I've always been a little bit underwhelmed by Bob Hope. I grew up in a home that watched all of his TV specials with family who thought he was the greatest and funniest comedian ever. I never quite got it. I find him low-key in the extreme; sometimes amusing in a mild, quiet sort of way but nothing to write home about. That also sums up my reaction to "The Paleface." It's OK. Sometimes amusing, and if it's mild and quiet it has some good writing - I'm thinking of Painless Peter Potter (Hope) trying to keep all the advice he had received about his gunfight with the local quick draw artist straight ("he leans to the right so shoot to the left," and so on) as well as the fun song "Buttons and Bows" (sung by Hope.)
Potter is a hopeless dentist trying to make his way in the Old West when he gets caught up with Calamity Jane (Jane Russell) - who's been recruited to work as a government agent trying to find out who's getting guns to the Indians. She hooks up with Potter, tricks him into marriage and manages to turn him into the gunfighting hero so that no one would notice her. Russell was fine in the role, but like Hope she didn't overwhelm me.
I would say that this was better than the 1960's movie "The Shakiest Gun In The West," which had essentially the same sort of plot with Don Knotts in the role as the dentist. Hope played the role straighter than Knotts would do 20 years later, and that perhaps made it a little easier to take the movie seriously - as comedies go, of course. (5/10)
Potter is a hopeless dentist trying to make his way in the Old West when he gets caught up with Calamity Jane (Jane Russell) - who's been recruited to work as a government agent trying to find out who's getting guns to the Indians. She hooks up with Potter, tricks him into marriage and manages to turn him into the gunfighting hero so that no one would notice her. Russell was fine in the role, but like Hope she didn't overwhelm me.
I would say that this was better than the 1960's movie "The Shakiest Gun In The West," which had essentially the same sort of plot with Don Knotts in the role as the dentist. Hope played the role straighter than Knotts would do 20 years later, and that perhaps made it a little easier to take the movie seriously - as comedies go, of course. (5/10)