Cowboy Spoofs

- Junior Potter played by Bob Hope in Son of Paleface (1952).

I'm currently watching Son of Paleface for the second time in three days. It isn't that I think the movie is so great that it merits a second viewing so soon. It's just that I fell asleep during the first viewing, which reflects more on the comfort of my recliner than on the appeal of the film.

I don't know which parts I missed, but I have a hunch they were sequences where somebody started singing. Apparently, Bob Hope and Roy Rogers have such melodic voices that they send me straight to sleep. Two lines into "Buttons and Bows" and I'm out. They're more effective than Lunesta (and they don't have the nasty side effect of a glowing butterfly fluttering about).

I borrowed Son of Paleface because it was the only cowboy spoof I could find at the library. Why was I looking for one? It probably had something to do with still being <a href="http://randomcuriosity.com/journal/archives/001275.htmlon a Western wave while reading a Wodehouse novel. The combination cries out for a comedian in a cowboy hat (or so my brain would have me believe).

Cowboy spoofs, by the way, are rare critters. Hollywood has only made a handful of them. I had originally wanted to see The Paleface, but that movie wasn't available. (I just put it at the top of my queue, along with Jane Fonda's Cat Ballou and John Wayne's McLintock!).

If you find yourself in the mood for a good cowboy spoof, I would recommend the Paleface movies, as well as Blazing Saddles, Shanghai Noon, and Maverick. If you're in the mood for a bad one, I'd recommend Wild Wild West (a film I saw only because Kevin Kline was in it).