An enjoyable comedy western featuring the formidable, if different talents of its leads Bob Hope and Jane Russell. Hope plays his customary cowardy-custard character, a travelling dentist of all things named "Painless" Potter alongside Russell's mannish Calamity Jane as they seek to foil the baddies' nefarious plan to arm the Red Indians, but pay no attention to the plot just like the stars and instead enjoy the fun romp they rampage through.

Filmed in glorious Technicolor, the film makes ample room for running gags, like Russell's hammer-like kisses and Hope getting pulled out of his wagon-chair every time he gees up the horses, but is best served by Hope and his ad-libs and one-liners (sample:- Hope trying to act tough at the bar - "Give me four fingers of red-eye - and throw in a thumb too!"). The funniest extended scene is probably when Hope and a hot-shot rival stalk each other around town before their shoot-out. The humour trails off somewhat in the last third when the comedy gets too cartoony and slapsticky but there's still some compensation as Russell's glacial heart melts towards her oafish husband.

Sure the treatment of the Red Indians is about as un-PC as you can get, but the real villains are the white guys and along the way Hope gets to sing the catchy singalong "Buttons and Bows". Popular enough to beget a sequel "Son Of Paleface" a few years, this is one of Hope's best comedies sans-Crosby and also demonstrated Russell's comedic talents at the same time.

It's never a good thing when I have to struggle to come up with a film review. I'm a pretty big fan of Bob Hope but this one left me a bit flat, perhaps because I watched it out of sequence with the follow up film "Son of Paleface" with Hope and Russell on hand once more, but as different characters. The sequel also featured my favorite movie cowboy Roy Rogers, along with Trigger giving a career performance that might have upstaged the nominal stars of the picture.

The team up of Hope and Russell seems like a natural but it wouldn't have hurt for Mariska Hargitay's mom to crack a smile every now and then. There's no pretense at all that this is a parody Western, so why not lighten up and have a little fun with it? Russell seemed to be taking this a lot more seriously than she needed to, and if I noticed it I think the director should have too.

Perhaps the biggest plus here is the film's vibrant Technicolor format, especially when it showcases the Indians in their brightly colored tribal gear. Hope's no slouch either in his gaudy Western outfit, which only goes to emphasize how out of place he is in the Old West scheme of things. Once again though, I'm of a mind that Russell's reputation is greater than the reality, and her full figured look isn't as exceptional as one might be led to believe. Nothing she wore in this picture managed to flatter, so if that's what you're expecting, you'll have to catch her in the sequel doing that sexy singing number at the Dirty Shame Saloon.