Cancel My Reservation

After Cancel My Reservation Bob Hope made no more films for the big screen. It's as if his career ran out of gas in the seventies. Of course with the reception this film got, it was no surprise he stuck to television and military base tours.

When I looked at Cancel My Reservation again for the purposes of writing this review I was dumbfounded to learn that it had been based on a Louis L'Amour western novel, The Broken Gun. Now nobody had ever accused Louis L'Amour of writing comedy, so I'd love to know how one of his gritty western tales became the basis for a Bob Hope film?

Hope plays a TV talk show host who's advised by his doctor to take a needed vacation away from his wife Eva Marie Saint. Seems as though she came on the show as a co-host, kind of like the way Joy Philbin occasionally fills in for Kelly Ripa with Regis and it's grating on his hammy nerves.

Wouldn't you know it but Rapid Robert gets himself involved with not one, not two, but three murders while in Arizona. Bodies just keep popping up around him. Eva Marie comes west to help him solve this, but Nick and Nora Charles, they're not. The only one who believes him is Anne Archer, the stepdaughter of wealthy rancher Ralph Bellamy.

Cancel My Reservation marks the final appearance of Bing Crosby in an unbilled cameo in a Bob Hope film. That was a regular occurrence in the forties and fifties. The sequence is an imaginary one after sheriff Keenan Wynn tells him he could be the subject of mob violence. Hope imagines he's being lynched and he looks over at the crowd and appeals to such folks as Bing, Johnny Carson, John Wayne, and Flip Wilson for help in saving an innocent man. Bing says he furnished the rope for the lynching. Wilson says the devil made him do it. Carson says he hopes to inherit Hope's show and John Wayne says he'd like to help, but it isn't his picture.

By the way with that unbilled cameo, the Duke appears in his career in two films based on Louis L'Amour novels, his classic Hondo and this one.

Most of Hope's films in the sixties and now the seventies are just pale in comparison to the comedy classics of his earlier period. This one may be one of the worst. The gags just fall flat, the biggest laugh is when he tells the sheriff his age is 42 when he's a quite believable 69. John Wayne was finally playing characters his own age, why couldn't Hope?

So if you want to see a good film based on a Louis L'Amour novel, I recommend Hondo.

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.

"Cancel My Reservation" is just what it wants to be. In other words, it's a very successful movie, even if it's just successful at being completely confusing and silly. Bob Hope fumbles through this movie looking old and confused (even this far back), and the dated sexual roles and racist overtones are just one more factor that makes the viewer wince. There is a cute sight gag or two, but the movie just seems like a drawn out Hope skit from a television special. Fans of Johnny Carson or John Wayne can catch short cameos that will bring a smile.

Unlike many of the these reviewers, Cancel My Reservation does not take itself too seriously. It is no more than a fun flick, without pretensions of high drama. Much of the seemingly stilted dialogue may indeed be deliberate self-parody. The film reminds me of the old Saturday double feature presentations, for those of you who can remember those afternoons at the movies. Relax, and enjoy it as a pleasant diversion, as well as for nostalgic reminders of actors and comics of years past. Bob Hope is a true classic, who provided us with years of pleasure, and who had the courage to tackle many forms of entertainment. He was able to laugh at himself about his film flops, much as Jack Benny did with his The Horn Blows at Midnight. (And the critics are on the mark about the nubile Ms. Archer.)

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.