How sad is this?

Fantastic!

everything you have heard about this movie is true.

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

Released in 1942 - In this "Bob Hope" comedy-vehicle, it certainly wasn't Hope, himself, who shone the brightest. It was, none other than, his sidekick, Percy, the cutest, little penguin that you've ever seen, who repeatedly stole the show and upstaged Hope whenever he made an appearance on screen (which certainly wasn't enough for my liking).I think that if they had built this movie around Percy, rather than Hope, it would have been a so much more pleasant and enjoyable comedy to watch, in the long run.I guess that I'm not much of a Bob Hope fan, 'cause if My Favorite Blond (MFB, for short) was a sample of him at the top of his form, then I certainly felt very let-down by Hope's apparent "knock-em-dead" abilities as one of Hollywood's top comedians of his day.Even though MFB's story remained very good-natured throughout its 80-minute running time, its rather far-fetched story wasn't funny enough to hold my rapt attention and its one-liners, being on the decidedly weak side, didn't bowl me over with their intended hilarity.Set in the days before the USA entered into WW2, MFB was a screwball comedy that tells the tale of NYC vaudeville performer, Larry Haines who gets inadvertently (and reluctantly, at first) involved with the beautiful, blond, British, secret agent, Karen Bentley, who's just arrived from England.As Haines soon discovers (when matters begin to get seriously out of hand), Karen's dire mission in America is to deliver a top-secret, coded message on micro-film (cased inside a chic, scorpion brooch) to a Colonel Ashmont in Los Angeles.With enemy, German, espionage agents hot on their trail, Karen & Larry (on their journey across the continent), spend a good part of their time doing whatever is necessary to escape the ruthless clutches of the evil Madame Runick and her no-good henchmen.MFB's story certainly had a lot of hilarious potential, but, far too often, it fell quite short of its comic possibilities for me to seriously consider it as a memorable, Hollywood classic.

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.

This was an extremely silly (downright stupid in spots) farce of a comedy-adventure that gets by because it's so fast-moving and generally entertaining despite the cornball material.Even by Bob Hope standards - and his films were not the highlight of his incredible career - this film is not that funny. A major part of the problem is simply that the humor is too dated. This kind of slapstick isn't the clever stuff some of older silent comics performed, which is still great material. This is just plain dumb.The adventure part deals with Hope and British spy "Karen Bentley" (Madeline Carroll) and her attempts to stay one step ahead of the Nazis and the police as she transports valuable microfilm. Hope is along to help her and provide laughter.Hope's pet penguin was a lot funnier than Bob in this film. Dressed up in different outfits, the little creature was hilarious to view and made this film tolerable enough to sit through some 60 years later. In fact, this would have been a keeper if they had made the penguin the star, instead of the two dopey lead actors!

Carroll is a British secret agent on the run from German spies. She's carrying valuable information that must reach Los Angeles. She lands in New York and eludes her pursuers by dashing into Hope's dressing room while he's on stage doing a bad act with a penguin. The thin plot has Hope and Carroll traveling across country with the bad guys always on their tail. So far, just formula. But Hope is excellent here, much better than in the Road pictures. He's less self-conscious here -- no talking to the camera, no in-jokes between him and Crosby, no leering at Lamour. Woody Allen once said that his film persona was to a large extent modeled after Bob Hope's character and nowhere is this more evident than here. As you watch the movie, try to imagine Woody playing Hope's role. You can easily visualize Woody doing the lines as Woody and it's not much different from Hope (though Hope's character isn't a New York neurotic). Definitely worth watching.