A Masterpiece!

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

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

Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

Victor McLaglen is the Hook, much-feared pirate captain. Walter Brennan is Featherhead, slightly crazy pirate crew member who is craftier than anyone thinks. Their ship captures another carrying our two main characters: Virginia Mayo as Princess Margaret, dressed as a commoner and sailing away secretly to meet her fiancé, and…Bob Hope as "Sylvester the Great, the Man of Seven Faces": a sort of traveling vaudeville entertainer whose show includes dancing and disguises. "My act is known all over Europe," he exclaims. "That's why I'm going to America."Lots of great jokes in this big Technicolor swashbuckler filled with music and action. McLaglen has an absolute ball as the pirate captain; Walter Slezak is almost as good as a corrupt island governor who is the Hook's political counterpart and sometime business partner. Virginia Mayo is charming and quite funny and holds her own in the many scenes that she shares with Bob Hope; they make a cute pair, as he does the fast talking and she laughs at him and together they plot to escape their unhealthy predicament. Hope himself is at his wacky best—his disguises include an old gypsy woman and a Hook lookalike and his wisecracks fly past at a furious pace. (Mayo: "Who's that at the door?" Hope: "It ain't opportunity, I'm getting outa here.")Very funny and brimful of color and energy. And the final scene is a classic… "This is the last picture I make for Goldwyn!"

Bob Hope again plays his cowardly character in "The Princess and the Pirate," a 1944 film from Samuel Goldwyn Studios. The film also stars Virginia Mayo, Walter Slezak, Victor McLaglen, and Walter Brennan. Hope plays Sylvester the Great (who gives his last name as Crosby), a bad performer who becomes involved with an incognito princess, played by pretty Virginia Mayo. There's really no point in going through the story - it's fairly ridiculous, concerning a map and a treasure. It's really just an excuse for some gorgeous Technicolor escapist entertainment in the midst of World War II. Beautiful women (the Goldwyn Girls) and lots of comedy abound. Hope is a scream as Sylvester, impersonating a Gypsy woman and Captain Barrett (McLaglen) who has a hook for a hand. Toward the end of the film, both Barrett and Sylvester disguised as Barrett are in Barrett's quarters, unaware of one another, each leaving the room from time to time and making opposite pronouncements to the pirates. Very funny stuff.Hope is an absolute riot with that dry, offhand delivery of his and his facial expressions. He generally played an avowed coward, though a likable one, and this time is no different. Everyone does a great job in this, and I'm sure audiences, depressed by war news, appreciated it. Lots of fun and recommended.

This one is so much better than Hope's later romp in the swashbuckling genre called CASANOVA'S BIG NIGHT.VIRGINIA MAYO displays comic flair as Princess Margaret, the lovely Technicolor photography doing her full justice as the costumed princess running away from the villains with the cowardly Sylvester the Great (BOB HOPE) at her side. Hope is at his comic best, delivering every line with the sort of casual flair for comedy that served him so well during his early years at Paramount.But having the most fun are VICTOR McLAGLEN as the hook-bearing pirate with a devilish gleam in his eye; WALTER BRENNAN as the maniacal, half-witted pirate called Featherbrain who relishes every scene and gives one of his best supporting role performances; and WALTER SLEZAK as the wicked man who wants the treasure map and Mayo for his own.Not to be outclassed by these comic performances, we also have HUGO HAAS as the cabaret owner who shares some priceless one-liners with Hope who auditions for a job in his cabaret. The drinking scene is one of the highlights of the film.Directed at a frantic pace by David Butler, this is one of Hope's most enjoyable romps and it's all dressed up in fancy Technicolor and lavish sets and costumes.Not to be missed, if you're a Hope fan.

Bob Hope's classic Princess & the Pirate is a classic in so many ways, but the main thing is it's damn funny, and one line always comes to mind when I think of this movie, V. Mayo to Bob Hope: Why don't you die like a man, and Bob replies, because I'd rather live like a woman!Says it all!