Seraherrera
The movie is wonderful and true, an act of love in all its contradictions and complexity
Alistair Olson
After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.
Phillida
Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.
zh3n-1
Well, it's a period comedy with Bob Hope. If you like Hope, you will probably like this movie. Vincent Price, the "real" Cassanova was not even credited with his appearance in the film. As a person who is indifferent to Hope, I found this film to be generally annoying. It's a comedy and I maybe chuckled twice. I found Hope's performance to be completely consistent but ultimately tiring. It's like they thought up a 10 minute TV sketch and decided to make a full-length movie on it.If you're interested in 1950's comedy in a similar vein you would do much better by viewing The Three Musketeers with Gene Kelly and Vincent Price. It's funny, and has much better action and stunt work. For a straight 50's comedy, take a look at Champagne For Caesar starring Ronald Colman and Vincent Price. Both are miles ahead of this picture.
bkoganbing
One of Bob Hope's funnier comedies was Casanova's Big Night which finds tailor's apprentice Hope exchanging places with the great Casanova who is played by Vincent Price in an unbilled cameo.Casanova's been down on his luck lately and he's beating it out of town owing the butcher, baker, and candlestick maker as well as his valet, Basil Rathbone. But after Dutchess Hope Emerson and her son Robert Hutton catch Hope in Casanova's outfit, Rathbone and the creditors decide to let the ruse continue.Emerson wants to hire the world's greatest lover to seduce her son's intended, Audrey Dalton, because she feels she's a titled goldigger. True, but that's beside the point. The proof will be if the great lover can steal a certain petticoat with a crest embroidered on it.The Doge of Venice Arnold Moss and his two scheming aides Raymond Burr and John Carradine also have their doubts that Hope might not be the great Casanova. What could ever give them that idea? By the way Cassanova's Big Night was unusual for Hope in that he went the entire film without one Crosby joke. The palace intrigue is as thick as a cement pudding, but Hope manages to bumble through it with the help of Joan Fontaine who is one of the creditors. As is the case in all his films, she develops as a soft spot for old ski nose.Paramount gave Hope an unusually good supporting cast here and they all perform well. Of course fans of the classics might well recognize that the plot was lifted from The Three Musketeers.But can you imagine the havoc that three Bob Hopes would have caused Venice?
occupant-1
Haven't seen it in awhile, but recall it as being very quotable in a Monty Python sort of way...
(scene: prison cell) Bob Hope: "What time is it?" Prisoner: "Oh, around 1758."
Coxer99
The jokes may be old, but the great timing of Bob Hope will keep you laughing throughout this comedy about the great romancer. Keep an eye out for Raymond Burr, who has a small role in the film.
