Louisiana Purchase

Although many of the same people who made this mess of a 1941 film were also involved in the original hit 1940 Broadway production, something definitely went wrong in the transition to film, and that something is Bob Hope who was not in the original show. Instead of letting this mild satire on contemporary politics in the style of "Of Thee I Sing" play as it must have in New York, Hope and his army of gag writers apparently shoved in a ton of meaningless machine gun gags, including a few on such wartime topics as immigration. The Norwegian ballerina Vera Zorina, wife of George Ballanchine at the time, was then a big star on Broadway, but pretty as she was, the camera did not love her. The only saving grace of this embarrassingly misguided musical is the superb clowning of the great Victor Moore as the befuddled senator. He, too, was a great star of the theater, but unlike the others in this film he somehow knew how to underplay his comedy for the camera. A few of the many songs Irving Berlin wrote for Broadway were retained for the film, most delightfully the catchy tune, "You're Lovely and I'm Lonely," which Zorina and Moore do hilariously as they might have done it on Broadway, in this case without the overbearing scene-stealing presence of Hope. Hope was a great screen personality and made many fine films, but this is not one of them.

Aside from some terrible films Bob Hope made in the 1960s (and there were quite a few), "Louisiana Purchase" may be among his worst for two major reasons. The biggest problem is that the film simply is not funny—a serious problem since it's a comedy! The other problem is that Hope plays a very unsympathetic character—and it's hard to root for him throughout this film that seems, at times, like a misguided rip-off of "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington".

The film begins with a very unusual and rather cute disclaimer about the film being fictional—you have to see this to understand what I mean, but it's obvious that the film makers chose to lampoon Louisiana since the state has a very, very long history of political corruption.

Hope plays a state senator with very unsavory friends. While he's serving in the senate, they are involving him in all kinds of illegal deals—completely unbeknownst to him. However, and this is odd, when he discovers what they've done, he does NOT come clean about the illegal activity but spends almost all the film trying to blackmail or corrupt an honest(!) politician who is investigating the activities of Hope's organization. While I liked Victor Moore as the sweet and daffy crusading US senator, everything about Hope seemed self-centered and sleazy. And, inexplicably, a lady who somehow has come to instantly love him has agreed to try to destroy Moore! This made little sense—as did her weird reversal after they were able to set him up. The final portion of the film is right out of "Mr. Smith" and ends with an ending that just seems too pat and hard to believe.

As I said, nothing about this is funny nor is the leading man (Hope) likable—and without these elements the film cannot help but be a failure. Watchable but only of interest to very rabid Hope fans—ones who are willing to look past the film's many, many deficits.

By the way, this is on a DVD with another Hope film—"Never Say Die". This second film IS very good and makes the disk worth obtaining.

Recently, I was reading one of Internet columnist Jeffrey Well's articles and he wondered what the appeal of Bing Crosby was and that he doesn't translate beyond his era. One can say the same of his partner in crime from that era, Bob Hope. Truly, what was the appeal of this fella? Most of his pictures are terrible, including the Road Movies. The ones I can stomach are the Paleface pictures. All Bob Hope ever did was deliver puns and innuendos laced as wisecracks rather than real comedy - punchlines with no punch. He was a spoofish of current pop culture which he uses so frequently that a lot of the wisecracks fly over your head once you are out of the era, no let's the year, not even that three months ago pop culture events. This movie is one of his further nonsense. As the trailer spieled, this an adaptation of a Broadway smash that has been running for two years but as soon as you see the movie, you know it has been warped beyond belief for the screen because nothing this flimsy could have run on broadway for two years lest two weeks. And you just can feel there is a lot of political humor that has been cut out, the Victor Moore character keeps referencing democrats and republicans in oblique terms that do not advance the movie and thus are not funny because the terra firma has been eviscerated. The plot - Hope is a state rep in the house who is set up as the fall man for a bunch of corrupt school board officers. Moore is the good to his bones senator sent to investigate the irregularities. Somebody'd going to jail and it ain't going to be Hope so he tries to blackmail the senator by photographing him in an uncompromising situation, to say. The girl for the task the Hungarian immigrant played by Zorina. That's that. There is a Mardi Gras scene that is an embarassment to all involved in the production, us as an audience and others who have not seen this movie. Musical numbers are lovely but numb. Why does this movie have musical numbers? No reason except a Hope picture must have some and Hope is in none of them. By the time he is doing a filibuster a la Jimmy Stewart in Mr Smith goes to Washington, you the viewer will be ready to kill him. What a shame!

Excellent movie with many beautiful sets and funny jokes by that master Bob Hope,The Mardi Gras parade and the French Quarter in which it is set are Idealized and certainly not realistic but that was typical of musical comedies,like the pictures of Astaire and Rogers,typical of the period,so it is nothing to criticise,just a lot of fun,the filibuster scene is outrageously funny,and full of references to the movie it parodies.The set looks like the real Louisiana State senate chamber,but apparently is not.This movie is loads of fun and after all that is the purpose of comedies.Zorina is lovely amnd makes a good foil for hope.All in all a wonderful picture!

This one's a real oddity: a semi-musical satire of a period of corruption that will mean nothing to anybody who is either not a resident of the United States or under eighty-ish years of age. Bob Hope stars as a naive hero who finds himself set up to take the rap when a corrupt cadre find themselves on the brink of discovery and hatches one of those ridiculous Hollywood musical plots to get himself out of trouble. Somehow, I don't think this is too closely based on factual events.

The film opens with a quirky number in which a colourful group of girls sing about how the characters are fictitious and not based on any persons living or dead, and include lyrics stating they are singing this to save the producers from being sued. Bizarre. When Hope is on screen the film is a typical Hope vehicle - which isn't necessarily a good thing - and when he's not the pace slows to a crawl. Despite this it is Victor Moore as the ageing virginal investigator on the trail of the corrupt politicos who steals the movie. Vera Zorina as Hope's love interest is an actress of extremely limited talent and best forgotten to save her descendant's embarrassment. The storyline is littered with references to contemporary matters that mean nothing today, meaning most of them flew way over the top of my head, making it somewhat flawed as a political satire - and fairly insipid as a musical