Sein Engel mit den zwei Pistolen

Gunslinger and criminal Calamity Jane is released from prison by the Governors in exchange for her help with a problem. Someone is selling guns and dynamite to the Indians and other agents have been killed trying to find out who – only someone like Jane can get close. When her partner is killed she has no-one to act as her husband and help her travel incognito. She happens across a cowardly dentist, Painless Peter Potter, and she marries him in order to get a ride to Buffalo. However, can she keep him out of trouble long enough to find the dynamite?

Bob Hope may be 100 years old as I write this but he has been out of movies for quite a few years, also he only tended to make one type of film and play the same part in each one. So the appeal of this film very much depends on whether or not you like that. Personally I love Bob Hope and enjoy him even when he is in a weak film. The Paleface is one of his best films simply because it is a good piece of all round entertainment. It has a good central plot that stops the film just being a vehicle for him to do his stuff and instead is actually going somewhere.

The songs are quite nice but also there's only really two so it doesn't slow the film down too much. I do like the odd musical number but some Hope films had 5 or more songs in a 90 minute film, which was way too many. Hope is on good form, his asides and jokes work better in a good plot and he is very funny throughout. Some routines work better than others but if you are a fan then you'll like his style even when it isn't as funny as you'd hope. Russell is a good leading lady despite being a bit serious and then softening too quickly. The support cast are all in the background and the Native American clichés can be explained by the period and not racism.

Overall this is a very enjoyable film that works well because it allows Hope to run free within a good film instead of simply letting his performance be the film. He wisecracks his way along and it is easy to see why his light comic style has made him an icon even with a generation who have found him on their television and not the big screen.

I'm not sure if it was intentionally spoofing The Paleface, or it was a rip-off, but The Court Jester borrowed plenty of gags and most of the storyline from Bob Hope's hilarious western. It also payed homage to plenty of other films, like The Adventures of Robin Hood, but look at the similarities to The Paleface: A hapless fool gets accidentally mistaken for an assassin and a spy, his brunette female companion is much tougher than him, and during a scene when he has to fight in a duel, he gets different pieces of advice and gets them all mixed up. Yes, that's right. Bob Hope gets, "He draws from the left, so lean to the right," mixed up with, "The wind's from the east so aim to the west," and, "He crouches when he shoots,so stand on your toes," in a hilarious build-up to the duel. Needless to say, if you love Danny Kaye's "pellet with the poison" scene, you need to rent The Paleface.

In addition to Bob Hope's hilarious antics and endless jokes about not getting any alone time with his lady love, Jane Russell stars as Calamity Jane in this western spoof. She's tough, pretty, and a master sharpshooter. I'll never understand why two years later, when the leading lady dropped out of the picture, Jane Russell wasn't cast in Annie Get Your Gun. And I'll certainly never understand why she wasn't cast in 1953's Calamity Jane. She could have easily been in both of those musicals!

You're going to have to get past some politically incorrect jokes, and the fact that "Buttons and Bows" won Best Song at the Oscars, but this is a very funny movie that will keep you laughing from start to finish.

The Paleface one of the funniest films Bob Hope ever did was a godsend to the career of Jane Russell. Take a look at her film credits and see how few there were during the Forties. She did The Outlaw which kept going in and out of release every time Howard Hughes re-edited it. She did a film called The Young Widow which she hated and was a box office flop and then The Paleface.

Although Howard Hughes kept messing around with The Outlaw and kept Russell off the screen for most of the Forties, the man did know about publicity and certainly kept her name before the public. But a movie star has to make movies. So even Hughes realized that and I'm sure he exacted a good price for Russell's services to Paramount for The Paleface.

Hope of course is his usual character. A recent graduate of a dentistry college, he's gone west to seek fame and fortune, Hope the schnook gets tangled up with the notorious Calamity Jane.

Of course Russell is Calamity Jane, she's being offered a pardon in order to trap some no good outlaws selling weapons to the Indians. When her contact is killed and she nearly is also, she picks up Hope and they get married and join a wagon train.

Of course the some of the funniest stuff in The Paleface when Russell does some fancy shooting and let's Hope take the credit for it, giving him an undeserved reputation for fearlessness. One of my favorite bits is when Iron Eyes Cody gets a hold of some of Hope's laughing gas and Hope thinks he's Russell behind a barrier.

Bob Hope got to introduce his second Oscar winning song in The Paleface, Buttons and Bows by the Paramount contract song writers, Jay Livingston and Ray Evans. He sold a few records of it, but the real big hit was done by Dinah Shore. It's now become identified with Russell as well, but she sings it in Son of Paleface, not here.

This was Bob Hope's first trip to the American west in search of laughs and it was a successful expedition.

*** out of ****

This is a comedy of endless gags and one-liners. You will either find them funny or you won't. I found most of them funny, so I liked it. The highlight is Bob Hope singing "Buttons and Bows".

An enjoyable comedy western featuring the formidable, if different talents of its leads Bob Hope and Jane Russell. Hope plays his customary cowardy-custard character, a travelling dentist of all things named "Painless" Potter alongside Russell's mannish Calamity Jane as they seek to foil the baddies' nefarious plan to arm the Red Indians, but pay no attention to the plot, just like the two stars, and instead enjoy the fun romp they gleefully rampage through.

Filmed in glorious Technicolor, the film makes ample room for running gags, like Russell's hammer-like kisses and Hope getting pulled out of his wagon-chair every time he gees up the horses, but is best served by Hope and his ad-libs and one-liners (sample:- Hope trying to act tough at the bar - "Give me four fingers of red-eye - and throw in a thumb too!"). The funniest extended scene is probably when Hope and a hot-shot rival stalk each other around town before their shoot-out. The humour trails off somewhat in the last third when the comedy gets too cartoony and slapsticky but there's still some compensation as Russell's glacial heart melts towards her oafish husband.

Sure the treatment of the Red Indians / Native Americans is about as un-PC as you can get, but the real villains are the white guys and along the way Hope gets to sing the catchy singalong "Buttons and Bows". Popular enough to beget a sequel "Son Of Paleface" a few years, this is one of Hope's best comedies sans-Crosby and also demonstrated Russell's comedic talents at the same time.