MY FAVOURITE BRUNETTE
(Paramount)
JN the Bing Crosby film just reviewed there is a reference to Bob Hope which is supposed to raise a laugh and at the end of My Favourite Brunette’ which
stars Bob Hope, there is the’ familiar old joke based on Hope’s rivalry with Crosby.’ This is symptomatic; in the latter film in particular the material is very thin indeed. Basically, the idea was sound enough: a burlesque of the a-tough school of crime melodrama fis is currently popular, with Hope o‘traying a bewildered innocent embroiled in a fearful mess of villainy and violence. But My Favourite Brunette (the. title, naturally, refers to Dorothy Lamour) makes two basic mistakes. One: mental asylums are scarcely a fit setting for comedy, and much of the action of this film takes place in an institution of this type. ‘Two: it is fatal to comedy when a player’s style of hum‘our becomes so familiar that you can anticipate almost every move he makes and nearly every quip he utters.
This doesn’t mean that My Favourite Brunette is entirely without laughs; there are probably enough bright moments to prevent your feeling: that the evening has been entirely wasted. But it does suggest that Bob Hope should either think up some new ideas and gags with which to vary his style, or else that he should go into retirement for a while. I’ve no objection to his retaining Dorothy Lamour; whats ormnamental, if little else.
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZLIST19470912.2.52.1.3
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 17, Issue 429, 12 September 1947, Page 25
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243MY FAVOURITE BRUNETTE New Zealand Listener, Volume 17, Issue 429, 12 September 1947, Page 25
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