Bob Hope is the main star in a movie that blends music, comedy, and a Cajun flavored atmosphere involving political corruption in Louisiana. Bob is the scapegoat when crooked politicians are investigated by a Northern Congressman. Bob tries to deflect the investigation by having the Congressman be photographed in compromising situations. Vera Zorina plays the woman who he hires to trap the Congressman. There is a musical opening number involving lovely ladies (like the MGM musicals made during that period) and a Mardi Gras parade. However, the blending of the music with the storyline was a bit uneven. The movie was made in 1941 as World War II was raging in Europe and there are several allusions to this time period (Vera who plays an Austrian refugee makes known her resentment about the Anschluss imposed by Nazi Germany on her country) and Bob's reference to the Democrats controlling the White House (Franklin Roosevelt was elected to three consecutive terms). Bob does his usual wisecrack routines in the movie. The two funnier moments are near the end when Bob goes through a pantomime routine of how a woman would put on a girdle and a spoof of the James Stewart role in "Mr. Smith goes to Washington" where he performs a filibuster in the state legislature to avoid being convicted. This movie is missing a signature piece of many of Hope's movie, that is a jab at Bing Crosby, his partner in many of the well known "Road" series movies. When this movie was made, the pair had only made two of the "Road" series movies, so their rivalry had not developed to yet a high level.
Review of Louisiana Purchase
