Blu Ray Review: My Favorite Spy

Bob Hope was at the height of his stardom when he starred in Norman Z. McLeod’s My Favorite Spy, now available on blu ray from Kino Lorber. 

By this time, Hope had established himself in movies as a wisecracking coward who finds himself in dangerous situations, usually with a beautiful woman.  In this case, his co-star is Hedy Lamarr and he gets mixed up in the world of espionage.  Hope plays two roles – an international spy named Eric Augustine and the vaudeville entertainer Peanuts White.  When Augustine is injured during a mission, lookalike White is recruited to take his place.

My Favorite Spy is a typical Bob Hope comedy of the post-war period, an easy narrative, a brisk pace, several gags, and a lot of jokes in the dialog.  Hope had achieved movie stardom in 1940 with films like The Ghost Breakers and the first of the Road series with Bing Crosby and Dorothy Lamour.  His rat-a-tat style of verbal delivery was just right for the war years, and his popularity continued during the post war 1940a with films like My Favorite Brunette and The Paleface.  My Favorite Spy was made at the dawn of the 50s, released in 1951, and despite television’s increasing popularity (and Hope having his own TV show) Bob’s movies remained popular to the end of the decade. My Favorite Spy boasts a supporting cast that also includes Francis L. Sullivan, Mike Mazurki, Marc Lawrence, Frank Faylen, John Archer, and Iris Adrian, all welcome veterans of comedy movies.  It includes a wild chase scene that was directed by Frank Tashlin.

Kino Lorber has been steadily releasing Bob Hope’s classic comedies from the 40s and 50s including the entire Road series and all of the films mentioned in this review. Kino’s blu ray of My Favorite Spy is a special edition that features new audio commentary by film historian/writer Julie Kirgo and writer/filmmaker Peter Hankoff.  It is most highly recommended.

The blu ray is available at this link:  SPY