My Favorite Brunette [Collector's Edition] DVD

My Favorite Brunette
Just as Bob Hope's My Favorite Blonde (1942) was a takeoff on Alfred Hitchcock, Hope's My Favorite Brunette was a lampoon of the noirish "hard-boiled detective" school popularized by Raymond Chandler. Awaiting execution on death row, Hope tells the gathered reporters how he got into his present predicament. It seems that Hope was once a baby photographer, his office adjacent to the one leased by a private detective (played in an amusing unbilled cameo by Alan Ladd). While hanging around the p.i.'s office, Hope is mistaken for the detective by beautiful client Dorothy Lamour. She hires Hope to search for her missing uncle, and also entrusts him with a valuable map. Hope's diligent (if inept) sleuthing takes him to a shady rest sanitarium, where he runs afoul of lamebrained henchman Lon Chaney, Jr. and sinister, knife-throwing Peter Lorre. Both are in the employ of attorney Charles Dingle, who is responsible for the disappearance of Lamour's uncle. Escaping the sanitarium with Lamour in tow, Hope follows the trail of evidence to noted geologist Reginald Denny. The geologist is murdered, and Hope is accused of the crime. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Cast Bob Hope as Ronnie Jackson Dorothy Lamour as Carlotta Montay Peter Lorre as Kismet Lon Chaney Jr. as Willie John Hoyt as Dr.Lundau Charles Dingle as Maj. Simon Montague Reginald Denny as James Collins Frank Puglia as Baron Montay Ann Doran as Miss Rogers Willard Robertson as Prison Warden Jack LaRue as Tony

Crew Earl Hedrick - Art Director Hans Dreier - Art Director Edith Head - Costume Designer Mel Epstein - First Assistant Director Elliott Nugent - Director Ellsworth Hoagland - Editor Robert Emmett Dolan - Composer (Music Score) Robert Emmett Dolan - Musical Direction/Supervision Wally Westmore - Makeup Lionel Lindon - Cinematographer Daniel Dare - Producer John MacNeil - Set Designer Sam Comer - Set Designer Gordon Jennings - Special Effects Jack Rose - Screenwriter Edmund Beloin - Screenwriter

My Favorite Brunette
Woody Allen often stated that Bob Hope was a major influence on his work, and this is especially clear in My Favorite Brunette. Many of the gags and one-liners given to Hope would not seem out of place coming from Allen, with the crucial difference that the former delivers them "sincerely," whereas coming from the latter they would be tinged with irony. Brunette is a send-up of the "private dick" film, with Hope's take on a Phillip Marlowe type, giving him the chance to play his favorite "fish out of water" routine for all it's worth. For most of the film, the gags come fast and furious here, often making no sense but accumulating an irresistible force nonetheless. Unfortunately, about two-thirds of the way through, the tangled plot (an essential feature of the genre being spoofed) takes precedence and slows things down a little; it isn't a fatal change of pace, but it does keep the film from being the full-length laugh-fest it could have been. Hope is right at home with the material, and, of course, he gets good assistance from Dorothy Lamour. What's surprising is how delightfully funny Peter Lorre and (especially) Lon Chaney Jr. are. If My Favorite Brunette just misses being a classic comedy, it still has a great deal to recommend it. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide
 

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General Specifications: Language Options: Subtitle Options: Sound Processing: DD: Generic Dolby Digital (unspecified format) Additional Features: Dolby Digital sound Carefully re-mastered for best picture quality MPAA Rating: NR DVD Discs Included: 1 DVD Sides: 1 DVD DVD Region Code: All Content Length: 85 min   DVD Chapters: Side #1 -- 1. Jackson & The Baroness [14:06] 2. Trip to the Mansion [14:08] 3. The Car Chase [15:25] 4. The Seacliffe Lodge [14:59] 5. A Detective No More [13:28] 6. At the Hotel [15:02]