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!"
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Customer Review: Lovely classic comedy movie.
JRivera
Customer reviews
If you do not like ridiculous one-liners and manic slapstick, this is not the movie for you. I'm not the first to mention this, but the elongated ending scene which starts with Pipo (Hope) dressed as a redoubtable German Frau (which so reminds me of my Grandma!) dancing with the Doge, leaves me crippled with laughter. "Farfal Farfal Pipick", indeed, "You stupid cow!"And I love listening to Basil Rathbone delivering his lines with impeccable diction and intonation worthy of Shakespeare, while being the straight man to Bob Hope's loveable and hapless tailor's apprentice.This is a family favorite. I wore out the VHS and had to buy the DVD.Happy Reader
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Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on February 21, 2007
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on February 15, 2015
Extremely funny. The king of the one liners! If you like Robin Williams zany humor, this is his talented predecessor.
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on December 10, 2014Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on April 13, 2021
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on December 18, 2013
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