Bob Hope and Paulette Goddard
“The Cat and the Canary” screens at 1:30 p.m. Saturday, June 14, 2014 in the Durwood Film Vault of the Kansas City Central Library, 14W. 10th St. Admission is free. It’s part of the year-long film series Hollywood’s Greatest Year, featuring movies released in 1939.
Baby boomers who grew up watching Bob Hope (1903-2003) on television – on his many U.S.O. specials, hosting the Oscar telecast, and appearing as a guest on various variety shows – may not realize that Hope was a major movie star as well.
Granted, Hope’s heyday on the silver screen had pretty well petered out by the mid-1950s, when most boomers were in elementary or junior high school. But by that time this British-born funnyman – who showed uncanny wisdom in his financial and career choices (he was among the biggest landowners in Los Angeles) – had established himself as a regular presence on the boob tube.
Born in London in 1903, Hope was only five when his family emigrated to the U.S. (which explains his lack of an English accent). He spent a few years in Cleveland, Ohio, before moving to Los Angeles, where he devoted much of his adolescence to earning money as a street performer. He spent five years on the vaudeville circuit, but the movies proved a hard sell. When Hope failed a 1930 screen test, he made one of his smart moves, turning to radio, where he won fans for his quick wit.
Finally, in 1934, Hope began appearing on the big screen in a series of shorts for Warner Bros. These audience pleasers allowed him to hone his self-deprecating screen persona, that of a wise-cracking coward who was full of bravado until push came to shove, at which point his instinct was to run away.
In his first few feature films he shared the screen with other comic performers like W.C. Fields, Martha Raye, and George Burns and Gracie Allen. As part of large comic ensembles, Hope was able to put his “brand” in front of moviegoers without taking the risk of being a star who could be blamed for a film’s failure.
Which brings us to 1939’s ” The Cat and the Canary.” It’s an ensemble effort as well, but here Bob Hope clearly emerges as the star, the most interesting thing on the screen.
Butler's Cinema Scene 