Customer Reviews

The Ultimate Bob Hope Collection (The Great Lover / How to Commit Marriage / The Lemon Drop Kid / My Favorite Brunette / Paris Holiday / The Private Navy of Sgt. O'Farrell / Road to Bali / Road to Rio / The Seven Little Foys / Son of Paleface)

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Despite the packaging - (disks pilled on top of each other so to get at the bottom disk you have to first remove the ones on top.) Very inconvientient to manage. Because of the packiaging I had to rate the set as a 4, but if I was just rating the transfers themselves I would have given it a 5. This is the best transfer of the movies included that I have ever seen. My Favorite Brunette and Road to Bali were especially good - video sharp and clear - sound acceptible for movies of this age. The color on Bali was especially good - others I've seen had very poor, washed out colors. I have been completely happy with this set and would not hesitate to recommend it.

If you're a fan of Bob Hope-then this is a great buy. Some Classics here including The Lemon Drop Kid, Seven Little Foys, 2 Road Movies ( Rio & Bali ) plus some of Hope's later-and lesser efforts, i.e. How to Commit Marriage etc.
Though not a fan of these later movies they're still interesting to watch, but it's the earlier stuff that makes this set well worth owning-and the price cannot be beaten.
The only drawback is that because of the budget price-tag the set is presented with five double-sided discs virtually stacked on top of each other making them easily damaged if not careful.
However, having said that, I'm very happy with this package at such a bargain price. Highly recommended.

This review is based on the one movie from the Bob Hope Collection that I've watched so far -- The Lemon Drop Kid, the classic Damon Runyon Christmas story that introduced the standard "Silver Bells" as sung by Bob, Marilyn Maxwell, and even good old William Frawley (later Fred Mertz of I Love Lucy).

If The Lemon Drop Kid is anything to go by, this set is a real winner. That movie has been remastered for DVD in much, much higher quality than previous DVD versions. Assuming that the rest of the movies are of similar quality, you really can't beat the value here -- 10 films for a very low price.

Despite what the review below says, these are not the old Brentwood DVDs of Hope films. I fully agree with that reviewer that the Brentwood DVDs were very low quality, but I can say with complete certainty that the version of The Lemon Drop Kid in this new set is definitely not the old Brentwood version. The old Brentwood version of that movie was so unwatchable, with skips and bad picture quality, that I took it back to the store for a refund. This new set, by contrast, contains an almost pristine print of The Lemon Drop Kid.

So, the picture and sound quality, the most essential elements of any DVD, are very good here. What are the set's drawbacks? Well, the DVDs offer few extra features, are double-sided, and are stacked inconveniently in the case. But for this price, you can't expect deluxe treatment. At least they seem to have done the most essential thing right in remastering the films (assuming that The Lemon Drop Kid is representative of the overall quality).

If you haven't seen The Lemon Drop Kid, it's worth buying this set just to get it (since the whole set costs little more than many single DVDs). Bob plays the title character, a racetrack tout in Florida for the winter who gets in very hot water with a mobster by convincing the mobster's girlfriend not to place a large bet on what turns out to be a winning horse. After threats from the mobster, the Kid returns to frigid New York at Christmastime to find some kind of scheme that will allow him to compensate the mobster for his lost winnings. As in many Damon Runyon stories, these gamblers and small-time crooks have hearts of gold, so it's a pretty heartwarming affair by the end. Highly recommended.

These *are* the old Brentwood DVDs in a new package. While this is not indicated anywhere on the packaging, it's obvious when viewing the films because the disks all open with the Brentwood logo before the obligatory FBI warning and appearance of the menu! I've also compared these to the Brentwood copies in my collection and they are identical right down to the menus and "special features" (Consisting solely of a Bob Hope biopic in text form). In no way would I consider *any* of these titles to be "remastered". Don't expect new transfers, just a good per-movie price depending on which of these you don't already own.

Picture quality is acceptable for the price of this set but as one reviewer has said, it's "muddy" on some films. On the B/W films you'll find generally poor contrast with fine distinction in black levels almost gone. The worst B/W print is "The Great Lover" which appears as if you are looking through gauze. The other B/W prints range from Fair to Good. The color prints are in better shape but still a bit inconsistent. Colors tend to be good to excellent. On all films don't be suprised to see streaks, scratches, bad edits from "repair work", missing bits ("The Great Lover" has a bad edit in the middle of one of the songs causing a portion to be missing) and other anomolies. However, nothing is bad enough to make the films unwatchable and they *are* generally much better quality than VHS copies I've seen. These are ALL Full-Screen even though several were originally filmed in Wide-Screen ratios. "Paris Holiday" teases you by starting in OAR and switches to FS about 5 minutes in!

Considering that "The Lemon Drop Kid" is currently OOP with the Brentwood copies going for upwards of $30(!) this set is a good value for that title alone. Add to that the 9 other films in the package and it's not too bad for some Hope "classics" and a few minor titles from his catalog.

The absolute worst part about this set is the packaging! What you get are "flippies" (which I dislike) in a double-sized case consisting of a overlapping DVD arrangement with a overlapping type "page" in the middle. If care is not taken while turning this "page" you'll catch the edge of one of the DVDs on the back causing it to bend upwards slightly and do a "snap" as the page edge clears the edge of the DVD. While this doesn't appear to damage the playing surface, as the "catch point" is very close to the disk edge, it is still disconcerting.

While it would be nice to see one of the studios truly remaster these films, for under $20 you won't go wrong with this set.

4 stars for the movies
2 stars for the quality/package

Update:
Since my original review this package has been re-released, also by Navarre Corporation (aka BCI/Brentwood), for less $$ under the name Legends of Hollywood - Bob Hope Series which includes all the films in this set. 4 of the films have been remastered and reports are they look better than ever. They are:
Road to Rio
Road To Bali
Son Of Paleface (with Roy Rogers and Trigger)
My Favorite Brunette

Even though I've not seen the revised version opened to determine if the packaging has been improved, the lower price coupled with 4 remastered films makes the revised release the one to purchase.

All the names in movie reviews call "The Private Navy of Sgt. O'Farrell " a BOMB, but nothing could be less true! This is a later Hope movie, full of the unexpected, giving us a lighter view of WWII in the South Pacific. This film combines the hilarity of Bob Hope with the comic genius of Phyllis Diller, giving us the answer to the big question: what do a bunch of army and navy men do on a tropical island with no women and no beer?! The answer? Try to get nurses flown in, and get Diller and a bunch of male nurses insted; then, go after a sunken supply ship full of beer yourself! In between, find your long lost love (Gina Lollobrigida).
At 24, I am the 2ed of 6 children, and this movie never fails to get a laugh and smile. So I say, watch it and decide for youself!

My wife heard that the Lemon Drop Kid, starring Bob Hope, was a great movie that included horses - she has two horses. She wanted the video as a Christmas present. Amazon had the movie by itself for around $35 but also had it in this collection of Bob Hpe films for around $25 - that was a no brainer! My wife and I have enjoyed all th movies in the collection including the Lemon Drop Kid. I highly recommend this video collection.

This was the first set of movies that I ever bought of Bob Hope and I had high expectations and all my expectations were met. I am also a huge fan of the black and white movies and I was very happy to see how these movies were restored so well. How to Commit Marriage is the only one in color. My favorite of the movies is My Favorite Brunette. Bob Hope does an amazing job and I laughed throughout the whole movie. It's a classic that will entertain for years to come. In The Seven Little Foys Bob Hope's character is mean to his children and wife and I did not enjoy watching this movie because of that. He was not the same funny person as in all his other classics. Not saying Bob didn't do a fantastic job in the movie, i just like seeing him being silly. The Private navy of Sgt. O'Farrell was similar in the fact that I did not like his character but I enjoyed it more then the Seven Little Foys. The Great Lover, Paris Holiday, Son of Paleface, Road to Bali, and Road to Rio are all great great movies and show the side of Bob that got him famous. I highly recommend this set to anyone looking for just good family movies to watch. They are still funny today without crude humor. This set also lets you see the different sides of Bob and how talented he really was. He was not only a fantastic actor and comedian but an extraordinary human being who did a lot for a country at a time of war.

How do you get ten movies into a box made to hold two? That's what Brentwood probably asked when they made this collection. You could put five double sided discs in five thin plastic jackets and slide them into a slipcase. You could even drop in a printed sheet with brief info on the films. That was done with a Jerry Lewis set to good effect. What Brentwood did instead was put five double sided discs in a case so that one snaps into the front cover. Next, there's a hinged piece that (barely) holds two discs, with two more discs snapped onto the back cover. As with the 'fifties craze to see how many college kids could fit into a phone booth, at some point it's too many.

Also give up on the printed info sheet. The only info about the films is on the back of the box. The spine, if you can believe this, has ten tiny thumbnail color pics of the real covers for each movie, each less than an inch tall. No wonder there's no name of the company on the box; I wouldn't want to put mine on this set either. On my set, the discs are so close that the middle ones actually hit the back ones when you open the case. The odds seem low that they all play all right.

The sad thing is that movie wise, it really is an ultimate collection. Why can't it have equivalent packaging? There's a prevailing myth that unless you are Criterion or TCM aiming films at conoisseurs and collectors, the audience for "classics" will only pay bargain basement prices. I think the popularity of classic TV shows on DVD has aptly demonstrated that's not the case. I'd pay five bucks more for better packaging, but I'm not sure I'd have bought this set at the present price now that I've seen it.

No cavil with the ten films. My Favorite Brunette is one of the best written Hope films, and available in many inexpensive editions. Paris Holiday is rather in the same vein, and is a little- seen gem. Road to Bali is a great 'Road' film, but again, readily available. Slightly less available is Road to Rio, another strong film in the series. The Seven Little Foys is an excellent Hope film. The Lemon Drop Kid, written by Damon Runyan (on whose stories Guys and Dolls was based) is a Leonard Maltin favorite. The Great Lover is another antic Hope comedy. Son of Paleface Maltin terms better than the original it's a sequel to. Private Navy of Sgt. O' Farrell Maltin calls a BOMB, his lowest rating. How to Commit Marriage is mostly interesting as a Jackie Gleason vehicle. Most of these films are available elsewhere with better (safer) packaging. If you do get this set in good condition, my advice is to put the discs into separate sleeves for protection, and make your own ultimate collection.

the ultimate bob hope collection is to be proud of in any movie collectors cabnet, my favorites are the "lemon drop kid " eddie foy and the seven little foys " i can watch them over and over again . the road to bali/road to rio are fun movies to watch . all the movies bob hope has made are priceless he was an amazing man and actor there will never be another like him.j.a.

While not the place to look if one is seeking booklets of material, outtakes, interviews or other special features, this set of 10 movies delivers quality production and sound on each of the films. Though the packaging is quite bulky, it obviously can be rectified by purchasing any variety of DVD holders.

Inexpensive should not be confused with cheap. This is an inexpensive means to supplement or compliment any DVD collection with some of the most popular and vastly underrated movies of Bob Hope.