Product Description

Calamity jane weds a learn-by-mail painless dentist as a cover for her government work. Studio: Uni Dist Corp. (mca) Release Date: 10/24/2006 Starring: Bob Hope Robert Armstrong Run time: 91 minutes Rating: Nr Director: Norman Z. Mcleod

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #12292 in DVD
• Brand: Universal
• Released on: 2002-03-05
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Color, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English, Spanish, French
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 91 minutes

Amazon.com
Bob Hope brings his own brand of laughing gas to the Wild West as a would-be "painless" dentist lassoed into marrying Jane Russell. She's a shapely outlaw turned undercover agent on the trail of some varmints selling guns to a hostile Indian tribe, and he's her unwitting cover. Hope cowers and cracks self-effacing jokes while bodies fall around him ("Brave men run in my family," he quips, then runs), but he's even funnier swaggering and sneering like a kid playing cowboy in a flamboyant costume apparently stolen from the Oklahoma! road show. The Paleface is one of his best films, and the unflappable Russell is a great match. Theme song "Buttons and Bows" (which Hope delivers with a clowning mock twang) won an Oscar^®, and the 1948 film spawned a sequel (Son of Paleface, costarring Roy Rogers and Trigger) and a remake (The Shakiest Gun in the West with Don Knotts). --Sean Axmaker

Customer Reviews

Great Comedian at Top of His Form
Bob Hope's 1948 film "The Paleface," was the highest-grossing movie America's most-beloved comedian of the era ever made. Pairing Hope with Jane Russell in a run-of-the-mill Paramount comedy was box office magic that still works today. Here Bob Hope's timing is perfect, and he's totally mastered the character we associate with him, that cowardly braggart, who thinks of himself as a real Casanova. The film still holds up well, and I've found myself laughing out loud at many of the scenes. The DVD has an unbelievably good transfer that gives you a picture that's so crisp, it feels like you have a camera in your hands. Special features are nice, including the original theatrical trailer. There's also a clip of an Armed Forces Command Performance, and some footage of Bob Hope performing for the troops. With DVD-ROM, you can also compare the script to the scene as it plays out. In all, an enjoyable way to spend an evening with one of the great comedians of the mid-20th century.

Bob is hilarious!
This is one of the best Bob Hope movies, and his comedy timing here is excellent. He plays Painless Potter, a cowardly dentist, and the problems he encounters provides Hope ample opportunity to improvise sight gags and many other memorable jokes. Pay close attention when Bob attempts to extract a tooth... it's a classic scene! Hope is curiously underrated as a comic, but he was an absolute master at this genre, playing to perfection a sort of bumbling wannabe womanizing coward. Pay particular attention to his timing, which was absolutely unmatched in Hollywood.

The only drawback is Jane Russell, who was only in movies due to her cleavage. Her acting talent is minimal, but the brilliant Hope more than makes up for it. You will find yourself laughing out loud continuously throughout this movie. The color tones are bright, crisp and make it seem like you're sitting in the movie theatre in 1948. A classic comedy film.

Hope Hit
My favorite Bob Hope moment of all time comes from this film. Not his amazing facility with a gag or a prop but when he sings "Buttons and Bows" in an attempt to seduce Jane Russell. It's a great song and wonderfully done. Hope never got to work with the great directors for some reason so his work is often overlooked today, but shouldn't be. Otherwise he'd be recognized as the most influential American comic actor of the sound era.