Customer Reviews

Casanova's Big Night

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

A Hope comedy classic, ranking right up there with "Ghost Breakers". Bob's performance as Pipo Poppolino, "a miserable tailor's miserable apprentice", is almost flawless, and the supporting cast (Vicent Price as Casanova, the great Basil Rathbone as Luccio, Joan Fountain as the Widow Bruni, Hugh Marlow as the brother of the bride, Arnold Moss as the evil Doge of Venice, and brief appearances by Lon Chaney, Jr., John Carradine and Raymond Burr), is excellent. Hope is at his bumbling, cowardly best as the commoner impersonating Casanova, until he finds the courage to overcome the Doge and turn the tables on the devious Luccio. The sword fight scene and the finale (with Hope in hilarious drag) are side-splitters.

In this Bob Hope comedy classic, he portrays a lowly tailors aprentice who gets a chance to impersonate the worlds greatest lover, Casanova. Hope plays Peepo, who toils away in his masters tailor shop and dreams of romance with the lovely grocery lady across the street played by Joan Fontaine. When the real Casanova skips town in order to escape his creditors, Peepo is pressed into service by Fontaine and the others to pretend to be the famous swordsman and lover when a Countess offers $10,000 ducets to test the fidelity of her future daughter in law. Peepo throws himself into the role and is soon entering Venice in grand style singing the song "Tic a Tic A tic a" and enthralling every woman within earshot, (including one who dives fully clothed into the canal to swim out to his gondola), everyone thinking that he is indeed the famous Casanova. However Peepo soon discovers the downside of being a notorious lover as several outraged husbands, brothers, and boyfreinds come looking for him swords in hand, looking to avenge the dishonor of their womenfolk. At first Peepo wants only to fullfill his part of the deal (Obtaining an embroidered peticoat in order to prove he "Seduced" the girl he was supposed to), and obtain his money, he soon is helping to save her from the plottings of the Doge who seeks to use both her and Casanova to touch off a war.
This movie is a classic costume comedy from the days when movies didn't need four letter words and potty humor to get a laugh. Hope is in top form as he capers about the screen from one narrow escape to another, all the time mugging for the camera. I highly reccomend it for all Hope fans.

This was a movie Bob did while he was still hungry, using his reliable wise-cracking coward character as Pipo Popolino, a tailor's assistant in 18th century Venice. Enamored of a baker played by Joan Fontaine, Pipo masquerades as the legendary Casanova to steal a kiss, when it turns out that Casanova is being pursued by creditors and has skipped Venice completely to escape them. To appease the creditors, everybody Casanova owes money to, Fontaine included, force Pipo to continue his masquerade as the storied rake to get enough money to pay the creditors through marriage. What follows is a crazy quilt of dumb luck and one liners as Pipo actually manages to win a few sword fights and woo a duchess in the bargain.

This is primo, late-period Bob Hope, with an uncredited Vincent Price playing Casanova, Basil Rathbone playing his relunctant valet, Arnold Moss doing his usual Mephistophelian thing as the Doge of Venice amd Audrey Dalton looking just like Linda Darnell in her part as the new object of Pipo-Casanova's affections.

The reception scenes where Pipo challenges a rival for the duchess' affections are sidesplitting, especially when he and Fontaine both have to cross-dress to get in there to begin with. The usual anachronistic Hope oneliners are spewed like apple pits all through the movie and Hope once again proves why Paramount held onto him for something like 25 years! Also why Universal paid Paramount to market some of his movies with a double studio imprint...

The man was a legend!! "Farfle, farfle...pipick!"

Casanova's Big Night was a hysterically funny movie. I have always enjoyed BoB Hope and Dorothy Lamore; but Joan Fontaine was a most worthy co-star in this comedy routine.In this movie BoB Hope plays a gentleman who really has nothing to offer in the royal presence he is in the midst of. I don't want to give away the entire story, but basically he has been asked to pretend he is the geat lover Casanova to woo the queen and save the country.It is a rare, in these times, to find a movie with comedy and cleanliness. I find myself constantly returning to the "fore fathers of comedy" to find something decent to laugh at. The is one of my first choices for family entertaiment.

Its bedlam in the boudoir when Bob Hope (1903-2003) sets his comedic sights on 18-th century Italy . Hope plays Pippo Popolino , a lowly tailor who is suddenly drafted to tempororarily impersonate the great and passionate lover Casanova (an unbilled Vincent Prince 1911-1993) .Pippo thinks he has the masquerade all sewn up -totally unaware that , due to the real Casanovas shaky financial situation , he is now locked into the role by the Romancers scheming , greedy creditors ! . Along the way , our great lover manages to woo some lovely ladies ( Joan Fontaine 1917 - ) and Audrey Dalton (1934- ) -when hes not dodging spontaneous swordsplay or bumling his way through the finer points of royal etiquette . Basil Rathbone (1892-1967) Hugh Marlowe (1911-1982) , Arnold Moss (1910-1989) and John Carradine (1906-1988) are among the stellar cast in this lavishly costumed comedy romp . Laughts guarantee ! Superb transfer in H-D Quality

This is typical Bob Hope comedy at its best. It has a little of everything for everyone. It has action, suspence and of course love. I get a laugh out of it everytime I watch it. It is a movie for the whole family .

If that doesn't whet your appetite...nothing will. Hope is funny. Rathbone is funny AND villianous. Price is the great Casanova himself (yes, kiddies there was a time when Vincent Price was thought of as a handsome leading man in Hollywood circles)in what amounts to a cameo.
Fontaine is the perfect foil for Hope's antics. Family fun all the way and in color for the kiddies. This print is very good. All in all I have to give it four stars just for the Grand Ball scene.

I loved this movie! Just so much fun. Swashbuckling goodness in a comedy is always a good thing. It was fun to watch Joan Fontaine with a sword. Sets & costumes were excellent, the acting was very good. Loved Bob's humor, always do. I also recommend these other Bob Hope movies:

The Princess & The Pirate
Monsieur Beaucaire
The Road to Rio

Definitely in the second tier of Hope films, but nonetheless enjoyable, "Casanova's Big Night" has Hope impersonating the great lover himself, with mixed results.

Hope plays Pippo Popolino, a lowly tailor, who gets himself involved in a plot to discredit a young girl. In the process he pretends to be Casanova (the real Casanova being unavailable), whose very reputation has the ladies swooning, despite the obvious fact that Pippo is no great lover. Joan Fontaine plays the love interest (who after being kissed by Hope and told that she just received a sample of what to expect when they're stranded on a desert island, replies laconically, "Bring a deck of cards.")

The game cast (which includes Basil Rathbone and John Carradine) tries its best, but the movie drags in spots and is not on the level of the "Paleface" films or the "Road" series. There are genuine laughs, though, and a couple of good scenes, such as when Bob fights a duel and manages to come off as a fencing genius despite stumbling around almost the entire time. If you're a big Hope fan it's worth buying, for everyone else strictly a renter.
GRADE: B-

This movie is LOTS of fun. The pace is great, the lines are delivered well (and some of them are very funny and others are subtlely risque), the gags are wonderful (I love it when Hope dances with the Doge). There's also a wonderful motif having fun with Hope's role - the use of cloth, especially whenever Hope is around, shows up over and over. When Francesca is fighting with the sword, Hope waves a red cape.

My only objection is the ending. There is no ending. Actually, the movie gives two options with respect to Hope's fate - but we never find anything out about Dona Elena, or the creditors back in Parma, or even learn what happened to the real Casanova. Perhaps this is more realistic - I mean, in a romp like this, does the ending really matter? - and yet it does.

For those who wonder, the "real" Casanova was played by Vincent Price (you may recognize the voice but there are a lot of clothes and make up) but he was not credited, as this was the era of McCarthyism.