Monsieur Beaucaire

-Monsieur Beaucaire, Booth Tarkington's novel about an 18th-century French barber who poses as a swashbuckling aristocrat, was the surprising source for this Grade-A Bob Hope comedy. While in the original novel the tonsorial hero pretended to be someone he wasn't by choice, in this 1946 film Hope is ...more

Most Bob Hope vehicles are pretty much cut from the same pattern, so what makes one better or worse than the other tends to be the cloth. In that respect, Monsieur Beaucaire is definitely one of Hope's better outings. Not so much an adaptation of the Booth Tarkington original as a free-for-all based upon Valentino's earlier film version, Beaucaire is a very pleasant and engaging little frolic. Putting Hope in a period piece is generally a good idea, as it adds to the comedian's gift for being a ...more