Lo scorpione d'oro

This early wartime Bob Hope comedy is one of his best, and is from a time in the comedian's career when his movies hadn't become routine, and when his was a bit less buffoonish and incompetent than in his later efforts. Aided by the lovely Madeline Carroll, Bob is up to his neck in Nazi spies in this satire of Hitchcock-type thrillers, and the "straight" scenes are menacing enough to give the story real bite. The supporting cast is lively and eclectic, and includes George Zucco and Dooley Wilson. Gale Sondergaard is on hand, and as was so often the case in the forties she seems to be doing a send-up of Judith Anderson's malevolent Mrs. Danvers from Rebecca. She does it very well, but one wonders why this beautiful woman was never cast as a female lead. My Favorite Blonde is fast-paced and has some good lines from Hope regulars Frank Butler and Don Hartman. Watching this movie always makes me wonder why Hope's later films, which also tend to be spoofs, are so sloppy, since he is so much funnier and more effective in early vehicles like this one, which are played at least half-straight, and far better for it.

My Favorite Blonde has in the title role Madeleine Carroll a most beautiful blond player, who is a British secret agent trying to get some microfilm about air routes for American planes to go to Great Britain as part of lend lease. But just as her boat is docking in New York, some nasty Nazi spies shoot her male companion.

The microfilm is hidden in a pin that she's wearing and with the Nazis hot on her trail. she ducks into a vaudeville house which has Bob Hope and a roller skating penguin on the bill. I'm sure back in the day Hope played in vaudeville with many type acts like these. Vaudeville was moribund in those days and Hope wasn't helping to revive it.

In fact he's got to get to Hollywood because some movie company wants to star the penguin in a film. That fits in real nice with Carroll's plans and as it usually goes, the bumbling Mr. Hope is in the clutches of a beautiful who actually falls for old ski nose as he tries to help her when she levels with him.

My Favorite Blonde is a fast paced 78 minute film, one of the shortest of Hope's feature films. Carroll looks like she's enjoying spoofing a part she did in Alfred Hitchcock's 39 Steps across the pond. Of course she's the one dragooned into help.

But it's Hope's show all the way. My favorite two sequences is both trying to sleep and feed the penguin in an upper on a train and when Hope and Carroll are at an Irish picnic in Chicago. James Burke and Edward Gargan are very funny as a pair of thick headed Irish teamsters.

Though My Favorite Blonde is terribly dated with the World War II background the laughs still hold up very well.

Madeline Carroll is British spy Karen Bentley, she has in her possession British aeroplane plans that the Nazis obviously want, so she's on the run with the baddies in hot pursuit. During one escape she hides away in a theatre and comes across Larry Haines (Bob Hope) and his performing penguin Percy, she doesn't have to work hard to get Haines smitten with her and he helps her escape. This sets us up for a mad cap cross country chase movie with quips aplenty and incredulous scenes to enjoy. Hope is on prime form and the chemistry between Carroll and himself is one of the film's chief bonus points, and in view of the back story to the film it's not hard to see why the pair were a believable duo. By all accounts Hope really had the hots for Carroll and she spent the whole shoot fighting him off since she was happily involved with Sterling Hayden at the time. It's a fun film that takes a while to get going, but once it does it doesn't disappoint on the fun front, and Bing Crosby of course turns up for one of his many cameos. 7/10

After swooning for quite some time on his radio show about Madeline Carroll, the actress, enjoying the publicity, approached him about being a guest on his show. Hope suggested that instead, they do a film together. The result is the delightful "My Favorite Blonde" about a British spy, Carroll, trying to deliver a coded message to Los Angeles. Attempting to escape German agents, she barges into a theater dressing room inhabited by Hope, who is performing as straight man to a penguin.

Hope is a riot, with the wisecracks coming quickly throughout the film, and Carroll is a good leading lady for him - classy, serious, and the character she plays is game for anything to reach her goal. Gale Sondergaard has precious little to do - one wonders if her role was cut; Dooley Wilson has an unspoken bit on the train; and Bing Crosby directs Hope to a bus in one scene. Hope starts to walk away from him, stops, takes a beat and says to himself, "No. It couldn't be." There are other in jokes as well - Hope turns the radio to his own show and turns it off, commenting, "I can't stand that guy." As someone who was a young adult in the '60s, it wasn't kosher to like Bob Hope because of his politics, but I've always enjoyed his film performances. "My Favorite Blonde" is one of his best.

Pleasant comedy about a guy (Bob Hope) who has a vaudeville act with a penguin getting mixed up with a British secret agent (Madeleine Carroll). It's not the funniest comedy you ever saw but darned if it isn't one of the most likable. Hope and Carroll have nice chemistry and their banter is great. Lots of snappy lines. The villains are played by George Zucco and Gale Sondergaard. It's pretty much impossible to have a bad movie that features both Zucco and Sondergaard. Nice cameo from Bing Crosby. Very funny bit about halfway through between Edward Gargan and James Burke over who is really Mulrooney (watch and you'll see). It's a good comedy with a fun spy plot and a great cast.