Casanova's Big Night (1954)

just watch it!

The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

One of Bob Hope's last big-budget studio productions is an elaborate yet rather patchy costumer in Technicolor, with the star only impersonating the famed Venetian lothario (he's played, briefly, by an uncredited Vincent Price!). The film, in fact, has a truly imposing supporting cast (Joan Fontaine, Basil Rathbone, Hugh Marlowe, John Carradine, John Hoyt, Lon Chaney Jr., Raymond Burr and Paul Cavanaugh among others) which, however, doesn't really allow any of them to shine – while embarrassing somewhat Fontaine (an unlikely comedienne) and Rathbone (in the equally undignified role of Casanova's long-suffering valet); for the record, horror icon Chaney appears in a bit as a crazed prisoner.The plot has tailor's assistant Hope offering to replace the fleeing and debt-ridden Casanova; he's subsequently involved in a scheme wherein a lady is to be compromised – and in which the warmongering Doge of Venice (with the aid of advisers Carradine and Burr, who are naturally just as unscrupulous) sees an opportunity to start a war with a neighboring state. The film offers typical routines and lines for the star (he even gets to appear in drag) – which, ultimately, may be its problem as this is clearly a case of 'we've been here once too often' (even if his most obvious earlier title in this vein, MONSIEUR BEAUCAIRE [1946], I've yet to catch in its entirety); having said that, Hope did previously star in a film called THE GREAT LOVER (1949) – which I've haven't seen either – but in it he played a private eye.Incidentally, the character of Casanova is certainly among the more popular in cinema – a subject attracting to it all kinds of stars (not to mention a bevy of beauties) and film-makers: from Riccardo Freda and Vittorio Gassman to Luigi Comencini and Leonard Whiting, from Federico Fellini and Donald Sutherland to Ettore Scola and Marcello Mastroianni…not to mention Michael Sarrazin (under the direction of "Euro-Cult" stalwart Enzo G. Castellari), Tony Curtis, Richard Chamberlain and all the way down to the recent Lasse Hallstrom-Heath Ledger outing.

BOB HOPE was just over the crest of his most popular films when he made CASANOVA'S BIG NIGHT and it has to be ranked as one of his poorest despite some lavish Techicolor, vivid costumes and sets. The script is too weak and even his one-liners have little sting to them.Furthermore, the whole set-up of the story is so improbable, with Hope as a meek tailor forced into impersonating the great lover before he finds out what a dangerous assignment it is. JOAN FONTAINE and AUDREY DALTON are the two fetching females and it's obviously not their fault that they're given little to do. Fontaine looks distracted most of the time, probably wishing she had nothing to do with playing Francesca to Hope's Casanova impersonation.VINCENT PRICE has a minor role as the real Casanova and if you look closely you can see RAYMOND BURR among the bit players. BASIL RATHBONE does what he can as Hope's enemy, but his role here pales in comparison to some of the great villains of his past.Worthwhile only if you're enough of a Hope fan to get amusement from watching him in one of his more foolish comedies.

Although I haven't seen the film since the first run showing, I'll never forget the scene where Bob Hope (as Pippo Popolino aka Casanova) was in a gondola in Venice. He dips his finger in the water, sniffs it, and says "Canal Number 5."

Haven't seen it in awhile, but recall it as being very quotable in a Monty Python sort of way... (scene: prison cell) Bob Hope: "What time is it?" Prisoner: "Oh, around 1758."