Review of The Paleface (1948) by Sanity Assassin ! — 25 Aug 2014

Bob Hope. Bob Hope? Bob Hope! That was going to be the entire review - but it's probably misleading. Instead, this pairing of Hope and Jane Russell in a spoof of Westerns is only middling at best with a few funny lines.

Apart from the racist nature of the plot (par for the course at the time), the film really is so family friendly as to not really be comedy at all. Indeed, I think you could substitute Daffy Duck for Hope and the film would play the same (except perhaps Daffy is more subversive at times).

Writer Frank Tashlin apparently so disliked what Norman Z. McLeod did with his script, that he opted to make the sequel (Son of Paleface) himself, before moving on to work with Jerry Lewis. I haven't seen the sequel and I haven't built up my courage for Lewis yet.