'Going Spanish' is Bob Hope's film debut, and (as reviewer Snow Leopard astutely observes) is notable ONLY for that reason: this low-budget short just isn't funny. Some vaguely Latin American music is performed, but this too is negligible. Arguably, it's also notable that this film was produced by Al Christie. In silent-film days, Christie was the poor man's Mack Sennett; he ground out cheapo comedy shorts and had a total disregard for his actors' safety. (At least one silent-film performer is known to have died of injuries caused by working in a Christie movie; I wouldn't be surprised if there were more.) Bob Hope, eager to break into films, signed a multi-picture contract with Christie but (for reasons which I'll reveal) this was the only film they made together. A minor footnote worth mentioning is that Hope filmed this movie at Paramount's studio in Astoria, NY; the one mentioned in 'King Kong', and the same place where the Marx Brothers and W.C. Fields made some of their early films.
The film's title would more accurately be 'Going South American'. Our Bob, playing his usual brash character, passes through the South American village of Los Pochos ('poachos') Eggos. That name is the best gag in the picture. The Pochos Eggosians have a quaint tradition: namely, that -- on one day each year -- any crime is forgiven provided that the malefactor sings a song afterward. (This premise doesn't bear examination.) Of course, Bob just happens to show up on the appropriate day.
Now, here's a funnier joke than anything in this movie, and it's also a true story. Just after 'Going Spanish' was released, Bob Hope ran into a nightclub columnist in Manhattan. Hope was eager to get his name into the columnist's newspaper, and he knew he'd have a better chance of this if he gave the columnist something funny to print. The bank robber John Dillinger was in the headlines at the time, still at large. So, Hope told the columnist that he was starring in 'Going Spanish', then added: 'When they catch Dillinger, they're going to make him sit through it twice.'
That joke duly made it into the newspaper column ... where Al Christie read it. He angrily terminated Hope's contract. This turned out to be good for Hope, who promptly signed with Warners and made some much funnier comedy shorts at their Vitaphone studio in Brooklyn. It's faintly ironic that Hope's eventual movie success was ultimately with Paramount, the studio which owned the facilities where he made 'Going Spanish'. I'll give the unfunny 'Going Spanish' precisely one point out of 10, for its historic significance. Nice try, Bob.
The film's title would more accurately be 'Going South American'. Our Bob, playing his usual brash character, passes through the South American village of Los Pochos ('poachos') Eggos. That name is the best gag in the picture. The Pochos Eggosians have a quaint tradition: namely, that -- on one day each year -- any crime is forgiven provided that the malefactor sings a song afterward. (This premise doesn't bear examination.) Of course, Bob just happens to show up on the appropriate day.
Now, here's a funnier joke than anything in this movie, and it's also a true story. Just after 'Going Spanish' was released, Bob Hope ran into a nightclub columnist in Manhattan. Hope was eager to get his name into the columnist's newspaper, and he knew he'd have a better chance of this if he gave the columnist something funny to print. The bank robber John Dillinger was in the headlines at the time, still at large. So, Hope told the columnist that he was starring in 'Going Spanish', then added: 'When they catch Dillinger, they're going to make him sit through it twice.'
That joke duly made it into the newspaper column ... where Al Christie read it. He angrily terminated Hope's contract. This turned out to be good for Hope, who promptly signed with Warners and made some much funnier comedy shorts at their Vitaphone studio in Brooklyn. It's faintly ironic that Hope's eventual movie success was ultimately with Paramount, the studio which owned the facilities where he made 'Going Spanish'. I'll give the unfunny 'Going Spanish' precisely one point out of 10, for its historic significance. Nice try, Bob.