Bob Hope had for some time said on his radio display that Madeleine Carroll was his “celebrated blonde”. The actress called to thank him, and a movie pairing soon followed. A parody of gape films (most notably “The 39 Steps”), the film delivers the laughs as British agent Carroll evades the Nazi awful guys with unwilling succor from a penguin-toting vadevillian performer played by Hope.
Gale Sondergaard plays the stare chief with a prerequisite dose of iciness. Sadly, she isn’t featured as distinguished as one could wish, but her henchmen fit the bill as the heavies.
“Star Spangled Rhythm” is a welcome, but unfamiliar inclusion on the disc. The chronicle is a classic screwball comedy mixed with a dose of “Stage Door Canteen”. Unfortunately, the numbers in the tall explain not only defy logic (the size and scope of the production is rediculously larger than believability can allow), but on top of that, they are mostly plain, overlong, and uninspiring.
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The majority of the huge names touted in the credits are more or less confined to appearing in the expansive morale display, set for two nice turns by Cecil B. DeMille and Preston Sturges. Bing Crosby is exiguous to what amounts to an extended cameo, while Bob Hope fares slight better. Only two numbers really stand out from the reveal. One is a nice number with Paulette Goddard, Dorothy Lamour, and Veronica Lake in “A Sweater, A Sarong, and a Peek-a-boo Bang”. The title refers to the well-known trademarks of each star (Goddard’s sexy sweaters, Lamour’s island-movie sarongs, and Lake’s vision-obscuring hairdoo) . The other number is the balletic winter dance sequence in which a GI dreams about his girl benefit home.
“If Men Played Cards As Women Do” is a Vadevillian allotment that was first performed benefit in 1929, and unfortunately, shows its dated quality. By today’s standards, the characters reach off as simply “femme” given the subtlety of the act. The point of the skit is similar to that commercial where stout men say things like, “Do these jeans produce me ogle full? ” Of course Ray Milland and Fred MacMurry, et al, are lots of fun, but the skit unprejudiced doesn’t contain up.
Back on the Paramount lot, however, there’s a fun number about defense workers called “Swing Shift”. And then there’s an intriguing scene where Betty Hutton tries to earn access to the Paramount lot by literally going over the wall, with next to no assist whatsoever from a pair of worthy passerbys.
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While Bob does emcee the mountainous event, and helps Betty with some of her scheming, he isn’t really the star here. As such, the film, while nice to have, is kind of out of dwelling in the Bob Hope Tribute Collection.
Either blueprint, it’s a salubrious disc for Bob fans. Production notes and trailers are included for each recount.
This is a really fun 2-Pk. for Bob Hope fans. As mentioned by unprejudiced about everyone,”Star Spangled Rhythm” is more of a screwball type comedy used as an excuse to parade many of Paramount’s stars across the screen and give a patriotic boost to the country. It is a fun oddity with Betty Hutton and Eddie Bracken and, as mentioned, a big dose of Paramount stars putting on a explain. Bob is here, of course, as is Bing, but the accurate Hope vehicle here is “My Common Blonde” with the magnificent Madeleine Carroll.
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Hope fans will have fun watching watching Bob and exquisite Madeleine Carroll navigate through this enjoyable romp about secret flight plans hidden in a gold scorpion pin. Hope gets off some salubrious one-liners and there is even an droll cameo from Bing. A better than usual screenplay by Don Hartman and Frank Butler, based on a chronicle by Melvin Frank and Norman Panama, give Bob and dazzling Madeleine plenty to do yet unruffled enough time to descend in admire.
Madeleine is Karen Bentley, a British agent trying to stammer top secret flight plans that German agents want to procure their hands on at any cost. The plans are in code in a gold scorpion pin. When her partner is killed by enemy agents aboard the S.S. Aleria, the stagger is on. Another British agent is taken down, this one a female, murdered because they plan she was Karen. She ducks into a variety expose where Larry Haines (Bob Hope) and his penguin, Percy, are doing their last expose before heading to Hollywood.
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Larry is honest thanking his lucky stars when Karen sort of falls into his lap and wants to disappear with him. But she ditches him after planting the scorpion on him before boarding the pronounce. He has a terminate encounter on the assure with the group of enemy spies led by Mme. Stephanie Runick (Gale Sondergaard), but manages to hurry with no concept what is going on.
Karen meets up with Larry in Albany, and though Larry isn’t crazy about her hot and frosty personality, she’s a blonde and he can’t say no. All she will allege him at first is that countless thousands will be affected and the plan of the world could change if she doesn’t succeed. Larry’s a sucker for a delicate face, and keeps putting himself in greater and greater anxiety, until the enemy spies no longer bear he’s a pawn, but the steady thing.
There are some fun moments as Larry and his pajama wearing penguin, Percy, come by caught up in the disaster. When a third British agent Karen was scheduled to give the plans to is murdered, she finally comes dapper with Larry and lets him in on what’s going on. From there on it’s one rush after another. There is one very humorous moment when Larry and Karen are trashing a hotel room so the cops will arrive and arrest them, and Larry turns on the radio, then shuts it off posthaste when that Bob Hope guy comes on!
When Larry becomes wanted for abolish, they remove a bus at a picnic for the union, borrow a plane, hop a freight, and select a car. Along the intention, of course, they start to descend for each other. Larry will raze up in a coffin at a funeral home before the plans can be delivered. He has planted the scorpion on Karen this time, but the enemy agents, and the British, contemplate he’s swallowed them and want to gash him inaugurate!
Madeleine Carroll had a reserved type of glamour and was apt here with Hope. Some did not rep her as gripping as Lamour or Lamarr, who starred in the other two films of this Hope trilogy, “My Current Brunette” and “My Popular Peruse,” but she was simply different, and this is a lot of fun for Hope fans.
“My Popular Blonde” is a very respectable film to pop in on the weekend and savor. Hope gets to toddle fun at himself, choose a swipe at Crosby, state some zingers, and he even gets the girl in this one. What’s not to like about that?
This is a nice addition to any film library and a trusty treat for Hope’s millions of fans. It is also a chance to discover many of Paramount’s stars during the 1940’s. A true treat.
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