Bob Hope is really leaning into his “jumpy wimp” persona…

Before starting this Bob Hope box set (from the late 30s/early 40s), I wasn’t really much aware of him as an actor. I mean, I must have seen him a bunch of times, but somehow I think of him as a TV guy or something? And I’ve seen none of the almost dozen movies in this box set before, so I guess that means that his movies aren’t exactly critics favourites.

Look at that start of his film career — pumping out multiple films each year from the get go. But these aren’t exactly high-falutin’ auteur movies — they’re made by sturdy studio hands like George Archainbaud and Elliott Nugent.

Oof

So this film is about an actor who tries to get out of the draft (because he’s afraid of loud noises and stuff). This is from 1941, which makes it really, really topical, so I guess it was made very quickly?

This is by another veteran director I’m not familiar with. He directed his first movie in 1913 and did more than a hundred movies. And it’s well-made — but it doesn’t quite have the manic zip of some of the other movies on this box set.

It was a hit, though:

The film was a big hit and became Paramount’s second most successful release of 1941 after Louisiana Purchase.

And I can see why — it’s so topical (with a premiere just a few months before the US entered WWII) and is properly patriotic, taking the Bob Hope character from abject cowardice to (I’m presuming) a heroic ending.

But it does look like it was made in a hurry. I mean, it mostly looks great, but there’s scenes where you feel they’d have moved the camera a bit to get a better angle if they’d had more time — like this little bit, where their faces are covered for most of the scene.

This bit was really impressive (and funny).

Not all the gags are as snappy, though. This was a good idea, but it just lacked some timing.

It’s fun! But it’s not fun enough.

Caught in the Draft. David Butler. 1941. ⚂

This is pretty screwy. It’s got zip.

The name of the director, George Archainbaud, doesn’t really ring a bell, but:

He’s done about 110 films! Yowza. He started in 1917, and kept on working at a frenetic pace until his final year, 1953, when he directed six movies! OK, they were Gene Autry films, so they weren’t hard on the brain or anything, but still!

So I guess he was a reliable studio director, and this movie has that studio professional sheen. The same year he did this, he also did a Betty Grable film and a Ray Milland/Dorothy Lamour film.

This is really charming. It’s not really a screwball comedy like I first assumed, but it’s got a whole bunch of gags and zips along nicely. It’s also got these moody, romantic scenes… it’s a lot of fun.

Hm… are all cats in old films black cats? In comedies, there’s usually a scene or two with a cat (I know The Internet’s For Cats, but so were movies), and a surprising number of them are totally black. Or do they just film like it? I mean, I love all cats equally, but people seem to go for colours that are easier to Instagram these days which means fewer Voids.

Li’l Void.

*gasp* Shoes on the couch!

It’s a pretty small budget movie, I guess? It’s all set in one flat — perhaps based on a play? It really zips along, and has enough twists and amusing characters to carry the day. I really love the deadbeat friends that pop in all of the time.

Thanks for the Memory. George Archainbaud. 1938. ⚄

Is there a law against doing deinterlacing on old VHS stuff when doing bluray releases? Or is the point here to use the wrong interlacing as a video effect?

Oh my god. Not only is this almost three hours long, but it’s apparently the sort of documentary I hate the most: One person pops up saying one sentence, then there’s another person that pops up saying another sentence, and I HATE IT SO MUCH.

And they’re just playing tiny bits of songs, and then using them for backgrounds for when people are sound-byting.

They’re really consistent about having wrong/missing deinterlace on all the old footage.

I guess that’s trey artistique.

Or just stupid.

OK, it’s better now… it’s more of a narrative…

I started listening to Swans a year or so before Children of God… and I quite liked that album (and the World of Skin thing).

Hah! OK, I didn’t get this album. The snippets they’re playing sound totally awful.

Heh heh.

I got that album, though. It’s good.

Oh my god. We’re only 70 minutes in. Not even halfway through.

I think I may be ditching this soon…

OK, I think I’m gonna ditch this here.

It’s not a horrible documentary. They front-loaded it with a bunch of really boring talking heads stuff which made me almost ditch it within the first five minutes. But then it became pretty interesting after a while.

It’s not awful now either, but I’m just not that interested…

I’m subtracting at least one ⚀ for the interlacing.

Where Does A Body End?. Marco Porsia. 2019. ⚁