In My Favorite Brunette Bob Hope got a grand opportunity to satirize all those noir private eye films and he made the most of it. He even got to drag in Paramount's favorite noir star Alan Ladd along for the fun.

Hope as Ronnie Jackson, baby photographer, has an adjoining office to private eye Sam McCloud and Hope would like to get into his line of work, having completed a correspondence course. He's even got a gun, although God only knows who'd give him a license. Sam McCloud, played by an unbilled Alan Ladd, tells him to stick to babies, but to mind his office while he goes out of town.

Wouldn't you know it, a beautiful mysterious brunette right out of The Maltese Falcon comes into the office asking for help. Of course Dorothy Lamour thinks Hope is the real deal as a private eye. And Hope following his hormones plays along. Isn't that what got Jerome Cowan killed in The Maltese Falcon?

It gets kind of wild and wacky after that. A trio of fine players, Lon Chaney, Jr., Charles Dingle and Peter Lorre are our villains and all of them goof on the roles they've played in more serious films. Chaney does an imitation of his gentle half-wit Lenny from Of Mice and Men, Dingle satirizes his rapacious southern businessman from The Little Foxes and Lorre spoofs all the sinister henchmen roles he's done in innumerable films.

It all almost ends on death row in San Quentin where Hope is arrested for a murder of a British Intelligence Officer played by Reginald Denny. A very disappointed executioner watches Hope get Lamour for once knowing full well it would have been him if he had had a bigger role in the film.

I'm not so sure.

The film concerns Ronnie Jackson (Bob Hope) a quite shy baby photographer gets mistaken with his next door neighbour Sam McCloud (Alan Ladd) , a famous San Francisco private eye . The problems start when the Baroness Carlotta Montay (Dorothy Lamour) contracts Ronnie to find her husband (Frank Puglia) and investigate about a map what marks the location of a Criolita (uranium) deposit that would be the key for defense of free world . It will lead him by the way to an international intrigue . Meanwhile , Ronnie to confront a villain Major (Charles Dingle) and his heavies (henchmen: Peter Lorre, Lon Chaney Jr. ,John Hoyt) .

The picture results to be a hilarious spy caper with lots of fun , giggles , laughs , tongue-in cheek and a little bit of action and suspense . The movie is the following to¨My favorite blonde¨(by Sidney Lanfield) who starred Hope and Madeleine Carroll as his partenaire. There appears some cameos and guest appearances of famed stars , such as Alan Ladd as the typical tough detective and Bing Crosby in a likable final interpretation . Bing Crosby along with Bob Hope and Dorothy Lamour formed a famous trio with too much success and they starred numerous films with titles as ¨Road to..Bali , Road to ..Morocco,.. Zanzibar , ...Hong Kong¨, among others . Besides , appearing as a secondary actor the terror expert Lon Chaney Jr. , repeating his role of the simple-minded person in the film adaptation of John Steinbeck's novel :¨Mice and men¨(1939) , Chaney's performance as an innocent burly man is spectacularly touching and amusing . In addition , Peter Lorre , as always , plays an astute villainous and with skills for throwing deadly daggers . The motion picture was well directed by Eliott Nugent . The flick will appeal to Bob Hope fans .

This was one of the three films that Bob Hope did for Paramount with the theme of favorites: blonde, spy and brunette. He was at one of the best moments of his career when this spoof about the detective movie genre went into production.

"My Favorite Brunette" was directed by Elliott Nugent with a style that made it fun and light to watch. The screen play by Edmund Beloin and Jack Rose parodies those films that showed a charismatic private eye get into all kinds of dangerous situations. In this film, Ronnie Jackson, a photographer in San Francisco is suddenly, thrown into a web of intrigue when he steps into the office of his neighbor, the real P.I, Sam McCloud, who is fed up with the job and is leaving town.

Enter the femme fatale, something that is a must in this type of film, Carlotta Montay. She will get Ronnie into all kinds of difficult situations and even the gas chamber as he tries his best to deal with all the bad people that are chasing Carlotta.

Bob Hope was excellent in his take of Ronnie Jackson. Dorothy Lamour, in all her beauty, made the most of her Carlotta. Two cameos in the film were notorious because they are uncredited and unexpected: Alan Ladd, and Bing Crosby. Others in the film are Peter Lorre, Lon Chaney Jr., Charles Dingle, Frank Puglia, Reginald Denny, among the supporting cast.

The film is still a lot of fun as it makes fun of other more dramatic movies thanks to the direction of Elliott Nugent.