The Princess and the Pirate

In a way, this flick is astonishing: Bob Hope built a decades-long career out of this crap? It’s hard to believe that people back in the day were willing or able to find most of this sort of hambone shtick funny. Very few of the jokes, verbal or visual, truly hit the mark, and those that do are mostly bits and pieces (or pieces of bits) that were cribbed from funnier acts like the Marx Brothers. The only redeeming features here are a committed performance from Victor McLaglen as the villainous pirate The Hook, in which he hits all the buccaneer tropes with appropriate gusto, and the opportunity to ogle a particularly lovely Virginia Mayo, who looks like a million bucks in this two-bit comedy. You’re much better off watching a real pirate flick (Captain Blood or The Sea Hawk immediately spring to mind) or a superior contemporaneous comedy (The Court Jester would fit the bill) versus dredging your way through this drag. I’ll thank Hope for the memory of him walking the plank for this one.