My Favorite Brunette

Bing Crosby's cameo in "My Favorite Brunette" bob hope and bing crosby had an arraingement to do cameos in each other's movies, however, bing had already done a cameo in bob's last movie, so it wasn't bing's turn. Bob wanted bing to do this cameo so badly that bob offered to pay bing $5000. Which bing donated to charity. Bing Crosby walked on set, skipped makeup, ( already made up from another movie he was shooting on the lot), stopped at wardrobe, (which consisted of donning a prison guard shirt), and did his bit in one take, leaving the soundstage in just 5 minutes, making a Hollywood record for the most money per minute payed to an actor. Scource: My grandfather, Elliott Nugent, directed this movie and wrote about it in his autobiography "Events Leading up to the Comedy" Oh yeah, about Alan Ladd playing the private eye, Elliott Nugent directed him in 'The Great Gatsby". Jonathan Elliott.

source: My Favorite Brunette

This film is the best representation of what a Bob Hope movie is, a cowardly schnook operating with false bravado who gets in way over his head. With few exceptions this was the pattern that a good chunk of all of Hope's films would follow, some times it worked and sometime it didn't. Here the formula mostly works. The film is funny in ways that are stupidly punny and very clever. In many ways its the height of Hope's on Screen madness. However things aren't perfect.Part of the problem for me is that seeing this film again for the umteenth time I realized that the formula had been used so many times that this "original" has gotten lost in the crowd. This isn't a bad thing since the original is so good, it just means that we can't see this as clever as many people see it. Still it worth seeing, especially if you like Bob Hopes type of silliness.

Bob Hope and Dorothy Lamour star in this tired comedy. Hope is a photographer who specializes in baby pictures but really wants to be a private detective like his hero down the hall, Sam McCloud (a cameo by Alan Ladd). One day when McCloud is out of the office, Hope happens to be there when Dorothy Lamour slips in and, mistaking him for McCloud, hires him to unravel a mystery. This is just one more of Hope's mistaken identity comedies, and not a particularly good one. The writing is weak, Elliott Nugent's direction is flat, the supporting cast--other than Peter Lorre and Lon Chaney Jr.--isn't really up to par, and for some reason Hope and Lamour don't seem to have any chemistry at all. On top of that, the picture just looks cheap, like a later Bowery Boys movie from Monogram. Hope and Lamour made much better pictures than this. It's not really worth your time.

Yes, it's typical Bob Hope: bad jokes, missed punch lines, wacky and impossible plots.

The worst thing about MY FAVORITE BRUNETTE is the bad print TCM is showing. Looks like a poor Public Domain print that is almost worn out with the years. The comedy itself is a bright one with clever lines and situations. BOB HOPE is a baby photographer mistaken for a private eye by no less than DOROTHY LAMOUR who asks his help in finding her hubby's murderer. Turns out she's really talking about her uncle, but she's a liar (like Mary Astor in THE MALTESE FALCON). The gags get off to a good start with ALAN LADD asking Bob to mind his office while he packs a gun and goes on a private eye mission. Hope obliges Lamour by showing up at the mansion she occupies, described by Hope as "something left over from Wuthering Heights." PETER LORRE, JOHN HOYT, CHARLES DINGLE, REGINALD DENNY and LON CHANEY, JR. are excellent in sustaining the humor as they go about making things tough for detective Hope. LON CHANEY, JR. is particularly effective in a replay of his dimwit role from "Of Mice and Men". Dingle, likewise, seems to be repeating his role of the crooked Southern gentleman in THE LITTLE FOXES. Hope is told that Dotty is a schizophrenic imagining that her uncle has been kidnapped and she's only dangerous when emotionally disturbed. He's supposed to believe that the map she talked about and a missing treasure is just part of her illness. "Promise me you'll guard the map with your life," she tells Hope. Once Hope finds out Carlotta (Lamour) is telling the truth, the gags come fast and furious and he spends the rest of the film coping with the various dangerous situations involving the gangsters. Part of the comedy comes from the bad guys planting misleading clues in the hope that Hope will find them, to no avail. It's entertaining with Hope at his liveliest and Lamour at her prettiest and a supporting cast that more than compensates for a script that's only fault is that it's pretty predictable from start to finish. Despite flaws, if you can find a decent print of the film it's worth watching.

After Hope had established a franchise with the "road" pictures, studios scrambled to extend its reach. This may be the most interesting direction they took. I'm not a fan of Hope's faux zaniness. Its all too artificial: when we see the baby, we know we'll see some excess like a bitten finger. But this story is framed as a parody (not a spoof, something that has less respect for the template) of a particular type of noir film — the hardboiled detective bit. Except for the kiddie sequence (which is important to the story), it starts out rather well as a parody. But after twenty minutes or so, the routine TeeVee quality skit level kicks in. If you like the standard Hope routine, you'll like it from there on out. The only part I liked was Lorre trying to place a ring where Hope would find it and being foiled over and over. But the beginning is fine and of interest in the history of noir. When the studios dictate a parody, the genre is mature. Ted's Evaluation -- 1 of 3: You can find something better to do with this part of your life.

In My Favorite Brunette Bob Hope got a grand opportunity to satirize all those noir private eye films and he made the most of it. He even got to drag in Paramount's favorite noir star Alan Ladd along for the fun. Hope as Ronnie Jackson, baby photographer, has an adjoining office to private eye Sam McCloud and Hope would like to get into his line of work, having completed a correspondence course. He's even got a gun, although God only knows who'd give him a license. Sam McCloud, played by an unbilled Alan Ladd, tells him to stick to babies, but to mind his office while he goes out of town. Wouldn't you know it, a beautiful mysterious brunette right out of The Maltese Falcon comes into the office asking for help. Of course Dorothy Lamour thinks Hope is the real deal as a private eye. And Hope following his hormones plays along. Isn't that what got Jerome Cowan killed in The Maltese Falcon? It gets kind of wild and wacky after that. A trio of fine players, Lon Chaney, Jr., Charles Dingle and Peter Lorre are our villains and all of them goof on the roles they've played in more serious films. Chaney does an imitation of his gentle half-wit Lenny from Of Mice and Men, Dingle satirizes his rapacious southern businessman from The Little Foxes and Lorre spoofs all the sinister henchmen roles he's done in innumerable films. It all almost ends on death row in San Quentin where Hope is arrested for a murder of a British Intelligence Officer played by Reginald Denny. A very disappointed executioner watches Hope get Lamour for once knowing full well it would have been him if he had had a bigger role in the film. I'm not so sure.

This was one of the three films that Bob Hope did for Paramount with the theme of favorites: blonde, spy and brunette. He was at one of the best moments of his career when this spoof about the detective movie genre went into production. "My Favorite Brunette" was directed by Elliott Nugent with a style that made it fun and light to watch. The screen play by Edmund Beloin and Jack Rose parodies those films that showed a charismatic private eye get into all kinds of dangerous situations. In this film, Ronnie Jackson, a photographer in San Francisco is suddenly, thrown into a web of intrigue when he steps into the office of his neighbor, the real P.I, Sam McCloud, who is fed up with the job and is leaving town. Enter the femme fatale, something that is a must in this type of film, Carlotta Montay. She will get Ronnie into all kinds of difficult situations and even the gas chamber as he tries his best to deal with all the bad people that are chasing Carlotta. Bob Hope was excellent in his take of Ronnie Jackson. Dorothy Lamour, in all her beauty, made the most of her Carlotta. Two cameos in the film were notorious because they are uncredited and unexpected: Alan Ladd, and Bing Crosby. Others in the film are Peter Lorre, Lon Chaney Jr., Charles Dingle, Frank Puglia, Reginald Denny, among the supporting cast. The film is still a lot of fun as it makes fun of other more dramatic movies thanks to the direction of Elliott Nugent.

Hi, Everyone, As this movie begins, count the stars in the Paramount logo. You will see there are 24. That means it is an old Paramount Picture. Paramount's new logo has only 22 stars. I am not sure when that was changed but certainly by the mid fifties. Interestingly, this movie has a speaking part for an African American man and an Asian American woman in the first five minutes of the film. Neither gets screen credit. There is also a child actor who chews up the scenery, that scenery being Bob Hope's finger. It is nice to see Bob Hope actually climbing a tree. Bob was in excellent physical shape in those days of the 1940s. If you want to watch him dancing watch The Seven Little Foys where he tap dances with Jimmy Cagney during the mid 1950s. It is fun for those of us who remember dictaphones and wire recorders and disc recorders that made big 78 rpm records as we watch Bob trying to operate a recorder. Where were the digital MP3 recorders when you needed one in 1947? The cars are fun to look at. This is like a trip to a museum with an old friend. One scene I ran back and forth a few times and I have not yet figured out how they did it. There is a scene where Bob is the target for a knife thrower. I think they really threw the knives and barely missed his head. It looks real to me. Not Bob's best movie, but worth a look. I recommend Paleface, Fancy Pants, Son of Paleface, Seven Little Foys, Beau James and That Certain Feeling. Tom Willett