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DVD Casanova's Big Night
Bob "Orson Welles" Hope is at the top of his game in this 1954 Technicolor laugh-fest co-starring Joan Fontaine and Basil Rathbone. Hope plays Pippo Popolino, Casanova's tailor, who finds himself standing in for the great lover after the real Casanova (played by Vincent Price) leaves town to avoid paying his debts. Enlisted by an overzealous mother-in-law to test the true love of her daughter-in-law-to-be, Hope must capture the prized petticoat and help avert a civil war to boot. Years before he wore out his welcome in countless TV specials, Hope is a marvel here, perfecting his neurotic and vain coward persona while enganging in some pretty inspired slapstick. It's easy to forget that in 1954 this was pretty edgy stuff. It's no wonder a young Woody Allen idolized him. --Kristian St. Clair
Definitely in the second tier of Hope films, but nonetheless enjoyable, "Casanova's Big Night" has Hope impersonating the great lover himself, with mixed results.
Hope plays Pippo Popolino, a lowly tailor, who gets himself involved in a plot to discredit a young girl. In the process he pretends to be Casanova (the real Casanova being unavailable), whose very reputation has the ladies swooning, despite the obvious fact that Pippo is no great lover. Joan Fontaine plays the love interest (who after being kissed by Hope and told that she just received a sample of what to expect when they're stranded on a desert island, replies laconically, "Bring a deck of cards.")
The game cast (which includes Basil Rathbone and John Carradine) tries its best, but the movie drags in spots and is not on the level of the "Paleface" films or the "Road" series. There are genuine laughs, though, and a couple of good scenes, such as when Bob fights a duel and manages to come off as a fencing genius despite stumbling around almost the entire time. If you're a big Hope fan it's worth buying, for everyone else strictly a renter.
GRADE: B-
fafel, farfel, pipick is yiddish
Wonderful movie. Other reviewers have already told the story so I won't repeat. But one of the great hysterically funny moments occurs at the Doge's ball with Bob in women's clothes, barely holding on to his stuffing...and dancing with a foreign gentleman who speaks an unknown language. Bob responds with "farfel, farfel, pipick." Farfel is a Yiddish word for a particular sidedish made of wheat barley and usually cooked with mushrooms. Pipick refers to a bellybutton, often to the bellybutton of a chicken (in itself a joke) which is eaten along with the rest of the roast chicken. Anyway, it's very funny.
"Farfel, farfel, pipick"
A Hope comedy classic, ranking right up there with "Ghost Breakers". Bob's performance as Pipo Poppolino, "a miserable tailor's miserable apprentice", is almost flawless, and the supporting cast (Vicent Price as Casanova, the great Basil Rathbone as Luccio, Joan Fountain as the Widow Bruni, Hugh Marlow as the brother of the bride, Arnold Moss as the evil Doge of Venice, and brief appearances by Lon Chaney, Jr., John Carradine and Raymond Burr), is excellent. Hope is at his bumbling, cowardly best as the commoner impersonating Casanova, until he finds the courage to overcome the Doge and turn the tables on the devious Luccio. The sword fight scene and the finale (with Hope in hilarious drag) are side-splitters.
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."... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Bob Hope - Virginia Mayo Director(s): Sidney Lanfield - David Butler DVD Release Date: Released the 17 May 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Almost as welcome as a shaker full of martinis, The Complete Thin Man Collection represents an eagerly awaited DVD milestone for fans of the fizzy MGM movie series. The best film in the series came first: The Thin Man (1934), W.S. Van Dyke's marvelous adaptation of a Dashiell Hammet novel. The movie gods were in a generous mood when they paired William Powell and Myrna Loy as Nick and Nora Charles, the upper-class sophisticates whose sleuthing escapades somehow joined the classic form of the whodunit with the giddyup of screwball comedy. Among the series' many attributes, one of its most radical notions was the idea that a married couple might find each other delightful and view life as a goofy adventure together.
It is common wisdom that the Thin Man sequels... More Info about this DVD Director(s): W.S. Van Dyke DVD Release Date: Released the 02 August 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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During World War II, Hollywood's patriotic duty was to shoot stirring dramas and good-hearted comedies that celebrated America's brave soldiers and honored their loyal, virtuous wives and girlfriends. Which goes a long way toward explaining why this delirious Preston Sturges farce, filmed in 1943 at the height of the war effort (and of its director's powers), was delayed for a year while Paramount executives wrestled with Sturges's irreverence: in Morgan's Creek, the writer-director tweaked those stereotypes with his tale of Trudy Kockenlocker, a small-town girl who only wants to send our boys off with a smile. That she does, but she wakes up after an all-night party with vague memories of a dubious wedding and soon finds herself pregnant.
James Stewart reunites with his Harvey director, Henry Koster, in this 1962 comedy, which is charming enough even though it doesn't seem quite up to the level of talent involved. (The screenwriter is the legendary Nunnally Johnson--writer and director of The Three Faces of Eve, among many other titles--and the music is by Henry Mancini.) But it is pleasant, summery entertainment with Stewart and his screen wife, Maureen O'Hara, taking their urban family to a crumbling, seaside house for a vacation. The film was calculated to pull in older fans with Stewart as well as draw in a younger crowd that would enjoy the fairly extensive beach scenes with pop-star Fabian. Stewart is deft with the easy jokes about bad plumbing and such, and golden in several nice moments where he gets... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): James Stewart - Maureen O'Hara Director(s): Henry Koster DVD Release Date: Released the 06 September 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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