|
By PAUL BRENNER
In this R2 Entertainment three-disc collection -- released to coincide with Bob
Hope's 100th Birthday -- Bob Hope is seen both before the beginning and after
the end, mostly after the end. For the most part, the collection is taken from
Bob Hope television specials, but specials once removed -- i.e. the specials
making up the discs are themselves clip show compilations from other shows, so a
complete Bob Hope Show is never presented. The result is hagiography from the
post-creative phase of Bob Hope's career, after his film career fizzled and he
discovered the easy way out by reading off of cue cards and promoting himself as
a Great Entertainer and Good American. Mort Sahl used to end his act by asking,
"Are there any groups I haven't insulted here tonight?" In this later phase of
Hope's career, his dangerous rapid fire delivery of the 30s and 40s has curdled
into status quo ribbing so that Hope the millionaire Republican could introduce
at a Nixon bash "one of my dear friends, General Westmoreland" without a trace
of irony. By now Bob Hope had lost touch with his original joke base and became
the unflappable house (White House that is) comic. Bob Newhart remarks on when a
comic dies creatively," You have to keep in mind what it was that first
propelled you to be funny. What happens is, you become more affluent, you get an
apartment in Hollywood, you start going around with a horsey set, and pretty
soon you lose sight of people's problems. A comedian has to keep being
involved." The Hope on these DVDs is Hope as a one-line joke machine wallowing
in his celebrity, as cool and mechanical as a joke cyborg.
Disc One features a twenty-five year career retrospective special from the
mid-70s (although billed on the DVD box as "50 Years of Laughter" it is actually
only "25 Years of Laughter"). The programs are put together for the morons, with
juiced up laugh tracks, clumsy editing, and howling audience reactions inserted
from somewhere else in the program (or perhaps from another year). All of the
abbreviated excerpts have Hope displaying guest stars like a display of meat at
Zabars. But Hope still has to identify the celebrities so the audience knows for
sure -- as in, "Check my nurse. Barbara Eden!" (But why doesn't Hope give the
same kind of recognition to Jesse White, who also appears in some sketches?).
However, there is a kind head slamming rush of historical whiplash received from
hearing such one-liners as "Hey! How 'bout Mao Tsetung calling Kissinger during
dinner?" Disc Two features "A Salute to the Troops' (actually titled "Around the
World With the USO" from 1970), a scratchy 16mm Hope special charting a USO tour
to Vietnam. Rounding out the disc is "Hope for the Holidays" (a.k.a "A Bob Hope
Christmas" or "Bob Hope's Bag Full of Christmas Memories"). Another clip fest,
hobbled together with a visit to Bob Hope's house from the early 1990s for a
Christmas get together of famed celebrities. Hope barely has it together but is
alert enough to say stuff like, "Hey! Joey Lawrence!" or "Hey, the Judds!" Disc
Three begins with another clip show -- a blooper show -- called "The Hilarious
Unrehearsed Antics of the Stars" from the mid-80s. Needless to say, there is not
much difference between the rehearsed antics and the unrehearsed antics.
The Extras are the best part of the collection, although even they don't have a
promising start. First there is a short Hope bio and stills gallery on Disc One.
Disc Three begins with a half hour excerpt from a Hope USO tribute to himself
from 1995 called "Memories of World War II." Then, at the very end, are extras
that give a sense of how Hope became a great comic in the first place. First is
Hope's first radio broadcast as a host, The Intimate Review" from 1935.
Following that are two of the shorts Hope made in the mid-30s -- "Paree, Paree"
of 1934 and "Calling All Tars" of 1936. Here, in these paltry extras, can be
seen the true Hope that would soon achieve greatness with his Pepsodent radio
show and his groundbreaking series of Paramount films. What is so great about
Bob Hope? You won't find it here, except in a ghostly traces. To fill in the
blank, the Paramount films from 1940-1952 must be seen. In Lieu of that, this R2
Entertainment collection is the perfect thing to watch to kill time in the
rumpus room of the nursing home until the attendant calls you for your alcohol
rub. |
