A Movie Review: The Princess and the Pirate

The Princess and the Pirate.  Last month, I re-watched Ivanhoe.  I remember being young and enjoying the movie.  When I re-watched it, I was disappointed.  What would I think about The Princess and the Pirate, a movie that I also loved when I was  young?

Captain Barrett/The Hook (Victor McLaglen) has learned that Princess Margaret (Virginia Mayo) is on a ship, running away from her father, The King.  He decides to capture the ship.  Also on Princess Margaret's ship is Sylvester the Great (Bob Hope).  He's an actor who is constantly chased out of various cities due to poor reviews.

The Hook captures the ship and orders that all the men should be killed.  Sylvester the Great escapes such condemnation by dressing as a woman as well as receiving a little help from a pirate named Featherhead (Walter Brennan).  Eventually, Sylvester the Great and Princess Margaret escape the ship and end up on a violent filled island.  Princess Margaret is kidnapped by La Roche (Walter Slezak), the governor of the island who wants ransom money for her.
I grew up loving Bob Hope and I have to say that I found this comedy to hold up well.  Maybe I didn't love it as much as I did when I was young, but I still loved it.  The one note is that a few of the comedy bits make reference to Bing Crosby so unless you're familiar with the Bob Hope/Bing Crosby movies a number of the jokes might just go over your head.