Comedy legend Bob Hope turned every ‘serious’ film genre into something hysterical. He was able to incorporate comedy into Westerns, horrors, dramas and even spy thrillers with including laughter with the shocks, scares and suspense! He used his wits and nuttiness in the 1942 classic spy thriller comedy My Favorite Blonde, which co-starred someone who was no stranger to crime films.

The film takes place just before World War II, where British secret agent Karen Bentley (Madeleine Carroll, The 39 Steps) is carrying a coded message with secret information about flight plans for American bomber planes in a brooch that the Germans spies want and are aggressively pursuing her. While being chased, she crosses paths with entertainer Larry Haines (Bob Hope, Nothing But the Truth) and his performing penguin companion Percy. Poor Larry and his penguin get mixed up in this dreadful situation. Larry’s life is also now in jeopardy as he and Karen get chased across the country while trying to outwit the German agents.

My Favorite Blonde is a zany wonderful espionage comedy! It is a nonstop rollercoaster ride of both humor and action with our heroes finding themselves in precarious situations. Both Hope and Carroll are excellent in their roles as are their antagonists featuring a pair who are a who’s who of B-movie villainy, George Zucco (The Flying Serpent) and Gale Sondergaard (The Spider Woman Strikes Back).

Legendary cinematographer William C. Mellor (The Naked Spur, Peyton Place) was the man responsible for the beautiful black and white cinematography, capturing some amazing shots and the mood of the film.

This was the first of three “My Favorite” movies starring Bob Hope. My Favorite Blonde was followed by My Favorite Brunette and My Favorite Spy. None of the films have any connection to each other other than the title.

My Favorite Blonde arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Kino Lorber. This movie has been given a brand new 2K Master on a dual-layered BD-50 disc and the results are astounding. The video quality is similar to their recent release of another Bob Hope classic Nothing But the Truth, where the black and white image is absolutely stunning, with a crisp, clear image without any print damages. Interiors and exteriors have a great deal of depth, rich black levels and a balanced grey scale. The image shows no signs of artificial enhancements

The soundtrack for this release is the Kino standard English DTS HD Master Audio 2.0 which is quite strong and booming for this release. The dialog, yelling, screaming and other sounds from the film such as gunshots and musical score come in exceptionally well with no defects detected. Optional English subtitles are available for this release.

My Favorite Blonde features a new audio commentary by film historian Samm Deighan who talks about the movie in great detail with lots of tidbits about the history of it, with information about the cast and crew.

There is a Bob Hope Promo, which is basically some excerpts from Bob Hope films and their release dates. Films include My Favorite Brunette, Road to Rio, The Lemon Drop Kid, Road to Bali, and Son of Paleface.

There are tons of theatrical trailers for this release which feature many of the Bob Hope films that Kino Lorber has released. My Favorite Blonde, The Cat and the Canary, Road to Singapore, The Ghost Breakers, Road to Zanzibar, Caught in the Draft, Nothing But the Truth, Road to Morocco, Road to Utopia, The Paleface, and The General Died at Dawn are all in this trailer package.

My Favorite Blonde is another great Bob Hope classic that fans will surely enjoy, especially with the great uptick of its audio and video quality. The wealth of trailers to go with the wealth of knowledge shared by Samm Deighan in the commentary track make this release a must have!

My Favorite Blonde

Director- Sidney Lanfield, Madeleine Carroll, Gale Sondergaard

Cast- Bob Hope

Country of Origin- US

Distributor – Kino Lorber

Number of Discs – 1

Reviewed by – David Steigman

Date-3/28/21