I found this film in the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, the title did not suggest anything to me when I first read it, but it made sense when I found out it was set in the Wild West, I was certainly hoping it would be worthy of a recommendation. Basically out west someone in town has been illegally selling guns to the Indians, frontiers woman Calamity Jane (Jane Russell) is hired to find the culprit, and she is to be partnered with a secret agent, they will go undercover and pose as husband and wife. When the secret agent is killed Jane is forced to recruit a new husband, and she finds innocent, inept and cowardly dentist 'Painless' Peter Potter (Bob Hope), he wants to the leave the barbaric west all together. On their investigative journey their wagon train is attacked by Indians, and while Jane is sharpshooting from inside an empty shack witnesses spot Potter presumably firing and defeating them, when in fact he is useless with a weapon. Upon return the townspeople praise Potter as a hero, and this means he will be a target for both the Indians and the gunrunners, but as time passes he may in fact be learning bravery and to defend himself better, and of course he and Jane cannot help having affection for each other. Also starring Robert Armstrong as Terris, Iris Adrian as Pepper, Bobby Watson as Toby Preston, Jackie Searl as Jasper Martin, Joseph Vitale as Indian Scout, Charles Trowbridge as Governor Johnson, Clem Bevans as Hank Billings and Jeff York as Big Joe. The most memorable Calamity Jane for me will always be Doris Day, however Russell, a short time after The Outlaw, proves a great choice for this film as she looks beautiful and is brassy when she needs to be, I have not seen much of Bob Hope as a stand up comedian (perhaps because I know all his material was written for him by others), and he too is a good choice being the wisecracking and for a good while lily-livered dupe. I have read various reviews by critics saying that the sequel, Son of Paleface, is much better than this is, as for this original I found it funny enough, it had a good amount of good old fashioned slapstick, this was apparently a big box office hit, and it is entertaining for its action as well, so it's not a bad comedy western. It won the Oscar for Best Song for "Buttons and Bows". Worth watching!
Review of The Paleface
