Minha Morena Linda

This was one of the three films that Bob Hope did for Paramount with the theme of favorites: blonde, spy and brunette. He was at one of the best moments of his career when this spoof about the detective movie genre went into production.

"My Favorite Brunette" was directed by Elliott Nugent with a style that made it fun and light to watch. The screen play by Edmund Beloin and Jack Rose parodies those films that showed a charismatic private eye get into all kinds of dangerous situations. In this film, Ronnie Jackson, a photographer in San Francisco is suddenly, thrown into a web of intrigue when he steps into the office of his neighbor, the real P.I, Sam McCloud, who is fed up with the job and is leaving town.

Enter the femme fatale, something that is a must in this type of film, Carlotta Montay. She will get Ronnie into all kinds of difficult situations and even the gas chamber as he tries his best to deal with all the bad people that are chasing Carlotta.

Bob Hope was excellent in his take of Ronnie Jackson. Dorothy Lamour, in all her beauty, made the most of her Carlotta. Two cameos in the film were notorious because they are uncredited and unexpected: Alan Ladd, and Bing Crosby. Others in the film are Peter Lorre, Lon Chaney Jr., Charles Dingle, Frank Puglia, Reginald Denny, among the supporting cast.

The film is still a lot of fun as it makes fun of other more dramatic movies thanks to the direction of Elliott Nugent.

"My Favorite Brunette" shows that the parodying of film genres did not start with Mel Brooks or even with the "Carry On" films. Ronnie Jackson is a San Francisco photographer specialising in taking pictures of babies. His great ambition, however, is to be a private detective, and hopes to be taken on as an assistant by Sam McCloud, a private eye whose offices are in the same building as Jackson's studio. McCloud has always resisted, but one day Jackson gets his big chance when he is mistaken for the great man by a potential client. A young woman named Carlotta Montay asks Jackson, whom she believes to be McCloud, to trace her elderly husband who has mysteriously disappeared. Jackson eagerly accepts the assignment.

The rest of the plot does not really matter. (It concerns a battle to control the mining rights to uranium deposits in South America). The whole point of the film is to parody the "film noir" style of film-making, particularly films based on "hardboiled" detective stories like "The Maltese Falcon" or "The Big Sleep". (I am informed that the film to which "My Favorite Brunette" bears the greatest resemblance is "Farewell My Lovely", which I have never seen). The film introduces a selection of stock characters from films of this type- apart from the private eye himself there is the sultry femme fatale (here played by Dorothy Lamour in a move away from her "sarong girl" image), the soft-spoken but sinister foreign villain (played by Peter Lorre, parodying the parts he played in "The Maltese Falcon", "The Man who Knew Too Much" and other films) and the wheelchair-bound old man (like General Sternwood in "The Big Sleep"). There is a typically convoluted noir plot, a gloomy Gothic mansion, a frantic car chase and the sort of cynical, slangy, wisecracking voice-over one could imagine being delivered by Humphrey Bogart. (The house is so big that "you could shoot quail in the hall").

The film's central joke is that, not only is Jackson not a private eye, he is also most unsuited to that particular line of work. He is a character of a sort played by Bob Hope in a number of his other comedies, the man who pretends to be tough, brave and resourceful but who in real life is both cowardly and inept. (In his work as a photographer he even allows himself to be terrorised by a baby).

Seen as a pure comedy, this is not the best, although there are a few amusing gags, such as the lunatic asylum inmates playing golf without a ball, Lon Chaney's musclebound but stupid warder, a joke at the expense of Hope's odd-shaped nose ("I'll personally punch you in the nose so hard it will look like other peoples' noses") and the scene where Hope, trying to record Lorre's confession to a murder, keeps pulling the plug out of the socket. Anyone, however, who is familiar with the conventions of the film noir genre will be amused by this affectionate parody. 6/10.

Bob Hope in one of his better comedies of the 1940s, a clever satire of noir mysteries (Raymond Chandler, in particular) which substitutes hard-boiled for soft-boiled without losing the essence of a good crime story. A baby-photographer in San Francisco is found in the neighboring offices of a vacationing private detective by a femme fatale, who unwittingly hires the would-be gumshoe to help find her missing uncle. Edmund Beloin and Jack Rose penned the dandy original screenplay, neatly skirting the spoofy/silly undercurrent which marred many of Hope's starring vehicles of the era. Dorothy Lamour (with the wonderful character name Carlotta Montay) is the supposedly schizophrenic and paranoid client; Peter Lorre is her evil valet; and nobody cracks walnuts like muscle-stooge Lon Chaney. Fresh and witty, with a surprising hint of sex appeal, a solid production, and two terrific star-cameos as a bonus. *** from ****

The film concerns Ronnie Jackson (Bob Hope) a quite shy baby photographer gets mistaken with his next door neighbour Sam McCloud (Alan Ladd) , a famous San Francisco private eye . The problems start when the Baroness Carlotta Montay (Dorothy Lamour) contracts Ronnie to find her husband (Frank Puglia) and investigate about a map what marks the location of a Criolita (uranium) deposit that would be the key for defense of free world . It will lead him by the way to an international intrigue . Meanwhile , Ronnie to confront a villain Major (Charles Dingle) and his heavies (henchmen: Peter Lorre, Lon Chaney Jr. ,John Hoyt) .

The picture results to be a hilarious spy caper with lots of fun , giggles , laughs , tongue-in cheek and a little bit of action and suspense . The movie is the following to¨My favorite blonde¨(by Sidney Lanfield) who starred Hope and Madeleine Carroll as his partenaire. There appears some cameos and guest appearances of famed stars , such as Alan Ladd as the typical tough detective and Bing Crosby in a likable final interpretation . Bing Crosby along with Bob Hope and Dorothy Lamour formed a famous trio with too much success and they starred numerous films with titles as ¨Road to..Bali , Road to ..Morocco,.. Zanzibar , ...Hong Kong¨, among others . Besides , appearing as a secondary actor the terror expert Lon Chaney Jr. , repeating his role of the simple-minded person in the film adaptation of John Steinbeck's novel :¨Mice and men¨(1939) , Chaney's performance as an innocent burly man is spectacularly touching and amusing . In addition , Peter Lorre , as always , plays an astute villainous and with skills for throwing deadly daggers . The motion picture was well directed by Eliott Nugent . The flick will appeal to Bob Hope fans .

Bob Hope is very funny in this enjoyable light comedy. The plot is deliberately crazy and implausible, but creative, and it sets up some funny situations. The rest of the cast is good too, and it all works very well as light entertainment.

Hope plays a photographer who longs to be a detective, and then gets his chance, only to find out that it's a lot more than he can handle. It's a fine role for Hope, and the script also gives him a lot of good material to work with. Dorothy Lamour is suitably mysterious as the woman who involves him in a complicated situation. Peter Lorre and Lon Chaney Jr. add atmosphere and humor as two of Hope's adversaries.

Anyone who likes Hope should enjoy seeing him in "My Favorite Brunette", and it is also recommended for anyone who likes light comedies of the era.