Bob Hope

Bob Hope talks boldly until there is something to be frightened of, then keeps talking in the hope that nobody will notice. The cowardice is dependable; so is the speed with which he finds another joke. His characters do not need to be brave to hold our attention, but they do need someone else in the scene to resist the patter. He is pleasant company in The Paleface (1948), though the western comedy also makes clear how tiring that readiness can become.

The Cat and the Canary (1939) gave his comic coward a horror setting; Road to Singapore (1940) began the seven-film series with Bing Crosby that ran until 1962. Dorothy Lamour joined them in the first film and became a regular collaborator. The Road films also made room for Hope to address the audience directly, treating us as people who might appreciate a remark about the proceedings. His quick exchanges with Crosby gave the patter another performer to work against.

In The Paleface, Norman Z. McLeod gives that chatter useful resistance by pairing him with Jane Russell. Hope's ‘Painless’ Peter Potter combines wisecracks with slapstick. We laughed at the switches between the two, when the verbal cleverness gave way to physical foolishness. Russell's Calamity Jane answers with a drollness that does not compete for speed or attention. Her restraint gives the exchanges time to register, and we often prefer it to his busier efforts.

The limitation is already clear in The Paleface: its small stock of comic moves has to do too much work. Hope's constant readiness with a line can make the comedy feel pushed, even when the line itself is good. That repetition became a criticism of his later films, including Cancel My Reservation (1972), but it need not make us dismiss the earlier work. Start with The Paleface if western slapstick appeals, and leave room to enjoy Russell when Hope begins to wear.