My Favorite Blonde has in the title role Madeleine Carroll a most beautiful blond player, who is a British secret agent trying to get some microfilm about air routes for American planes to go to Great Britain as part of lend lease. But just as her boat is docking in New York, some nasty Nazi spies shoot her male companion.

The microfilm is hidden in a pin that she's wearing and with the Nazis hot on her trail. she ducks into a vaudeville house which has Bob Hope and a roller skating penguin on the bill. I'm sure back in the day Hope played in vaudeville with many type acts like these. Vaudeville was moribund in those days and Hope wasn't helping to revive it.

In fact he's got to get to Hollywood because some movie company wants to star the penguin in a film. That fits in real nice with Carroll's plans and as it usually goes, the bumbling Mr. Hope is in the clutches of a beautiful who actually falls for old ski nose as he tries to help her when she levels with him.

My Favorite Blonde is a fast paced 78 minute film, one of the shortest of Hope's feature films. Carroll looks like she's enjoying spoofing a part she did in Alfred Hitchcock's 39 Steps across the pond. Of course she's the one dragooned into help.

But it's Hope's show all the way. My favorite two sequences is both trying to sleep and feed the penguin in an upper on a train and when Hope and Carroll are at an Irish picnic in Chicago. James Burke and Edward Gargan are very funny as a pair of thick headed Irish teamsters.

Though My Favorite Blonde is terribly dated with the World War II background the laughs still hold up very well.

The film begins with Bob Hope performing on stage with his sidekick, Percy the Penguin. While the film stars Hope, at times Percy is the best thing about the movie--mostly because it infuses a bit of fun into the film! Soon, Hope meets a blonde who apparently is in some sort of trouble (Madeleine Carroll). While it's uncertain whether she's telling the truth or is a criminal, Hope decides to help her for the noblest of reasons--she's good looking! However, for his trouble HE is soon accused of murder and the two set out on a cross-country chase to California. Why California? Well, Carroll is apparently a spy for the British and has information that could save a squadron of Boston bombers (a really crappy plane--called the Lockheed Hudson in the states but sold to the Brits). Why this takes her to California, I have no idea! During this trek, they are pursued by cops as well as a gang of Nazi spies who are intent on finding a scorpion pin on which the secrets are hidden.

Overall, this is NOT a laugh out loud sort of comedy but is more a pleasant little film--the sort of thing Hope made very well in the 1930s-50s--before his career went into hibernation about 1960 (he DID make more films after this, but they were pretty listless). Despite one reviewer calling it "one of the funniest American comedies ever made", I just can't see that. Instead, it's more of a pleasant little diversion--a nice time-passer and not even among Hope's best films. I was tempted to give the film a 6, but decided on a 7 simply because of the presence of Percy! He's the best.

This was an extremely silly (downright stupid in spots) farce of a comedy-adventure that gets by because it's so fast-moving and generally entertaining despite the cornball material.

Even by Bob Hope standards - and his films were not the highlight of his incredible career - this film is not that funny. A major part of the problem is simply that the humor is too dated. This kind of slapstick isn't the clever stuff some of older silent comics performed, which is still great material. This is just plain dumb.

The adventure part deals with Hope and British spy "Karen Bentley" (Madeline Carroll) and her attempts to stay one step ahead of the Nazis and the police as she transports valuable microfilm. Hope is along to help her and provide laughter.

Hope's pet penguin was a lot funnier than Bob in this film. Dressed up in different outfits, the little creature was hilarious to view and made this film tolerable enough to sit through some 60 years later. In fact, this would have been a keeper if they had made the penguin the star, instead of the two dopey lead actors!