The Princess and the Pirate (1944)

That was an excellent one.

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

Bob Hope plays a ham actor who rescues princess Virginia Mayo from pirates in this lively Technicolor comedy. Hope is very funny, as usual. Virginia Mayo is gorgeous. Technicolor always was her friend. There are some fine character actors in the cast like Victor McLaglen, Walter Slezak, and Walter Brennan. Everyone seems to be having a great time playing dress-up and acting silly. The costumes and set are nice. Did I mention the lovely Technicolor? Well I will again because I love me some Technicolor. It's just a wacky movie that doesn't take itself the least bit seriously. A good one to just sit back, watch, and forget your troubles for awhile. Fun for young and old alike.

Fun comedy that showcases the talents of legend Bob Hope, filmed in gorgeous Technicolour. He's the cowardly tenth-rate travelling player who finds himself in a crazy situation he never would have dreamed of, involving pirates and pretty girls. The main girl in question is the ravishing-in-colour Virginia Mayo, who plays the Princess of the title. It's a credit to her that she displays plenty of spunk in personality as well as spunky legs. Sometimes this film, and Hope, takes a few missteps, thinking it's more witty and clever than it actually is, and some gags run too long, but it's still good entertainment. I like Bob Hope's style, I need to check out some of those "Road" movies he did. Supporting cast includes Walter Brennan, Victor McLaglen and Walter Slezak (displaying more skin than is desired...unlike Miss Mayo!). The moral of the story? Watch out for bit players from Paramount!

This is a splashy Technicolor comedy with Bob Hope as an impersonator on the run, Virginia Mayo as a kidnapped princess, Victor McLaglan as "The Hook", and Walter Slezak as the ruler of an island that serves as a pirate's rest stop.It should be funnier than it is, and I was trying to figure out why it doesn't come off more satisfactorily than it does. It's certainly fast enough. Everyone seems to be running around, bellowing, and there are explosions and multiple sword fights, and a few minutes of romance. But it's not funny for the same reason that "Abbott and Costello Meet Captain Kidd" isn't funny anymore. It's a child's idea of comedy in that it lacks any sophistication. I don't mean to be supercilious but kids laugh at things that don't demand much of them. Somebody takes a pratfall and a fifth-grader laughs. Kids don't need to know anything other than what they see happening on the screen.What made the Road movies so funny was that there were pauses so that the audience could take a breath while Bing Crosby crooned a silly tune to Dorothy Lamour. And Hope and Crosby were constantly trying to outwit each other in ways both shameless and sly. When they had a friendly embrace and picked each other's pockets at the same time, we could identify with them, or at least with their desires. There was somebody for a grown up to ROOT for on the screen.The Road team had a different set of writers -- Panama and Frank -- and they were better at giving Hope gags than the writers of "The Princess and the Pirate." Hope is given a couple of anachronistic wisecracks -- "made in Japan, eh?" -- but they don't save the day because the rest of the movie propels us at warp speed through the ludicrous plot. One of the more amusing scenes is a minor rip-off from the Marx Brothers' "Duck Soup." What's missing is the easy banter between Hope and Crosby, the more delicate touches provided for them. ("Delicate", here, being a relative term.) Hope on his own could be hilarious, as he was in "They Got Me Covered." Danny Kaye was making movies in this period that were just as funny and, like Hope, he always played the same character, but it was a different character: the shy, neurotic schlub. Hope always played the same part in the 1940s too -- the sniveling, greedy, libidinous coward -- but nobody was better at it. Woody Allen borrowed some of Hope's mannerisms for his own performances.If you give Hope the right settings and the right gags he runs with the ball like nobody's business. But this part could have been done by almost any comic actor, maybe Red Skelton. "The Princess and the Pirate" was released in 1944. Hope had some splendid movies ahead of him. In the 1960s he was churning out one turkey after another. I suppose he must have enjoyed working. He surely didn't need the money by then. When he finally quit, he played golf, continued to make his well-known USO tours to troops overseas, and lived to a respectably old age. Not at all a bad career.

Bob Hope was an outstanding comic. I met an old radio man who knew Bob Hope briefly, and this man said Hope was not an impromptu type. He couldn't come up with these one liners off the top of his head, but he did the delivery of written work perfectly. To look at him work in movies like this, that is almost impossible to believe, and it makes me even more in awe of what he accomplished. In this movie he plays a coward (imagine that!) who is coupled with a beautiful princess in escaping pirates who loot the ship he's on. He's befriended by one pirate, Featherhead (Walter Brennan), who shows some great versatility in his comic role. The same man who convincingly played a vicious killer in "My Darling Clementine" and "The Westerner", does a magnificent job of outwitting Bob Hope in this movie over and over, and Featherhead's only half of a halfwit! The antics never stop, and the physical comedy is perfect. A lot of big name actors helped to make this a great movie. More than a laugh a second. Just hilarious. And after Hope saves the princess from a pirate and a tyrant, do you think he gets the girl in the end? Or does some other rascal.