So much average

A Masterpiece!

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

No matter if I've now seen this Western comedy umpteen times boy and man it still makes me laugh. There isn't much subtlety and there's plenty of farce but it's still an entertaining story with many sparkling quips to be had from Bob Hope in classic form.Jane Russell as Calamity Jane is sprung from jail by government undercover men, in the hope she will help them track down some white baddies running arms to the Injuns, and in return for a full pardon. On the way she enrols the unwitting Hope playing a not-so-painless dentist. One memorable scene follows another, not a minute is wasted in the ninety – even the slapstick sections (such as Hope stopping to growl a bit too much) are brief. And the cute song Buttons And Bows won the Oscar so maybe should be sat through respectfully. Favourite bits: Nestor Paiva laughing at the pain he was in after the wrong tooth was extracted by a laughing Hope with both under the influence of laughing gas; Hope apparently giving the marriage JP a kiss; the trouble had taking the reins; Hope not fooling with Joe's gal – and the offhand reprimand he later gave Joe's corpse; the lean to the right sequence (Danny Kaye's later take on it in The Court Jester was better though); the happy film having a happy ending; so many others. The production values were high, the Technicolor warm, the direction tight, and thankfully the humour was decidedly middlebrow.One of my favourite Bob Hope films it was meant for ordinary people to enjoy thoughtlessly, a concept that is always derided by clever people. Thanks to its immense antiquity this maybe had an abundance of stereotypes of all types but it had a good heart and humour, something missing in the later Western comedy Blazing Saddles. I wonder idly how many untrained moviegoers in 1948 would've laughed if Hope and the other cowboy characters in here had sat around at length swearing and bursting their fluffboxes?

Never as funny as it might have been, THE PALEFACE is a Bob Hope vehicle that has the old ski-nose playing "Painless" Potter, a bumbling dentist out West who gets tangled up with Cal;amity Jane (Russell) and a bunch of gun runners. Jane is a government agent sent to stop the bad guys, and she marries Painless so she can pose as a clueless married woman. Along the way, she makes her new husband appear to be a fearless gunfighter. The film is long and just not all that funny. Obviously, writer Frank Tashlin agreed, as he made his own sequel several years later that is a real hoot. In SON OF PALEFACE, Painless' grown son teams up with Roy Rogers and Trigger to fight the bad guys. Nothing against Jane Russell, but in the case of these two movies, I'll take Trigger.

This is really one great fun comedy, that can be seen as an early parody of the western genre.Parodies actually weren't quite common yet in the '40's. Besides, westerns themselves also weren't that popular anymore at the time, so this movie seemed a bit like an unlikely one and a bit of a gamble that paid off very well in the end.It's a real fun movie to watch, thanks to its humor. As a comedy this movie is just great and does definitely has some funny moments in it. Not just physically but also it's writing and acting from Bob Hope is what's making this movie often so fun to watch.I must say that Bob Hope was really one great comedy actor, who know how to handle its slapstick as well as its dialogs. A real actor who just seemed to be made for the genre. He adds quite a lot to this movie and often makes scenes that otherwise wouldn't had been very funny hilarious to watch. Too bad that Jane Russell impresses less. She just wasn't being a very great actress in this movie and it doesn't seem like a big wonder that her career never got off the ground and mostly played her film roles in the '40's and '50's only. There also is absolutely no chemistry between her and the Bob Hope character, not even in the sequences when there really is supposed to be. She must hate the character for most part of the movie though luckily, which still makes her performance a bit bearable for some parts of the movie. Oh well, at least the movie knew who to put it's main focus on though; Bob Hope.It was kind of weird though seeing Bob Hope blast away all those Indians with his guns, just for the comic effect of it all. I don't know, it just didn't felt right. The whole thing just had a bit of a racist thing over it.It was a good choice this shoot this picture in full color. It makes the movie a bright one to watch obviously, which adds to the fun feeling of the overall movie. It also makes the movie perhaps a bit fake and campy looking but again, this also adds to the overall feeling of the movie and seems suiting for an early genre movie such as this one.Still they could had spend some more time on its story. Now the story is mostly being dull and hard to follow, simply because it's such an uninteresting one. They tried to put in perhaps a too serious main plot-line, which is in huge contrast with the movie its comedy and the reason why the story just never becomes compelling. The movie is best to watch while switching your brain off and when you're just not wondering too much what the movie is all about, who all these characters are and what their motivations all are. No, just sit back and enjoy this movie please!A surprisingly great and funny western parody from the late '40's!8/10http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

There are so many wonderful moments in this gloriously silly movie, that it would be impossible to mention more than a few. Hope's timing, the verbal and sight gags combined, a fairly bawdy undercurrent,involving Painless Potter's unsuccessful attempts to bed his new bride, and probably the funniest parody of the classic showdown ever filmed, add up to a very entertaining movie.Some of the most priceless moments go by very quickly, and may not be obvious at first. Painless Potter is smilingly massaging the bald head of a tough dental patient, and they both begin chuckling uncontrollably, due to a leak in the laughing gas machine. Painless Potter is shaving outdoors, with a small mirror hung from a tree branch. An arrow whizzes by, and he remarks that he must be shaving too close. A very obvious man ,trying to conceal himself behind a bush, comes closer, and Potter remarks with a sort of deadpan whimsy, " Must be a Virginia Creeper." When another arrow nearly hits him, he examines it curiously, and muses aloud on who it is that shoots arrows. He lists the possibilities, including Cupid and William Tell, before shrieking " Indians!" and running for the blockhouse. When he tries to get wife Jane to let him in, he hollers, " Help, help, there's a million Indians out here against one coward!"Viewers who can let themselves get immersed in the wisecracks and sight gags, along with just about every western cliché you can think of, will have a good laugh with this delightful film.And, the scene where Painless Potter serenades his sleepy wife with a concertina, singing " Buttons and Bows", as their covered wagon moves slowly along the trail, is absolutely charming. There's something very tender about the way the naive husband sings the funny little song to his drowsy bride.