My Favourite Brunette **** (1947, Bob Hope, Dorothy Lamour, Peter Lorre) – Classic Movie Review 1277

In director Elliott Nugent’s 1947 hit comedy, Bob Hope’s Favorite Brunette is of course his Road series companion Dorothy Lamour.  Filmed partly on location in San Francisco and Pebble Beach, California, the movie’s both a romantic comedy and a spoof of private eyes and film noir movies. Hope stars as baby photographer Ronnie Jackson, who tells reporters his history while on Death Row in San Quentin State Prison.

While taking care of his private eye neighbour’s office, Ronnie is asked by the alluring Baroness Carlotta Montay (Lamour) to find her missing rich baron husband (Frank Puglia), starting a complex chain of sinister events in a gloomy mansion and a private sanatorium. And so Ronnie turns to sleuthing to get the lady-in-peril Carlotta out of deadly trouble with gangsters Peter Lorre (as Kismet), Lon Chaney Jnr (playing Willie) and Elisha Cook Jnr. But he then finds himself framed for murder and hence on Death Row.

The playing’s delicious and the gags come thick and fast in this smarter than average comedy fluff, which represents another peak for Hope. There are plenty of laughs in Edmund Beloin and Jack Rose’s energetic and witty wisecracking screenplay. Director Nugent takes it at a commendably quick-moving pace so there are no flat sections or dull scenes.

There are neat cameo appearances by Bing Crosby as the ‘executioner’ and film noir regular Alan Ladd as Ronnie’s friend Sam McCloud, the private eye who leaves him to take care of his gumshoe business while he has a vacation. Chaney Jnr bases his character on his Of Mice and Men film role of Lennie.

Hope’s other Favorites are Madeleine Carroll in My Favourite Blonde (1942) and Hedy Lamarr in My Favourite Spy (1951).

Hope lived to be 100 on May 29 2003, but he wasn’t well enough to keep his booked-in show date at the London Palladium that night and he died on July 27 2003.

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(C) Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Movie Review 1277

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