Moodring: Just a darn good song by Lizz Fields

DVD Review:“Bob Hope—Thanks for the Memories Collection”

By Boo Allen

Thanks for the Memories, The Cat and The Canary, The Ghost Breakers, Nothing But the Truth, Road to Morocco, The Paleface.

If young movie-goers today ever give a thought to Bob Hope, they might think of him as the geezer who used to host the Oscars and, maybe, entertain the troops overseas. But before Lesley Townes Hope, born in Eltham, London, England, became a 100 year-old institution,  he had a great career as a vaudeville comedian-turned-successful movie actor. His film career spanned six decades, giving him various turns on his trademark persona of a cowardly, sniveling weasel, a characterization taken by the young Woody Allen. Universal Studios Home Entertainment has packaged a representative offering of six of Hope’s films from 1938′s “Thanks for the Memories,” a song which Hope took as his theme song, to 1948′s “The Paleface,” in which he teams with Jane Russell. “The Road to Morocco” represents the only “Road” movie, but it is arguably the best of his pairings with Bing Crosby (and is referenced in the current “Sex and the City 2,” filmed in Morocco). The collection offers several supplements, including six separate featurettes on Hope.

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