Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		3.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		0.0
Overall		3.0

My Favorite Spy Blu-ray Movie Review

Probably the least 'Favorite' of Bob Hope's three similarly titles films.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman August 8, 2013

For all his enduring popularity, Bob Hope’s film are often an amazingly bland lot. Hope perfected his wisecracking persona in vaudeville and on Broadway before matriculating to the film world (which he initially used to fill up his time in between stage appearances). Hope didn’t capture the brass ring right away, and while most associate him with his long tenure at Paramount, he actually did duty at Warner Brothers for several years prior to that. Hope’s incredibly successful radio (and later television) appearances no doubt helped fuel his film career, but the films themselves—well, frankly, a lot of them are just downright blah. They typically have at least a few redeeming features, including some traditionally zingy Hope one liners, but those are usually brief oases in otherwise somewhat barren enterprises. While Hope’s best remembered films are probably the famous Road movies he made with Bing Crosby, there’s another kind of weird triumvirate in his oeuvre that has the linking use of the adjective “favorite” in their titles. Hope made My Favorite Blonde in 1942 with co-star Madeleine Carroll, and it exploited at least one trope that would be repeatedly used in many Hope outings, namely mistaken identity, usually with Hope unwittingly caught up in events where he’s forced to assume an alter ego. In this particular iteration, Hope portrayed a timid vaudeville performer who is ensnared in an international espionage ring. Five years later, Hope had one of his biggest non-Road successes with 1947’s My Favorite Brunette, co-starring his sarong loving Road femme fatale Dorothy Lamour. In this film Hope portrays a baby photographer who is mistaken for a private eye. The film remains one of Hope’s true standouts, a sparkling send up of the then nascent film noir and hard bitten private detective genres. The third “favorite” film trundled along four years later, with 1951’s My Favorite Spy. This time Hope’s co-star was the exotic Hedy Lamarr, whom some history buffs will know has been posited as a real life spy during World War II. (Lamarr’s life is absolutely fascinating and is ripe for a biographical motion picture. Lamarr’s mathematical expertise granted her an early patent for a so-called frequency hopping device that much later became the basis for wireless communications.) The film is moderately amusing, this time with Hope a timid vaudeville performer (hmmm. . . .) who is the dead ringer for a super spy (double hmmm. . .) who is forced to impersonate his doppelganger and travel to Tangier to break up an international spy ring (triple hmmm. . .).

Already with that brief précis, it’s obvious that this Hope vehicle is, somewhat like the Model T, an assembly line outing cobbled together from pre-existing bits of other Hope films. There’s therefore a pretty flat, predictable aspect to much of the comedy here. We meet Peanuts White (Bob Hope), a corny vaudeville performer who cuts his last billed name off of a poster and then pastes it in first place, letting us know much about this character before he ever utters a word. When cops almost immediately show up to arrest him, he assumes it’s for his petty vandalism. Unbeknownst to Peanuts, arch villain and superspy Eric Augustine (also played by Hope) has escaped from custody and there is a major manhunt out for him.

Despite Peanuts’ protests to the contrary, the cops are having none of his “but it ain’t me” routine, until that is they receive a phone call stating that Augustine is actually holed up at the airport. Without so much as an apology, the cops all leave, letting Peanuts go free. In one of several nice little punch lines, Peanuts reminds the police that their salaries are paid by tax payers, and “that might include me one day”. It’s these throwaway lines that provide most of the best humor in My Favorite Spy.

It turns out that Augustine is badly wounded and hadn’t yet consummated a huge deal that would have given Augustine some priceless microfilm. The cops are back on Peanuts’ tail (after a long performance that may in fact be a recreation of one of Hope’s early vaudeville routines, replete with some really odd, almost Dutch sounding, guttural dialect work by the comedian), though this time they want his help. And this time, Peanuts will have none of it, at least until he receives a phone call from one Harry S. Truman. (Younger kids or those not up to speed with Trumaniana are going to be mighty confused by the passing references to Truman’s daughter Margaret, who did not exactly experience show business success as a would-be singer. She later became a best selling novelist.) Within mere moments, Peanuts is transformed into the ultra suave Eric Augustine and is sent to Tangiers to retrieve the microfilm.

Arriving in Tangier and barely escaping an assassination attempt, Peanuts, now masquerading as Eric, almost immediately meets up with a femme fatale about whom his handlers have already alerted him, Lily Dalbray (Hedy Lamarr). Eric and Lily have a long, convoluted past with each other, and Peanuts, while obviously smitten, is obviously not blind to the fact that Lily may be working for the enemy. One of the few unexpected things that crops up in My Perfect Spy is how efficiently Peanuts assumes the role of Eric. Usually these sorts of comedies exploit all sorts of schtick where the impersonator can’t quite pull off the charade, but in this case Peanuts inhabits the role easily enough to fool Lily.

My Favorite Spy is bolstered by a lot of zippy Hope one liners, as well as several very colorful supporting turns by the likes of Mike Mazurki, Arnold Moss and Francis L. Sullivan. The film has a patently fake looking “foreign” locale, but its most exotic feature—Hedy Lamarr—actually proves to be one of the film’s greatest assets. While Hope is busy delivering his punch lines, Lamarr smolders with a barely contained sexuality and also manages to go head to head with Hope in some physical comedy routines later in the picture. My Favorite Spy pretty much wastes its central conceit of Hope playing two characters, preferring to focus on Peanuts even after Augustine escapes from the hospital and returns to Tangier. Part of this may have been due to a budget which didn’t afford enough for extended optical effects (one of them late in the film is particularly clunky).

As rote as much of My Favorite Spy undeniably is, it’s an often breezy enterprise that never pauses long enough to outright bore. Hope’s persona was so firmly entrenched by this time that he could pretty much coast through a picture, which is indeed what he seems to be doing here. Within just a few years, Hope’s film output would dwindle to a mere trickle, leaving the comedian to the perhaps greener pastures of television stand up, where he could crack wise without having to worry about any plot whatsoever.

My Favorite Spy Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

My Favorite Spy is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Olive Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.34:1. The elements here are in generally very good shape, with only the standard types of minimal damage to report, including occasional minor scratches and speckling. Contrast is quite strong throughout this presentation, and fine detail is rather good, especially in close-ups. The film does have a few opticals interspersed in the proceedings, which suffer from the expected downgrade in sharpness and uptick in graininess.

My Favorite Spy Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

My Favorite Spy features a lossless DTS-HD Master Audio Mono track which is quite effective given the limited demands placed upon it by this film's pretty unambitious sound design. The film is basically a ping pong match between dialogue and some kind of goofy sound effects, both of which come through clearly with very good fidelity. The track exhibits a slightly boxy quality at times, no doubt endemic to the source stems. There are a few blasts of sonic energy here which provide My Favorite Spy with a bit more dynamic range than is usually the norm in comedies.

My Favorite Spy Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

My Favorite Spy is middling Hope, but that doesn't mean it isn't amusing most of the time and even laugh out loud funny a couple of times. Hope is his usual acerbic, wisecracking self, and a number of the one liners are very effective and land perfectly. The film is probably most notable for its wonderful supporting cast, including an incredibly alluring Hedy Lamarr, who proves she can handle light comedy surprisingly well. This film is probably a big step down from the previous "favorite", My Favorite Brunette, which may be an unfair comparison since Brunette remains one of the undisputed high points of Hope's film career. My Favorite Spy has the typical high gloss luster of a big Paramount production, even if one gets the nagging feeling not too much money was spent on it, and while it's dated and predictable, it's still highly enjoyable. This Blu-ray offers solid video and audio and even without any supplements, comes Recommended.