused frustration for Lamour, the crew and the script-writers).

Great movie featuring everything we love about classic Hollywood. It’s fun to look back at this movie to see a more grounded Road picture.

3. Road to Zanzibar (1941, Paramount)

The second film in the series and it really starts to kick off the great running gags of the series (“patty-cake”) and slapstick humor. Great songs and more great dialogue with Bob, Bing and Dorothy traveling through the jungle. What more could you ask for? Oh, how about the super cute & quirky Una Merkel (who was in The Mad Doctor of Market Street)?

2. Road to Utopia (1946, Paramount)

Okay, so here’s the deal from what I can gather online: Road to Utopia went into production in 1943 and wrapped in March 1944 but was not released to the public until 1946 for three different reasons.

Whether these are true or not, I don’t know but here are the reasons:

1. Road to Morocco was still a strong box office draw and Paramount rightfully wanted to get as much money out of it as they could and didn’t want Utopia taking away from that

2. Paramount also did not want to distract from Going My Way, which was released in 1944 and starred Bing

3. Road to Utopia was one of a number of movies made during WWII that was shown to U.S. troops before being release to the civilian public

I’m not sure how much of an affect the last reason should have to delay a movie by two years but the first two reasons about not wanting to take away from the box office of Road to Morocco and Going My Way completely make sense.

For the movie itself, it’s a great one and I liked it much, much better now than when I first watched it years ago. Most of the series features Bob & Bing in a warm or tropical climate but this one takes them to Alaska during the gold rush (the “Utopia” mentioned in the title) of the early 1900s. I’ve seen reviews state this as the best of the series and it’s hard to argue that. You can make a case for any of the top three on my list to be the best of the series.

The dialogue is great. Don’t believe me? The movie was nominated for Best Screenplay at the 1947 Academy Awards. There’s even some nice action and the whole thing really captures Bing & Bob in their prime and firing on all cylinders. After all, at the time of filming, this was their fourth movie together in as many years and everything was clicking.

1. Road to Morocco (1942, Paramount)

This is the one that’s generally accepted to be the best of the entire series. If someone asked me to show them a Road picture, this would be it. I think you can make a strong case for Road to Utopia or Road to Zanzibar as being the best of the series, but this is the quintessential Road film that really conveys best what the entire series is all about.

Like Road to Utopia, it received a nomination for Best Screenplay. It was listed at #78 on the American Film Institute’s 100 Years… 100 Laughs list and was inducted into the National Film Registry in 1996.

So there you have it… All seven of the Road pictures ranked. The top four are absolute classics and I recommend them as essential viewing for anyone that is a fan of old movies. I also recommend Road to Bali but give only a mild recommendation for Road to Rio. Stay away from The Road to Hong Kong.