MY FAVORITE BRUNETTE
US, 1947, 87 minutes, Black and white.
Bob Hope, Dorothy Lamour, Peter Lorre, Lon Chaney Jnr, John Hoyt, Charles Dingle, Reginald Denny.
Directed by Elliott Nugent.
My Favorite Brunette is one of a series of Bob Hope comedies including My Favorite Blonde with Madeleine Carroll and My Favorite Spy with Hedy Lamarr.
The film teams Hope with Dorothy Lamour, a popular partner not only from the Road films. There is a guest appearance, amusingly, of Alan Ladd as the private eye in San Francisco. There is the inevitable Bing Crosby appearance - but right at the end.
The film is a spoof on Hammett- Chandler private eye stories. Hope is a photographer who wants to be a private eye and gets tangled in international plots. Dorothy Lamour is good as the femme fatale. The supporting cast is strong, including Peter Lorre, Charles Dingle, Lon Chaney Jnr. Direction is by Elliott Nugent, director of many popular comedies at Paramount during the '40s.
1.Enjoyable comedy? '40s style? Bob Hope vehicle? His presence, wisecracks and one-liners, cowardly character, romantic hero?
2.Black and white photography, studio sets and budget, San Francisco and Washington? Musical score, song? The strong cast?
3.The title and the series of favourites?
4.Ronnie Jackson, about to be executed, no reprieve, telling his story? The flashbacks, his photographing the Chinese child - and the irony of his keyhole camera, the photo and the Chinese mother having it? His wanting to be like Sam McLeod? Discussions with him - as Alan Ladd? Being mistaken for Sam? Carlotta and her pleas? His accompanying her, believing her story? The uncle? The meeting with Major Montague and his plausible twisting of the story, Kismet and the others? Suspicions of Carlotta? The clues, tracking people down? Going to the sanatorium? Being captured by the gang, with Carlotta, engineering the escape? The map? Meeting Collins, his death? The meeting in Washington, recording the confession? The madcap hold-up and chase? His arrest? His final reprieve, romance with Carlotta? Staying as a photographer? And the presence of Bing Crosby at the end? Typical Bob Hope character and characterisation? The friendly coward? The deadpan double takes and wisecracks?
5.Dorothy Lamour, Carlotta, South America, her plea, the adventures, her not being believed, in the sanatorium, the escape, as the maid in Washington, to the rescue?
6.The gang: Peter Lorre and his sinister presence, tracking people, murder? Charles Dingle and his blustering southern style, in command, half-witted? Lon Chaney Jnr as not all there, strength, friendliness? The other criminals? Their plot, comeuppance?
7.Collins, the explanation, his murder?
8.Popular comedy of the '40s?
