Here’s another post in honor of Native American Heritage Month.
A couple of days ago, we posted Don Knott’s The Shakiest Gun in the West, a 1968 re-make of the much better film we present today, Bob Hope’s The Paleface (1948), directed by Norman McLeod. Hope’s cowardly, lecherous character was never in finer form than in this film; when I last saw it a few years ago I don’t think I ever once stopped laughing during the entire movie. The Native Americans, sadly, are little more than plot points however, the usual obstacles to be overcome…though on the plus side there are a couple of real Native Americans in the cast, Chief Yowlachie and Iron Eyes Cody (okay so Cody was fake, but the producers THOUGHT he was real!). Naturally the successful comedy was followed up by a sequel, Son of Paleface (1952).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OG58YM7W1mk
For more on comedy film history don’t miss my new book Chain of Fools: Silent Comedy and Its Legacies from Nickelodeons to Youtube, just released by Bear Manor Media, also available from amazon.com etc etc etc
For more on the history of show business consult No Applause, Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous, available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and wherever nutty books are sold.
(Travalanche) 