Themes: Witnessing a Crime, Flight of the Innocent, Unlikely Heroes
Main Cast: Bob Hope, Jane Russell, Robert Armstrong, Iris Adrian, Robert "Bobby" Watson
Release Year: 1948
Country: US
Run Time: 91 minutes
Plot
Bob Hope's Technicolor western spoof The Paleface was one of the comedian's biggest box-office hits. Hope plays Painless Potter, a hopelessly inept dentist who heads west to seek his fortune. Meanwhile, buxom female outlaw Calamity Jane (Jane Russell) is engaged in undercover work on behalf of the government, in the hopes of earning a pardon for her past crimes. Jane is on the lookout for notorious gun-runner Robert Armstrong. To put up an innocent front, Jane marries the befuddled Potter, then keeps the criminals at bay by convincing everyone that Potter is a rootin'-tootin' gunslinger (actually, it's Jane who's been doing all the shooting). Armstrong, who has been selling guns to the Indians, arranges for Jane to be captured by the scalp-hungry tribesmen, but Potter comes to the rescue. Somewhere along the way, Bob Hope and Jane Russell get to sing the Oscar-winning Jay Livingston/Ray Evans tune "Buttons and Bows". There are many hilarious moments in The Paleface, but screenwriter Frank Tashlin felt that director Norman Z. McLeod failed to get the full comic value out of his material. To prove his point, Tashlin directed the side-splitting sequel, Son of Paleface (1952), which once more teamed Hope and Russell. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
The great civic historian Otto Friedrich, in his study of Los Angeles in the 1940's, made a stunningly accurate analysis on the films of Bob Hope. All of Hope's movies, he wrote, revolve around the same three basic gags: the size of his nose, his innate cowardliness, and his complete ineptitude with women. With the exception of the ski beak, these truths are self-evident in The Paleface. Featuring an extremely attractive Jane Russell as Calamity Jane, the thin plot revolves around an undercover operation to discover who is selling guns to Indians. Jane agrees to pose as the wife of a government agent in exchange for a pardon, but through a series of mishaps must dupe Hope's eastern dentist into marrying her so she can secretly prop him up as an agent. All that is really besides the point, since the plot allows Hope to essentially play his typical role and provides all sorts of instances where he can be a coward and a frustrated lover. The major plot points are as predictable as they come, but it doesn't really matter. The jokes are for the most part typically funny material, especially the climax in the Indian camp where Hope disguises himself as the medicine man, and Russell has probably not looked better on screen with perhaps one or two exceptions. The script was co-written by Frank Tashlin, who would go on to become a well-known director and, in fact, directed the sequel Son of Paleface when he felt the director Norman Z. McLeod had not handled the original to his liking. ~ Dan Friedman, All Movie Guide
Hans Dreier - Art Director, Earl Hedrick - Art Director, Billy Daniel - Choreography, Mary Kay Dodson - Costume Designer, Norman Z. McLeod - Director, Ellsworth Hoagland - Editor, Ray Evans - Composer (Music Score), Jay Livingston - Composer (Music Score), Victor Young - Composer (Music Score), Bertram Granger - Production Designer, Ray Rennahan - Cinematographer, Robert L. Welch - Producer, Sam Comer - Set Designer, Bertram Granger - Set Designer, Farciot Edouart - Special Effects, Gordon Jennings - Special Effects, Edmund L. Hartmann - Screenwriter, Frank Tashlin - Screenwriter, Jack Rose - Screenwriter
