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Thank you, Universal, for going into the Paramount vaults for two early Bob Hope vehicles, COLLEGE SWING and THE BIG BROADCAST OF 1938! This DVD release is part of the "Bob Hope Tribute Collection", and you get two features on one single-sided double-layer DVD. Both features are fullscreen, as is proper, with production notes and star bios as bonus features. Also included is the original trailer for COLLEGE SWING. Mastering is excellent, with very clean picture and mono sound.
BIG BROADCAST (from February 1938) is the first film to take Bob from radio stardom to the big screen. He plays the emcee of the water-bound broadcast, dealing with unreliable acts, three ex-wives and Dorothy Lamour, playing his newest ex-to-be. Bob treasured talent and loyalty above all, and when he and Dorothy hit it off during the making of BIG BROADCAST, it made her career.
Importantly, it was in this film that Hope and Shirley Ross duetted on the Ralph Rainger/Leo Robin song, "Thanks For The Memory". Their performance was cited by no less than Damon Runyon as a highlight of the film. Bob liked the song, and Runyon's accolades, so much that he adopted it on the spot as his signature song.
Toplined in BIG BROADCAST is the great W. C. Fields, making his last Paramount film and his first since POPPY in 1936. Fields performs variations on his famous Golf and Pool routines, and delivers bellylaughs aplenty as T. Frothingill Bellows and his brother, S. B., even managing a fair splitscreen scene with himself (although his eyelines are nowhere near where they should be. . .aw, heck, it's Fields! So what?)
Also along for the ride on the S. S. Gigantic (nice, slick modelmaking!) are the one and only Martha Raye, belting out songs and showing off her comedic and acrobatic skills at the same time; Ben Blue and his not-quite-there expressions and fancy footwork; Leif Erickson (yes, John Cannon from TV's THE HIGH CHAPARRAL) as the main hunk for Dorothy Lamour to gravitate toward; Mexican heartthrob Tito Guizar; Soprano Kirsten Flagstad of the Metropolitan Opera, performing Brunhilde's famous battle cry from Wagner's Ring cycle; Shep Fields and his Rippling Rhythm Orchestra; and familiar faces such as HAWAII FIVE-0's Richard Denning.
COLLEGE SWING (from April 1938), is mainly a vehicle for George Burns and Gracie Allen, but Bob gets his licks in as Gracie's tutor, trying to cheat Gracie into inheriting a college and mucho moolah. George is, surprisingly, way off to the side of this plot, letting Gracie take the spotlight. That's love for ya!
Suffice to say that no one in the cast is anywhere near college age, but since the movie is a hoot, who cares? Martha Raye was so good in BIG BROADCAST that she has an even larger role here, as a fake Frenchwoman teaching "looooove". The wonderful Edward Everett Horton also appears as a descendant of the original college's founders with a phobia of females. Of course, this phobia may or may not be cured, but Martha is sure gonna try!
Also in the cast are, once again, Ben Blue, along with Betty Grable, Jackie Coogan (when he was a child star), Robert Cummings and, from Hope's radio show, Skinnay Ennis and Jerry Colonna (and Jerry has a GREAT song!)
Yep, Richard Denning is in this one too.
Funny, funny movies, and a welcome addition to the Hope canon. (And, by the way, a note for you Fields fans: BIG BROADCAST is NOT contained in either of the Universal Fields Box Sets, so you have no fear of duplication. Dole out those shekels and purchase away, my little chickadees!)
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When The Big Broadcast of 1938 was made Dorthy Lamour was actually a bigger star than Bob Hope...She recommended him for the part and insisted that he be the one to sing Thanks For The Memory..It was the beginning of a glorious life time friendship.....
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These are by far two of the great classics. It takes you back to a time when comedy and dance were really something special this is a not to miss and getting two for the price of one is incredible. Don't miss the clean humor and Martha Raye as her big mouth character of course the laughs you'll get with Bob Hope are always great. Sit back relax and enjoy this is better than anything you'll see in theatres today!!
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Both of these movies have very enjoyable moments. Neither is strong on plot. College Swing has some fun Burns and Allen. The Big Broadcast is a dogs dinner of a movie, with a preposterous W.C.Fields plot moving haphazardly along parallel to a shipboard entertainment/romance plot. Fields does not wear well. This movie is memorable for the introduction of Thanks for the Memories by an impossibly young and dashing Bob Hope and Shirley Ross, which is worth the price of the DVD. Tremendously charming.
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These films, while packaged as Bob Hope vehicles, are typical all star programmers from Paramount in the late thirties, populated by numerous performers of which Hope is but one. These were his first 2 feature films although he had appeared in shorts for some years. Both are screwy and absurd in the Paramount fashion and accordingly good fun.
"College Swing" showcases Gracie Allan doing her thing but Martha Raye, as a French Professor of Love, steals the show, partcularly in a funny number with Hope "Howdya like to love me"? "The Big Broadcast" stars an obnoxious W C Fields and when he is unsympathetic, he is not very funny. His golf routine is amusing. The famous highlight of the film is Hope's song with the charming and easygoing Shirley Ross "Thanks for the Memory". The film also benefits from some stylish camera angles and deco set design, typical of the director Mitchell Liesen. Look also for some famous stars before their peak - a perky and spirited Betty Grable as a co-ed, handsome John Payne as the male ingenue and Robert Cummings as a radio announcer in "College Swing" and an insipid Dorothy Lamour in "Broadcast" long before she developed any sense of self parody which became her attractive trademark.
The prints are in excellent condition and the photography in both elevates the films above their routine status. The DVD extras are minor except for a few liner notes about each of the films and a trailer for "College Swing".
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