For decades, the laugh-filled performances of beloved comic Bob Hope served as the centerpiece of the annual Academy Award presentations. In recent years, the aging Hope has given way to younger talent, most notably Billy Crystal, who acknowledged Hope as an influence during last week's Oscarcast.
One of Hope's running jokes had to do with his never being nominated for an Oscar for any of his many films. Now, seven of his most popular comedies are finally coming to home video for the first time and they're packed with dozens of funny co-stars from the 1938-1949 period of these films' initial release.These Hope-ful comedy capers are being released May 19 for $14.98 each by MCA/Universal.
One of the classics of the "Bob Hope Collection" is "College Swing," now 55 years old. The cast includes Gracie Allen, George Burns, Edward Everett Horton, Ben Blue, Martha Raye, Betty Grable, John Payne and Jackie Coogan. It offers more than enough laughs to offset the flaws of filmmaking way back when.
Hope paired with Paulette Goddard in 1940 for "Ghost Breakers," which included a youthful Anthony Quinn as well as Richard Carlson and Paul Lukas.
"Caught in the Draft" (1941) featured Dorothy Lamour and Eddie Bracken in a wacky khaki comedy of errors. Especially funny: Hope's basic-training buffoonery.
The music of Irving Berlin provides the background for "Louisiana Purchase" (1941), and Hope's leading lady is Vera Zorina.
Madeleine Carroll shares the spotlight with Hope in "My Favorite Blonde" (1942), which moves from a murder on a shadowy ship at sea on a foggy night to a cross-country gambit involving spies on a train.
France's King Louis, the King of Spain and Madame Pompadour become involved in a battle of one-liners as well as arrangements for a royal wedding in "Monsieur Beaucaire" (1946). Joan Caulfield, Cecil Kellaway, Patric Knowles and Reginald Owen co-star.
In "Sorrowful Jones" (1949), Hope teams with Lucille Ball as a Broadway bookie. The film is steeped in Runyon-esque characters, including those portrayed by William Demarest, Bruce Cabot and Thomas Gomez.
- DANNY KAYE'S daughter says that in this video she sees her father, but she also sees "his electric energy, the array of emotions that rearrange his face and body. . . . Only he could do the brilliantly intelligent and funny songs written by my mother, Sylvia Fine. Sometimes just the grace of his fingers, the enthusiasm in his shoulders or the position of his feet tell the whole story."
The numbers are from Kaye's Emmy Award-winning television years, which produced 124 hours of fun in four years (1963-67). The video also features the tongue-twisting "Vestle With the Pestle" from the movie "The Court Jester."
Two versions of this cassette are available from Consumer Video Marketing (1-800-66 MUSIC), a 90-minute cassette for $29.95 and a 45-minute tape for $19.95. To order by mail: Consumer Video Marketing, 60 Cutter Mill Rd., Great Neck, NY 11021.
"Vestle" is on both tapes, as are routines about the nearsighted William Tell, one about a World War II intelligence officer featuring Jose Ferrer, one in which Kaye pairs with Lucille Ball as a naive couple trying to cope with a snobbish French waiter, and a Harvey Korman skit set at an expectant fathers' school; plus there are songs with Harry Belafonte and Louis Armstrong, and Kaye's versions of Napoleon and Beethoven.
The 90-minute version also includes Kaye's memorable skits about Petrov the Thinker; Ludwig Von Stickfitz, the zany psychoanalyst; a dancing Whistler's Mother; a pouting 5-year-old; Pavlova; a high-spirited gypsy; and a rousing "Rampart Street Blues" number.