Cancel My Reservation

The narrator of Louis L'Amour's novel, "The Broken Gun" is a rugged novelist adventurer, a great deal like the author himself. The only character who comes from the book accurately is the evil ranch foreman, Reese, played by Forrest Tucker. Apparently, from the novel's dedication, Louis L'Amour visualized Alan Ladd as Dan, the hero. The William Bendix character would have been the lawman, Riley.

Bob Hope sought to recapture the magic of his vastly superior mystery-comedies, "The Cat and the Canary" and "Ghost Breakers" with Paulette Goddard; "My Favorite Blonde" with Madeleine Carroll; "My Favorite Brunette" with Dorothy L'Amour; and "My Favorite Spy" with Hedy Lamarr. "Cancel My Reservation" suffers from dated gags just meant to get a quick laugh, rather than to move the story ahead.

Paul Bogart directed this picture, in a nominal sense; but Bob was the executive producer. Any credit or blame goes to our star, who was otherwise a great entertainer.

The best scene is a skit within the movie, when Bob visualizes his lynching, attended gleefully by Bing Crosby (of course), Johnny Carson, John Wayne, and the latest hot TV star, Flip Wilson. Johnny observes, "He'll do anything to win an Oscar."

The screenwriter of this movie was Arthur Marx, son of Groucho. Arthur and Bob must have had a major falling out, since the writer penned a vicious unauthorized biography of his former boss. Other writers remained loyal to their former benefactor, such as Larry Gelbart, Sherwood Schwartz, and Melville Shavelson.

Bob Hope's swan song is pretty lame. Yet somehow, I feel this film is a compelling one to watch and I can't quite put my finger on it.

Hope had sharp wit and was somewhat subversive back in the 40's, but once he got rich he became an unbearable conservative - his shows for the troops nothwithstanding. As such, I think I really enjoyed watching him embarrass himself in this horrific bit of celluloid swill.

This has a lot in common with Preminger's "Skidoo" in that it really does try to be hip and modern without having a clue what that means. Director Bogart doesn't want to seem to move the camera anymore than he has to and so the flick has a very TV movie feel to it... not surprising since Bogart did a lot of TV work - most notably, "All In the Family". For a much better look at what he could do, watch "Mr. Ricco" with Dean Martin. Bogart did a good job in this one, released in 1975.

Bogart wastes what could be an interesting story by failing to utilize some really great southwestern scenery. I'm not sure who the cinematographer was, but they should be beaten, waterboarded and shot as soon as they can be located.

The storyline is very contrived and serves only to allow Hope to joke around and toss out some one-liners as a talk show host on vacation with his much-too-young wife played by the totally wasted here Eva Marie Saint. Toss in marital troubles, Native American preaching and a murder mystery and you've got a tremendous mess. This movie has a "make it up as you go" feel.

The only real reason to watch it is to be amazed at how bad it is, and to watch it unfold, like a train wreck in slow motion. It's like watching your rich, arrogant, drunk uncle soil himself on the dance floor at a wedding reception - and you like it because the old bastard is such a jerk.

I need some tummy tones. I'll stop now.

I, like many other viewers have stated, got an opportunity to see this as a youngster on TV...probably late one night back when television stations would play movies like this into the wee hours of the evening/morning. I didn't remember much. Of course there was Bob Hope. I remembered Keenan Wynn for some reason and knew it was about murder in the desert. Well, I finally acquired a copy and was pleasantly surprised. Yes, Bob Hope's game is off. He is 69 or so here(looks absolutely incredible for his age). He turns out a one liner almost every minute he is on screen - which is almost every minute for the film. Most fail, but after awhile I was laughing at some of them - some because they were pretty good and others because he was trying SO terribly hard. Hope glides through the film with his typical Hope persona. Enjoyable but nothing great to be sure. The supporting cast is also equally enjoyable. Keenan Wynn playing a crusty sheriff with his usual flair for such roles. Ralph Bellamy and Forrest Tucker as a local rancher and his henchman. Bellamy is wheelchair-bound and as always quite good with dialog. Tucker looks tired though. Eve Marie saint plays Hope's wife. She is okay but has a dazzling set of legs which she shows off quite a bit. This is Anne Archer's first major film role and she is stunning - a buffet for the eyes and also quite good in her role. The plot is something out of the 40s with a body, then a missing body, and that kind of stuff. Nothing great but watching established pros work with inferior material makes it rise to a level no-talents could not achieve. There is a dream sequence with cameos by John Wayne, Johnny Carson, Flip Wilson, and old Bing Crosby himself. It is pretty brief but nice nonetheless. So this stroll down memory lane was enjoyable. Scenes I saw decades ago started to come back to me, and I will most definitely watch the film again soon as well as check out some more Bob Hope films. Honestly, I miss this stuff. Nothing today, though there is awesome television and good filmmaking abounding, creates the same kind of feel for me as that stuff I watched as a kid. Guess that is how it will be for young people today too.

Bob Hope is a stressed out New York TV host. His doctor orders him to take a vacation so he heads off to his ranch in Arizona for a couple of weeks. But ,instead of getting away from it all, he ends up being accused of a murder that takes place during his stay in the desert.

The comedy is broad, farcical and loose much like a sketch on one of Hope's TV specials. As usual, Bob's in a jam and firing off a succession of wisecracks helps him to cope with a sticky situation.

Forrest Tucker and Ralph Bellamy play the bad guys in their respective roles as a con on the run and an evil land baron who's trying to frame the twitchy TV star. Keenan Wynne, as the cigar - chomping sheriff who has to find the real murderer, seems to have based his characterization on Yosemite Sam (with great success !)

This is a free - wheeling '70s movie and it's better than most of the pictures that Hope made near the end . In fact, as it turned out,this was to be his last, major big screen feature and , happily, it also proved to be his best in some time.

What a horrible little film--so many talented players wasted in a piece of ephemeral tripe! Bob Hope's gags consist mainly of long outdated topical references. He says, 'Johnny Carson' or 'Dick Cavett', and we are supposed to fall about laughing. Hope, by 1972, was far too old for this sort of role. It is a flop as a comedy, is in no sense a mystery, and mostly it is tedious in the extreme. If you see this film on your TV program, avoid it--it will disappoint you.