UnowPriceless hyped garbage

Pluskylang Great Film overall

XoWizIama Excellent adaptation.

Salubfoto It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

a_chinn Probably my favorite Bob Hope movie has Bob as a photographer who gets mixed up with gangsters in what is basically a serious film noir plot except you get Bob Hope instead of Phillip Marlowe. Hope's rapid fire one-liners are the main attraction of this film, but that's bolstered by a better than average supporting cast which includes Peter Lorre and Lon Chaney as one of the many villains. Hope calling Lorre "Cuddles" is one of my all-time favorite things. There's also a very funny cameo early in the film by Alan Ladd and another funny cameo by a famous partner of Hope's at the end of the film. Whenever I watch a Hope film, I always think about how Woody Allen once said how Hope was one of his favorite comedians and how much he was influence he was. Re-watching "My Favorite Brunette" reminded me of this even more because just about every line out of Hope's mouth could just as easily been delivered by Allen's nervous-little-fellow on-screen persona. Overall, I think this is probably Hope's best solo film and a must see for fans of classic Hollywood comedies. It's also probably worth checking out for fans of Woody Allen's early comedies.

weezeralfalfa In general, I'm not into film noires. However, this one was wackier than the ones I've seen, understanding that it's supposed to be a spoof of the genre. This is one of a triumvirate of films costarring Bob Hope, titled "My Favorite......", released between 1942 and 1951. I haven't seen the other two yet: "My Favorite Blond" and "My Favorite Spy", each with a different cute costar: Dorothy Lamour in this one. A highly contrived plot, basically about the disposition of the mineral rights for a piece of land owned by a wheelchair-bound uncle of Dorothy's character, A central part of the screenplay involves fighting over the possession of a piece of paper with a map of the location of the minerals, with a code not attached to the map, which only Dorothy's uncle and a geologist know. The bad guys have kidnapped said uncle, hoping to get the code from him. But Hope has hidden the map, given to him by Dorothy for safe keeping. Dorothy has hired Hope as a detective, believing him to be the professional detective whose office is next to Hope's photography lab. Dorothy says she's afraid the kidnappers will kill her uncle if she goes to the police about the kidnapping, so why she wants a private eye.(Why would the kidnappers want to kill Dorothy's uncle, if only he knows an essential bit of information?)I wish they had named either Montay or Montague something else, since they include 3 of the main characters, and I sometimes got mixed up who they were talking about.The finale made little sense to me. Hope's character is on death row as the supposed murderer of geologist James Collins. Just why he or Peter Lorre's character(the real murderer) would want Collins dead isn't clear to me. Collins drew the map everyone wants, and devised the code for the map. Lorre destroyed the recording of his admission of guilt. All we have is the negative of Hope's photo showing that the man he was told is Dorothy's uncle must be an imposter. How does this prove Hope's innocence of the murder?? As a geology enthusiast, I checked out the said relationship between a cryolite deposit and supposed included uranium. I found no indication that cryolite deposits contain significant uranium. Significant cryolite deposits are very rare, and it is important as a flux in converting bauxite into metallic aluminum. Thus, the cryolite itself might be more valuable than uranium, which is found in various places around the world.

Steven Torrey What surprised me about this screwball comedy was its ability to maintain suspense throughout the film. (Well, until the end, in any event.) Unlike an Inspector Clouseau film--Peter Sellers--where there is no intention at believability, this film strived for believability. And by and large succeeded. The viewer ends up believing that someone as dumb as Bob Hope would get himself into a situation--Kafkesque--where others manipulate his reality which ends up sending him to the death chamber. The film had as many twists and turns as the proverbial highway. And somehow, they all seemed to work in the congregate.While it ain't "The Maltese Falcon" or "Dial M for Murder"--it comes close.

MartinHafer The film begins with Hope on death row! How he got there is something you learn about through a flashback. It seems he was a baby photographer with hopes of one day becoming a private detective. And, through some accidents of change, he is mistaken for one...and ends up in the middle of a huge conspiracy. It seems that Dorothy Lamour is in need of help, but her story doesn't make much sense. But, what also doesn't make much sense is how all her 'family' react to Hope's presence--obviously SOMETHING is amiss. But what is really happening and how did Hope end up in the big house? Tune in and see for yourself with this charming public domain films. How it was allowed to lapse into the public domain is a puzzler, as often this might indicate the movie is a stinker--which this one certainly is NOT. Apart from the great cameos, some other things to look for are Lon Chaney, Jr. playing a character pretty much like his Lenny from "Of Mice And Men".This is undoubtedly one of Bob Hope's best films for a variety of reasons. Most importantly, it simply is better written. By combining Hope's usual banter with typical film noir language, the combination is quite attractive--especially since Hope's usual style really hasn't aged as well. Also, having a really nice supporting cast sure didn't hurt--nor did the wonderful cameos (but I won't say more about these, as it might spoil the fun).