Bob Hope

Vera Zorina

Victor Moore

Irène Bordoni

Dona Drake

Raymond Walburn

Maxie Rosenbloom

Phyllis Ruth

Frank Albertson

Donald MacBride

Andrew Tombes

Robert Warwick

Charles La Torre

Charles Laskey

Emory Parnell

Iris Meredith

Catherine Craig

Jack Norton

Sam McDaniel

Kay Aldridge

Karin Booth

Rebel Randall

Barbara Britton

Brooke Evans

Blanche Grady

Lynda Grey

Margaret Hayes

Louise La Planche

Barbara Slater

Eleanor Stewart

Jean Wallace

Richard Kipling

Keith Richards

Dave Willock

Jack Chefe

Edgar Dearing

Irving Cummings

Jerome Chodorov

Joseph Fields

Robert Emmett Dolan

Ray Rennahan

Harry Hallenberger

LeRoy Stone

Wally Westmore

Raoul Pene Du Bois

Earl S. Hayman

Walter Oberst

Harold Wilson

Buddy G. DeSylva

Morrie Ryskind

Hans Dreier

Robert Usher

Comedy

Music

Louisiana Purchase

Paramount Pictures

United States of America

CinemaSerf

This starts off with quite a fun little ditty that serves as their libel/defamation disclaimer - proclaiming that none of this is based on any real people! Who might have taken offence in the US of A in 1941 to the idea of a senate investigation into the dodgy goings on in any state at all, let alone Louisiana? Well it appears that the imminent arrival of the tee-total “Sen. Loganberry” (Victor Moore) has set the cat amongst the pigeons, and talking of pigeons it looks like “Taylor” (Bob Hope) is going to become exactly that. The great and the good of his state have been merrily creaming off the top for years, but any evidence of their miscreant behaviour will stop firmly with this poor patsy. Facing a million years in jail, the bosses encourage him to find a way to leverage their inscrutable visitor and so he’d better get his thinking cap on. What now ensues sees Hope (well two of him quite often) and his friend “Marina” (Vera Zorina) try to embroil the man in all sorts of compromising scenarios. Of course, as things mosey on along there are a few romantic opportunities with Irène Bordoni making up this quartet of mischief and mayhem. It’s based on the stage play with a few Irving Berlin numbers - notably “You’re Lonely and I’m Lonely? - amongst it, and though it does drag a little as the joke borders the slapstick too closely for my liking, it does show Hope in a slightly less hapless light, Moore delivers engagingly and there’s been a little thought gone into the plot to keep it from farce. It’s a colourful and lively production and might well do wonders for the sale of oysters in Nebraska.

English