ChanBot i must have seen a different film!!

Listonixio Fresh and Exciting

Plustown A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

Geraldine The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

weezeralfalfa Twice, Bob Hope's character('Painless' Peter Potter),forgets to hitch the horses to the wagon before cracking the whip, resulting in a 'drag race' for the person holding the reins.Jane Russell, as Calamity Jane, is busted out of jail by some agents of the governor, to hopefully round up some renegades who are selling rifles and explosives to the hostile Indians. If she succeeds, she will receive a full parson of her 10 year sentence. She's supposed to acquire a male partner, but finds him shot dead in his office. So, she runs into Hope, as a quack dentist, who makes merry with his patients: one of the comedic highlights. They soon marry and join a wagon train(not clear why?).Jane tries to make it look like Hope, not she, is a federal agent. She establishes his reputation as a dead eye gunslinger by secretly killing eleven Indians in a row, attributed to Hope, hiding behind a barrel. Also,secretly killed his opponent in a formal duel. I will stop here in my summary.Although it can hardly be considered a musical comedy, there are 2 notable songs. Hope sings "Buttons and Bows" while supposedly driving a wagon. It actually won the Academy Award for best original song! Then,saloon girl Iris Adrian sings "Meetcha 'Round the Corner". The sequel to this film: "Son of Paleface", is much more of a musical farce. It's generally rated as a more interesting film, and includes Roy Rogers and Trigger, as well as Hope and Jane.It's available at YouTube, in Technicolor.

Jackson Booth-Millard I found this film in the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, the title did not suggest anything to me when I first read it, but it made sense when I found out it was set in the Wild West, I was certainly hoping it would be worthy of a recommendation. Basically out west someone in town has been illegally selling guns to the Indians, frontiers woman Calamity Jane (Jane Russell) is hired to find the culprit, and she is to be partnered with a secret agent, they will go undercover and pose as husband and wife. When the secret agent is killed Jane is forced to recruit a new husband, and she finds innocent, inept and cowardly dentist 'Painless' Peter Potter (Bob Hope), he wants to the leave the barbaric west all together. On their investigative journey their wagon train is attacked by Indians, and while Jane is sharpshooting from inside an empty shack witnesses spot Potter presumably firing and defeating them, when in fact he is useless with a weapon. Upon return the townspeople praise Potter as a hero, and this means he will be a target for both the Indians and the gunrunners, but as time passes he may in fact be learning bravery and to defend himself better, and of course he and Jane cannot help having affection for each other. Also starring Robert Armstrong as Terris, Iris Adrian as Pepper, Bobby Watson as Toby Preston, Jackie Searl as Jasper Martin, Joseph Vitale as Indian Scout, Charles Trowbridge as Governor Johnson, Clem Bevans as Hank Billings and Jeff York as Big Joe. The most memorable Calamity Jane for me will always be Doris Day, however Russell, a short time after The Outlaw, proves a great choice for this film as she looks beautiful and is brassy when she needs to be, I have not seen much of Bob Hope as a stand up comedian (perhaps because I know all his material was written for him by others), and he too is a good choice being the wisecracking and for a good while lily-livered dupe. I have read various reviews by critics saying that the sequel, Son of Paleface, is much better than this is, as for this original I found it funny enough, it had a good amount of good old fashioned slapstick, this was apparently a big box office hit, and it is entertaining for its action as well, so it's not a bad comedy western. It won the Oscar for Best Song for "Buttons and Bows". Worth watching!

sddavis63 I've always been a little bit underwhelmed by Bob Hope. I grew up in a home that watched all of his TV specials with family who thought he was the greatest and funniest comedian ever. I never quite got it. I find him low-key in the extreme; sometimes amusing in a mild, quiet sort of way but nothing to write home about. That also sums up my reaction to "The Paleface." It's OK. Sometimes amusing, and if it's mild and quiet it has some good writing - I'm thinking of Painless Peter Potter (Hope) trying to keep all the advice he had received about his gunfight with the local quick draw artist straight ("he leans to the right so shoot to the left," and so on) as well as the fun song "Buttons and Bows" (sung by Hope.)Potter is a hopeless dentist trying to make his way in the Old West when he gets caught up with Calamity Jane (Jane Russell) - who's been recruited to work as a government agent trying to find out who's getting guns to the Indians. She hooks up with Potter, tricks him into marriage and manages to turn him into the gunfighting hero so that no one would notice her. Russell was fine in the role, but like Hope she didn't overwhelm me.I would say that this was better than the 1960's movie "The Shakiest Gun In The West," which had essentially the same sort of plot with Don Knotts in the role as the dentist. Hope played the role straighter than Knotts would do 20 years later, and that perhaps made it a little easier to take the movie seriously - as comedies go, of course. (5/10)

blanche-2 I confess a weakness for the Bob Hope of the '40s - cute, funny, and guileless. His cowardly persona played well in many films."The Paleface" is the story of Calamity Jane (Jane Russell) being broken out of jail and offered a full pardon by the government if she can track down who is running guns to the Indians. Unfortunately, the man who is to accompany her on the wagon train to investigate is murdered. While running from people out to get her, she ends up in the office of Painless Peter Potter, a dentist who has to use a manual when he's working on a patient. He has his own wagon; Jane recruits him to marry her and join the wagon train.Hope and Russell are great together. She's gorgeous in color wearing a variety of costumes. Hope is very funny, and he gets to introduce the song "Buttons 'n' Bows." One of the best scenes is Painless Peter trying to pull a tooth; another is an Indian who inadvertently inhales Peter's laughing gas.Not exactly politically correct by today's standards, but it's still fun and wonderful to see these classic film stars, whose number is dwindling with alarming speed.