Bob Hope (1903-2003) seemed to thrive in films that were spoofs bordering on satires. The Paleface, released in December of 1947, was Hope’s take on the Western. He is credited with more than 70 short or feature films during his long career, and he lived to be 100.
The film series that first earned him lasting movie fame was the Road Pictures with Bing Crosby. For those — beginning with The Road to Singapore (1940) — the formula was simple: begin with a spoof of some existing Hollywood movie sub-set. Other films followed suit for Mr. Hope. Among these are jungle pictures, horror movies, spy stories, Gold Rush tales, historical dramas, desert adventure, film noir, and westerns; all of them spoofed.
He ventured into the horror film spoof with The Cat and the Canary (1939) with Paulette Goddard. Another would follow in 1940, The Ghost Breakers, again with Goddard. By 1948, he had completed five of the seven Road pictures, and another ‘spoof’ target was waiting to be explored: the Western. Bob Hope was not the first: The Little Train Robbery (1905), a one-reel short that used an all-child cast, was a direct parody of The Great Train Robbery (1903).
More western spoofs from other artists followed: Destry Rides Again (1938) with James Stewart and Marlene Dietrich; The Marx Brothers Go West (1940); My Little Chickadee (1940) with W.C. Fields and Mae West; and the animation version of Buckaroo Bugs starring Bugs Bunny, to name a few. The genre continues in Hollywood, now trying to outdo the ultimate western spoof, at least to date: Mel Brooks’ Blazing Saddles (1974).
Bob Hope’s first western was The Paleface, and it would be popular enough to generate another in 1950 with Lucille Ball, Fancy Pants, and a sequel in 1952 to the original, Son of Paleface. He tried it again in 1959 with Alias Jesse James. Hope looked funny in a cowboy hat, and audiences responded. He would continue with his spoof/parody approach with such movies as Monsieur Beaucaire (1946), a parody of historical costume dramas; and My Favorite Brunette (1947), a parody of the film noir genre.
Movie goers at The Paleface premiere expecting comedy were likely squirming in their seats during the opening sequence. It involves a jailhouse breakout by two mysterious riders, their identities disguised by masks and long rain slickers. The pair proceed to “free” the infamous outlaw Calamity Jane, portrayed by a tough talking Jane Russell.
A lot of Hollywood blah, blah, blah – “explaining the plot” – follows. Calamity has been bounced from jail so that she can aid the U.S. Government to track down miscreants selling guns and dynamite to the Indians. In pursuit of the felons, she is to partner, masquerading as husband and wife, with a federal agent heading west on a wagon train. Leader of the bad guys is Bruce Cabot of King Kong fame, who almost has no lines in the film. He glowers a lot and wears a black hat. Calamity’s partner is killed and she must find a new husband for cover: Enter Bob Hope as a correspondence school dentist named “Painless” Peter Potter. The comedy has been introduced.
Hope makes his entrance wielding a hammer and tong, tapping on his unfortunate patient’s teeth to determine which need repair. Everybody gets a laugh except the patient. This victim is soon tossed out of the chair by another client wanting service … badly. Hope eventually pulls his only gold tooth, a natural mistake since it was located beside the one that was throbbing.
The movie is parceled between Hope’s comedy bits and a standard Western plot: a wagon train, an Indian attack, another Indian attack, capture and escape. A lot of Indians get killed. At one point they are stacked in a human pile by Hope, who mistakenly believes he is responsible for the carnage. The audience knows that the real deadly shot is Calamity Jane.
In fact, some critics have noted that it is actually two movies: a standard western and Hope’s comic bits. The bits are funny, some of them very funny. The standard western is just that, pretty standard.
One must have outweighed the other with audiences. The picture was a smash and even won an Academy Award for best song, “Buttons and Bows,” sung by Hope. The director was a studio system regular, Norman Z. McLeod, who also piloted such funny men as W.C. Fields, the Marx Brothers, and Danny Kaye.
The ‘Paleface’ sequel in 1951 featured Hope as the son of Painless Potter. A recent graduate of Harvard, he goes out west seeking gold based on his father’s tall tales.