Restoring MY FAVORITE BRUNETTE: Is There Hope?

"He's a hilarious hawkshaw...with a case on Dottie!"

Many of my best-loved classic films have been restored to their original pristine (or close to it) condition, such as Vertigo, Rear Window, and Touch of Evil. But it’s always irked me that a full-blown restoration has so far eluded one of my favorite movies, literally: the 1947 comedy-thriller My Favorite Brunette (MFB), written by Edmund Beloin & Jack Rose, and directed by Elliott Nugent. For my money, this comic gem is the best of Bob Hope’s three movies in the “Favorite” series. The first one, My Favorite Blonde (1942), teamed Hope with Madeleine Carroll in a zany yet suspenseful adventure reminiscent of her Alfred Hitchcock thrillers The 39 Steps (1935) and Secret Agent (1936). The last of the trilogy was My Favorite Spy (1951), in which Hope teamed up for similarly funny, frantic shenanigans with the beautiful and brainy Hedy Lamarr. Although I enjoyed all three “Favorites,” I was drawn most strongly to MFB because it affectionately spoofs one of my favorite genres, the private eye mystery. We meet our hero, San Francisco baby photographer Ronnie Jackson (Hope), on Death Row—this is comedy? Oh yes it is, smarty, because there’s a gaggle of reporters interviewing our hero as he gets a chance to tell his side of the murder frame-up he’s embroiled in. In true 1940s-style detective voiceover, Ronnie admits, “I wanted to be a detective too. It only took brains, courage and a gun---and I had the gun!" When Ronnie office-sits for Sam McCloud, the tough, suave private eye down the hall, he finds his dreams of playing detective coming all too true all too soon when a mysterious damsel-in-distress, Baroness Carlotta Montay (no relation to Vertigo’s Carlotta Valdes) slinks into the picture, wearing fabulous Edith Head fashions. Thinking Ronnie is Sam, she begs him to help her find Baron Montay (Frank Puglia in a dual role), her older husband…or is he? 

Time to open the mailman?

I see a babelicious mystery woman in your future....

Whatever Carlotta is to the Baron, her entrance brought a smile to my face immediately, because she’s played by Bob Hope’s quintessential leading lady, Dorothy Lamour, a long way from the exotic Jungle Princess sarong that catapulted her to stardom in the 1930s! Soon Ronnie is up to his ski-nose in trouble as he and the comely Carlotta are chased by a gang of cutthroats with designs on Baron Montay’s uranium. That's right, uranium—the MacGuffin of Hitchcock’s thriller Notorious from the previous year!  When things go from bad to worse, will our hero sit down to “the worst last meal I ever ate,” or can he clear himself as he ducks flying bullets and one-liners between make-out sessions with Carlotta? One of Hope's best comedies, MFB deftly spoofs hard-boiled private eye thrillers of the era with a barrage of uproarious quips and set pieces in a private sanatorium and an atmospheric mansion (Ronnie: “Nice cheerful place. What time do they bring the mummies out?”). It’s like The Big Sleep on laughing gas, and makes about the same amount of sense. I’m tempted to quote more of Hope and Lamour’s witty quips, but I’d probably end up typing almost the entire zingy script verbatim. 

Is Carlotta giving Ronnie a private screening?

Hope and Lamour's usual comic/romantic chemistry is at its finest. I especially enjoyed the fact that more often than not, Carlotta was able to think on her feet and get the bumbling Ronnie out of one jam after another while he either went to pieces or let his little bouts of success go to his head. You go, girl!  The nifty supporting cast includes Peter Lorre as a knife-throwing henchman and assassin studying to pass his U.S. citizenship exam (he makes the phrase “What does the executive branch of our government do? It carries OUT the laws!” sound sinister and hilarious at the same time); the unfairly uncredited Jean Wong, endearing as Mrs. Fong, mother of a tot so loathe to smile that Ronnie quips, "This kid's gonna grow up to be a sponsor!"; Lon Chaney Jr., essentially playing his classic and oft-imitated Of Mice and Men role for laughs; Jack La Rue, the lone American in 1948’s Brits-trying-to-sound-like-New-Yorkers adaptation of the notorious oddball crime drama No Orchids for Miss Blandish; and a couple of delightful star cameos sure to bring a smile to any classic movie fan’s face, especially the Paramount tough guy who plays Sam McCloud! The movie is a delight, but the DVD print, not so much, alas, despite a handful of nice interactive features. 

Whatever
Carlotta wants,
Carlotta gets!

Somewhere along the way, MFB slipped out of Paramount Pictures’ hands and wound up in Public Domain Hell!  The Madacy DVD currently available doesn't have the most pristine print; it’s got more scratches than a nudist who stumbled into poison ivy. Nevertheless, my scratchy copy of MFB is still a far better copy than the one that Turner Classic Movies periodically runs!  Heck, the TCM print is actually missing a few minutes in the scene taking place just after the rained-upon Ronnie and Carlotta return to McCloud’s office. I noticed the Columbia Pictures Television logo at the end of TCM’s recent MFB broadcast. Should we be pestering and persuading Columbia Pictures using every known form of communication in order to get a gorgeous print of MFB available to the world again? Please, motion picture historians and fellow film fanatics, let’s find a way to give this cheeky, cheerful farce a restoration and the Criterion-caliber treatment it deserves!

Guess  Mrs. Fong's baby isn't a vegetarian!

Update for 2011: My husband Vinnie gave me The Shout! Factory's deluxe Bob Hope DVD set, including a gorgeously remastered version of My Favorite Brunette! Many thanks to fellow Peter Lorre/Bob Hope fan Cheryl Morris for bringing the set to my attention!