The Paleface **** (1948, Bob Hope, Jane Russell, Robert Armstrong) – Classic Movie Review 1171

Bob Hope stars in one of his best-loved roles as the totally inept dentist and confirmed coward ‘Painless’ Peter Potter, who hitches up with Jane Russell’s sharp-shooting gal Calamity Jane to dodge attacks from both Native Americans and bandits as she tries to find out who are the gunrunners smuggling rifles to the Indians.

It starts as Calamity Jane and a secret agent go undercover, posing as man and wife, to find the culprit. But the agent is killed and she has to recruit the dopey dufus Painless Potter as her new husband.

Hope gets to sing, delightfully, Jay Livingston and Ray Evans’s Oscar-winning best song ‘Buttons and Bows’. It became by a long way his greatest record hit.

The lively performances all round help ensure that this is a jolly, cheery and very funny satirical comedy Western, which in particular spoofs the then recent 1946 film The Virginian with Joel McCrea. The Paleface is skilfully directed in lovely Technicolor by Norman Z McLeod in 1948, from a witty, on-target screenplay by Edmund L Hartmann, Frank Tashlin and Jack Rose.

The perfectly matched stars are on their most charismatic, exuberant best form. Thanks mainly to them, it was deservedly incredibly popular, and a sequel, Son of Paleface, soon followed in 1952 with both stars returning. Don Knotts remade the film as The Shakiest Gun in the West in 1968.

With measurements of 38D-24-36 and standing 5’7″, Russell was more statuesque than most of her contemporaries. Hope once introduced her as ‘the two and only Jane Russell.’ He also joked: ‘Culture is the ability to describe Jane Russell without moving your hands.’

(C) Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Film Review 1171

Link to Derek Winnert’s home page for more film reviews: http://derekwinnert.com/