The unfortunately titled My Favorite Brunette (1947) marks the tenth movie I have seen with Bob Hope and Dorothy Lamour in it.  My interest is more in Lamour, not simply because she is beautiful, but she was the cradle Catholic.  Hope converted late in life thanks to his wife, Dolores Hope.  I only point out my attraction to Lamour to underscore my humanity, though it does contribute to why I refer to the name of the film as “unfortunate.”  While Hope was universally loved for his comedy, his personal life was more complicated.  There are a few extra-marital affairs that were widely publicized, and he is suspected of having many more.  I, too, have had my share of relationships, though the longer I live, the more I care about the one I have with God.  No matter where we are in life, God should come first.  That was a hard lesson for Hope to learn, and though there is no spirituality to speak of in today’s picture, the trouble his character gets into can serve as a lesson as to the potential pitfalls of a lack of chastity.

What I mean specifically is that baby photographer Ronnie Jackson (Bob Hope) is about to be executed for murder at the beginning of My Favorite Brunette.  Okay, that is probably a little stringent in terms of what could happen, temporally speaking, if one goes skirt chasing.  How he gets into this predicament is the subject of the film, as told in a flashback to reporters.  Upon finishing with a client, Mrs. Fong (Jean Wong), Ronnie is eager to get to the office next to his.  The person behind the adjacent door is private detective Sam McCloud (Alan Ladd).  Ronnie wants to enter Sam’s profession, and tries to get into the real gum shoe’s good graces by showing off a camera lens he has invented to take pictures through key holes.  Ronnie has a gun, too, but Sam brushes off the fumbling amateur before leaving.  Sam does, though, allow Ronnie to stick around the room.  Ronnie is thus on hand when the gorgeous Baroness Carlotta Montay (Dorothy Lamour) enters.  She mistakes Ronnie for Sam, a mistake he is too taken by her looks to correct, and asks for help in finding her husband, Baron Montay (Frank Puglia).  The Montays have come to this country where they have a valuable mine, which is why the Baron has been kidnapped.  She gives Ronnie a map of the claim, and a $5,000 ring as payment, telling him to come later to an address outside of town.  He arrives there at the same time Dr. Lundau (John Hoyt), a psychiatrist who ignores Ronnie as they are ushered into the mansion by a shadowy figure named Kismet (Peter Lorre).  Kismet had been eavesdropping on Carlotta and Ronnie’s earlier conversation.  Because of Kismet’s presence, Carlotta feels she cannot speak freely, and soon she is ushered out of the room by a telephone call.  Instead, Ronnie is introduced to the owner of the house, Major Simon Montague (Charles Dingle), and a person claiming to be the Baron.  It is all confusing for Ronnie, and it gets worse when his hosts assert that Carlotta is not mentally stable.  They are also keen to get a hold of the map.  Whatever it is that is going on, Ronnie decides he is in over his head and attempts to leave.  On his way out, Ronnie encounters Carlotta, and the fact that she is wielding a letter opener and talking about the Baron as her uncle does little to calm Ronnie.  She explains that her nervousness had let to her saying that the Baron was her husband, and she uses her feminine charm to get Ronnie to believe her.  This seems to work on all Hope’s characters, which should further contextualize the introduction.  Before getting into his car, though, he is able to snap a picture of the entire cabal, with the supposed wheelchair bound Baron standing up, before speeding away in his car.  That picture is going to be the proof he needs to show that Major Montague’s group is up to no good, but Kismet sneaks into his office, steals the print, burns the negative, and knocks Ronnie unconscious.  Without the evidence, Ronnie tries to lead the police back to the estate, but they find only an incredulous set of humble citizens.  Ronnie does find one clue, though, that takes him to the Seacliffe Lodge.  This turns out to be a psychiatric ward where they have taken Carlotta.  They have also been keeping the real Baron Montay here, who hands Carlotta a barely lit cigarette.  When she is alone later, she finds in it a note from her uncle telling her to meet with a scientist named James Collins (Reginald Denny).  To get to him, Carlotta and Ronnie must escape from the institution.  Once that is successful, they meet with James and show him the map.  He identifies it as a uranium mine, but he is killed by Kismet with Ronnie’s pistol before Ronnie can get James to the police.  Now on the run for supposedly committing murder, Carlotta and Ronnie make their way to Washington, D.C., where the Baron is supposed to meet with the government about the radioactive lode.  Major Montague and his co-conspirators go, too, and Carlotta and Ronnie disguise themselves as hotel staff to try to steal back the map.  In the process, they end up secretly recording that Kismet had been the one to off James.  With Ronnie having a gun on everyone, Carlotta goes to summon the police.  However, as he is about to play the proof of his innocence, Kismet surreptitiously switches out the disc, and music comes out of the speaker instead.  This brings the story up to present, and the warden (Willard Robertson) arrives to “take a walk” with Ronnie.  Ronnie faints as he exits his cell, but awakens in the warden’s office.  Here he learns from Carlotta that he had given negative of the picture he took at the Montague estate to Mrs. Fong.

This revelation makes Carlotta Ronnie’s My Favorite Brunette, much to the chagrin of the would-be executioner (Bing Crosby).  This is meant to be a funny reference to their highly successful Road to . . . series, and I mention it to remind you all that this is a comedy.  What is less funny in terms of Faith are extra-marital affairs, though in the film Ronnie’s interest in Carlotta is piqued more when he finds out she is single.  Despite this sinful behavior, both on and off screen, it is important to note that none of it is a “death sentence.”  In spiritual terms, this means hell, a place where souls go to suffer eternal separation from God.  In this sense, what we do in this life matters.  People turn away from God for a lot of reasons, but all of it involves sin of some kind.  Whether they feel like it is too strict, or they simply do not care, the issue that links these sins is a denial of God and/or the belief that we know best.  This last one is particularly strange when you remember who God is, but then if you do not believe in such things, see the first part of this paragraph.  Among the more prominent themes of these are changing views on sexuality, primarily sex outside the confines of marriage.  It is something that our culture and society appears to increasingly feed into and be permissive of, at least judging by films, music, and television.  However, I am not here to condemn.  As I indicated in the introduction, I have had my own struggles in these areas.  I hope that what I have just discussed will make you more aware of the potential consequences.  And it is only potential because, as we seen in the movie, there can be a reprieve.  Ronnie’s stay of execution is not the result of a confession and conversion.  Yet, if we turn away from that which God would rather not have us do, even if it is at the last possible moment of our lives, we can avoid suffering the kind of permanent death that is hell.  By submitting to Him, we can experience the kind of Heaven that is being kissed by Dorothy Lamour.

Okay, I have no idea if Heaven is like being kissed by Dorothy Lamour as you see at the end of My Favorite Brunette.  I am also not sure why the movie is titled as such as she appears to be the only woman in his life.  That is the Christian ideal, by the way, if you are called to marriage.  In the meantime, you can also watch this film.