Product Description

The legendary Bob Hope takes to the high seas in this hilarious, OscarÂ(r)-nominated* romantic comedy co-starring Virginia Mayo, Walter Slezak, Walter Brennan and Victor McLaglen! Sylvester the Great (Hope) is a 17th-century entertainer with an act so atrocious, he's exiled from England. Aboard a ship bound for America, he finds himself falling for the beautiful Princess Margaret(Mayo), a woman uninterested in lovenot to mention his lousy one-liners. But when an evil band of pirates attacks the ship and captures the princess, her only hope is the cowardly comedian. Can Sylvester stop cracking jokes and muster the courage to rescue his royal love? In other words, will heand Margaret end up walking down the aisle or walking the plank? *1944: Art Direction (Color); Nonmusical Score

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #18539 in DVD
• Brand: TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX HOME ENT
• Released on: 2005-05-17
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, Full Screen, Subtitled, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English, Spanish, French
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: 1.00 pounds
• Running time: 94 minutes

Amazon.com
Bob Hope is in top form in this Technicolor parody of pirate pictures, doing his best vaudeville shtick as an inept performer trying to save princess Virginia Mayo from the evil clutches of governor Walter Slezak and pirate Victor McLaglen. It's all ridiculous fun, of course, but if you're a fan of Hope, you never tire of his self-effacing gags and double-entendres. His out-of-place show biz jabs were always clever, and they're all the funnier in this period setting--particularly the Bing Crosby jokes. But Walter Brennan nearly steals the film as a wacky pirate scheming to steal buried treasure, and tattooing the map on Hope's chest. Yet the two best routines are when Hope tries to conceal his chest while taking a bath with Slezak, and when he tries to impersonate McLaglen as "the Hook." --Bill Desowitz

Customer Reviews

Mastering Errors on the MGM DVD Version
Definitely don't buy this DVD version from MGM. They have made some serious mastering errors on this edition. Several scenes are subject to double-imaging (no excuse for that), as well as variances in the color timing and the volume. This title is also in badly need of Technicolor restoration: it has a greenish-look and suffers from color fading (I understand that the previous HBO DVD release did also). At the very least, MGM Home Entertainment needs to pull this title and correct the double-imaging.

Don't Buy This MGM DVD Release!
Like so many other people I was waiting for this new release on DVD. Imagine my disappointment when I get 24 minutes into the movie and I get double images! It lasted until about 32 minutes later (when Bob Hope encounters the Bucket of Blood). MGM needs to get the message that these classic movies simply can't be treated this way.
Fortunately I still have my earlier DVD release thru HBO Films because I'll have to return this copy of the Princess and the Pirate.

What happened?
As mentioned in previous reviews the image quality of this dvd is poor. The color is flat and the double imaging of some of the scenes has to be seen to be believed. How The Princess and the Pirate ever made it out into the world in this state I'll never understand. Didn't anybody even bother to preview this before it was rereleased?