My Favorite Brunette
My Favorite Brunette | |
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File:My Favorite Brunette.jpg
Theatrical release poster
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Directed by | Elliott Nugent |
Produced by | Danny Dare |
Screenplay by | <templatestyles src="Plainlist/styles.css"/>
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Starring | <templatestyles src="Plainlist/styles.css"/> |
Music by | Robert Emmett Dolan |
Cinematography | Lionel Lindon |
Edited by | Ellsworth Hoagland |
Production
company |
Hope Enteriprises
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Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
Release dates
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Running time
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87 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Box office | $3.1 million (US rentals)[1] |
My Favorite Brunette is a 1947 American romantic comedy film and film noir parody, directed by Elliott Nugent and starring Bob Hope and Dorothy Lamour.[2] Written by Edmund Beloin and Jack Rose, the film is about a baby photographer on death row in San Quentin State Prison who tells reporters his history. While taking care of his private-eye neighbor's office, he is asked by an irresistible baroness to find a missing baron, which initiates a series of confusing but sinister events in a gloomy mansion and a private sanatorium. Spoofing movie detectives and the film noir style, the film features Lon Chaney, Jr. playing Willie, a character based on his Of Mice and Men role Lennie; Peter Lorre as Kismet, a comic take on his many film noir roles; and cameo appearances by film noir regular Alan Ladd and Hope partner Bing Crosby. Sequences were filmed in San Francisco and Pebble Beach, California.[3]
Synopsis
The story is told in flashback from Death Row as Ronnie Jackson (Hope) relates to a group of reporters the events that lead to his predicament. Jackson is a baby photographer who dreams about being a real private detective like his friend Sam McCloud (Ladd). One day he is mistaken for a detective by a mysterious lady in distress (Lamour) and soon finds himself involved in a murder mystery. In the end of the flashback, Ronnie is released from prison, which disappoints the executioner played by Bing Crosby in a cameo role.
Cast
- Bob Hope as Ronnie Jackson
- Alan Ladd as Sam McCloud (cameo appearance)
- Dorothy Lamour as Baroness Carlotta Montay
- Frank Puglia as Baron Montay
- Peter Lorre as Kismet
- Lon Chaney, Jr. as Willie
- John Hoyt as Dr. Lundau
- Charles Dingle as Major Simon Montague
- Reginald Denny as James Collins
- Ann Doran as Miss Rogers[4]
Reception
Bosley Crowther of The New York Times liked it, saying: "Paramount knows a good thing when it sees one, especially when it earns a pile of bucks. And it also knows that there is magic in the juxtaposition of Mr. Hope and a dame—any dame this side of Woodlawn—and a preposterously turbulent plot. That's why the Paramount's new picture, the aforementioned "My Favorite Brunette," which candidly observes these criteria, is a commendably funny film."[5]
My Favorite Brunette was described by a reviewer for the St. Petersburg Times as a "first rate [Bob] Hope performance".[6]
Home video
In 1975, the film entered the public domain in the USA due to the copyright claimants failure to renew the copyright registration during the 28th year after release.[7] However, all authorized editions currently available are copyrighted by Columbia Pictures Television.
My Favorite Brunette has been widely available on home video, with most copies varying in picture and sound quality. There have been authorized video releases of the film, under license from the Bob Hope estate and distributor FremantleMedia North America, using the original negatives stored at Sony. One such release was licensed to Shout! Factory in 2010 in a DVD box set with other Hope films.
See also
- List of films in the public domain
- My Favorite Blonde (1942) with Bob Hope and Madeleine Carroll
- My Favorite Spy (1951) with Bob Hope and Hedy Lamarr
References
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External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to [[commons:Lua error in Module:WikidataIB at line 506: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value).|Lua error in Module:WikidataIB at line 506: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value).]]. |
- Lua error in Module:WikidataCheck at line 28: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value). My Favorite Brunette at IMDb
- My Favorite Brunette at the TCM Movie Database
- My Favorite Brunette is available for free download at the Internet Archive
- 'My Favorite Brunette (1947)' on YouTube
- ↑ "Top Grossers of 1947", Variety, 7 January 1948 p 63
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- Pages with reference errors
- Pages with broken file links
- 1947 films
- English-language films
- Commons category link from Wikidata
- Articles with Internet Archive links
- 1940s romantic comedy films
- American films
- American black-and-white films
- American criminal comedy films
- American romantic comedy films
- Comedy mystery films
- Films directed by Elliott Nugent
- Films set in San Francisco, California
- Paramount Pictures films