The movie, as I recall, was a smash hit, along with the catchy "Buttons and Bows" musical number. It's also one of Hope's best roles. He's Painless Potter, dentist extraordinaire; just don't let him anywhere near your teeth, or anything else, for that matter. As bumbler-in-chief of about everything, Painless muffs one funny challenge after another, as fashioned (in part) by the imaginative Frank Tashlin. There's also a couple of Bob's gag writers credited, so the one-liners fly as fast as Tashlin's sight gags (for example, the occasional comic strip blurbs cartoonist Tashlin was noted for). At the same time, the complicated plot is just a handy rack for Hope to hang his polished shtick on. And catch that final gag with Bob's breaking character with an aside to the audience that just about sums things up.But instead of Crosby to pair up with, Bob has the luscious Jane Russell, and while she may not be as funny as Bing, I love it when Painless mistakes an Indian for her on their wedding night. (Note how the screenplay marries them early on, thereby avoiding censorship problems. Note too how her buxom measurements are downplayed, likely a concession to the expected family audiences.)I don't know if there's a downside since it's a funnyman romp all the way. Maybe, for me, a downside is finding out from IMDb that Iron Eyes Cody, such a great Indian, is not an Indian at all, but was instead born in Italy. Oh well, it's all Hollywood make-believe anyway, so who cares since it's a darn amusing movie, Italian Indians or no.

This is really one great fun comedy, that can be seen as an early parody of the western genre.Parodies actually weren't quite common yet in the '40's. Besides, westerns themselves also weren't that popular anymore at the time, so this movie seemed a bit like an unlikely one and a bit of a gamble that paid off very well in the end.It's a real fun movie to watch, thanks to its humor. As a comedy this movie is just great and does definitely has some funny moments in it. Not just physically but also it's writing and acting from Bob Hope is what's making this movie often so fun to watch.I must say that Bob Hope was really one great comedy actor, who know how to handle its slapstick as well as its dialogs. A real actor who just seemed to be made for the genre. He adds quite a lot to this movie and often makes scenes that otherwise wouldn't had been very funny hilarious to watch. Too bad that Jane Russell impresses less. She just wasn't being a very great actress in this movie and it doesn't seem like a big wonder that her career never got off the ground and mostly played her film roles in the '40's and '50's only. There also is absolutely no chemistry between her and the Bob Hope character, not even in the sequences when there really is supposed to be. She must hate the character for most part of the movie though luckily, which still makes her performance a bit bearable for some parts of the movie. Oh well, at least the movie knew who to put it's main focus on though; Bob Hope.It was kind of weird though seeing Bob Hope blast away all those Indians with his guns, just for the comic effect of it all. I don't know, it just didn't felt right. The whole thing just had a bit of a racist thing over it.It was a good choice this shoot this picture in full color. It makes the movie a bright one to watch obviously, which adds to the fun feeling of the overall movie. It also makes the movie perhaps a bit fake and campy looking but again, this also adds to the overall feeling of the movie and seems suiting for an early genre movie such as this one.Still they could had spend some more time on its story. Now the story is mostly being dull and hard to follow, simply because it's such an uninteresting one. They tried to put in perhaps a too serious main plot-line, which is in huge contrast with the movie its comedy and the reason why the story just never becomes compelling. The movie is best to watch while switching your brain off and when you're just not wondering too much what the movie is all about, who all these characters are and what their motivations all are. No, just sit back and enjoy this movie please!A surprisingly great and funny western parody from the late '40's!8/10http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

Bob Hope has a way with murder and mayhem. It just goes down extremely easy with the guy. Jane Russell is eye candy but is a one note actress if I've ever seen one. The villains are bowling pins to be knocked down and the movie doesn't have a racial tolerant bone in its body. Frank Tashlin understood how to stage his films with the most extreme cartoon-like aspects. Very broad but without depth. The final punch line, however, revealed a dark humor that was played out on the edges of the story. Whenever I look at a western these days I immediately try to imagine what David Milch could have done with it."What were you expecting? A happy ending?"

Bob Hope is in his element in this type of role, here he plays a dopey dentist named Painless Peter Potter, he is the kind of dentist that pulls the wrong teeth and gets high on his own laughing gas. Here he manages to get involved with Calamity Jane {a positively smouldering Jane Russell} and a caper set around rouge Cowboys selling guns and dynamite to the Indians. After mistakenly being taken for a hero after repelling an Indian attack and killing a number of them during said attack, we are taken on this delightful journey as Potter the coward transforms himself into a bravado gun slinger whilst not realising it's actually Calamity pulling his strings and shooting the pistols. It's a smashing comedy that perfectly showcases Hope's immeasurable talent for delivering one liners, in fact few comedians in history can deliver a quip better than Hope could. The chemistry between Russell and Hope is as sharp as the writing, and to cap it all off we get the delightful song Buttons & Bows to hum along to, smashing uplifting comedy, 8/10.