ABSOLUTE MUST SEE 24-SEC VIDEO -- Bob Hope and the greatest movie line ever!

MIDI - THANKS FOR THE MEMORIES

Thanks for the memories
You really had no peers
You helped us through fears
You made us laugh so hard that sometimes we were brought to tears
We thank you for that

Thanks for the memories
You brought our soldiers hope
Always helped them cope
Your politics leaned rightward so we know you weren't a dope
We thank you for that

You took the road to Morocco...sometimes you had really been tested
Your new road leads to heaven...your show there, requested

So thanks for the memories
From England, here you came
Leslie was your name
Without you in this country it would not have been the same
We thank you for that

Thanks for the memories
We heard one-liners flow
You were such a pro
Self-depricating when you talked about your ski-jump nose
We thank you for that

Thanks for the memories
With Crosby and Lamour
We knew what's in store
We always got our money's worth when we walked in the door
We thank you for that

You took the road to Morocco...sometimes you had really been tested
Your new road leads to heaven...your show there, requested

So thanks for the memories
Your patriotic heart
You'd shown from the start
When someone called upon you, you were glad to do your part
And so we...thank you for that

The Ghost Breakers

Year Of Release:1940
Running Time: 85 Minutes
DVD Released By: Universal
Directed By: George Marshall
Writing Credits: Walter DeLeon, Paul Dickey (Play), Charles W. Goddard (Play)
Filming Location: Unknown

Starring: Bob Hope, Paulette Goddard, Richard Carlson, Paul Lukas, Willie Best, Pedro de Cordoba, Virginia Brissac, Noble Johnson, Anthony Quinn, Tom Dugan, Paul Fix, Lloyd Corrigan

Tagline: The two stars of "The Cat and the Canary" find love and laughter in a haunted house!

Alternate Titles:
I was unable to locate any alternate titles for this film.

Interesting Bits of Trivia:
All American Bob Hope was actually born in London, England. He moved to Bristol before finally emigrating with his parents to the U.S. in 1907. Bob Hope was born Leslie Townes Hope on May 29, 1903 and died of pneumonia on July 27, 2003 nearly two months after his 100th birthday. He had four adopted children: Linda, Anthony, Kelly, and Nora. He was married to his wife, Dolores Reade from February 19, 1934 until his death. He has four stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. He was granted honorary knighthood by Queen Elizabeth in 1998, and also has no less than 54 honorary degrees from various universities. There's really too many interesting facts about Bob Hope to list them all here. He lived an amazing life full of more amazing achievements than any other person could achieve in a thousand lifetimes. I'd like to end this section with a humorous quote from Mr. Hope. At his 100th birthday, Bob said, "I'm so old, they've cancelled my blood type."

Summary and Conclusion (from THE GHOST BREAKERS site)

In 1903 a shining light entered the world. This shining light had a name, and that name was Leslie Townes Hope. I personally can’t think of any entertainer who has given more to this country and touched more lives in a positive way than the late Bob Hope.

As a comedic actor, he was legendary. He brought us smiles through some of the darkest times in this country’s history and entertained our brave fighting men and women throughout many wars and conflicts. He gave of himself selflessly and for that his memory must be honored for all time.

To the world’s detriment, there will never be another Bob Hope. Look at all the loudmouth actors of today. The way many of them talk, you could almost see them spitting on our soldiers as they were spat upon when they returned from Viet Nam. These people have no conscience and they don’t really care about anything or anyone but themselves. That’s what made Bob Hope different, and what made him such a special human being.

His movies and appearances were always fun and made us laugh even though the jokes almost always sounded pre-written and rehearsed. It wasn't the jokes that made us laugh so much as the way he delivered them. He was the kind of person who could take the stupidest joke and make it funny with just a look or the inflection of his voice as he said it. Although his “Road” movies were among his most famous and well known films, I always felt sorry for him because he ended up playing second fiddle to Bing Crosby and never ended up with the girl at the end.

Basically he always got the shaft while Crosby always got the girl and everything else. I find that I enjoy the films more where Bob is the focal character and we really get to see him shine. This film was a prime example of that.

The long and the short of this film is that Mary Carter, played by Paulette Goddard, has inherited a castle on an island off the coast of Cuba. The castle has a long history including the use of slave labor and reports that the castle was haunted by some horrible demon. It was said that no one who stayed in the castle overnight, has lived to see the light of day in over twenty years. Mary was not deterred by this fact and fully intended to take control of the castle despite the warnings she received from Parada and several others.

Bob Hope played Larry Lawrence, who we find out is actually named Lawrence Lawrence Lawrence. Yes I know, bizarre but true. He’s a radio show host who had just that evening managed to upset the local gangster by spilling his dirty laundry on the air. The gangster, Frenchy Duval, calls Larry and tells him to come over so he can give him the straight story.

When Larry goes to Frenchy’s apartment, which just happens to be right across the hall from Mary’s, a strange sequence of events leads up to Larry thinking he shot and killed one of Frenchy's men, when actually what really happened is that Perada killed Ramon Mederos and Larry was so scared when he heard the shot that his own gun went off. This leads to Larry and his intrepid and frequently frightened assistant Alex to take refuge in Mary's apartment and lands them right in the middle of Mary’s little castle inheritance situation.

When Larry finds out that someone has it in for Mary, he insists that they go to Cuba with her to help her out and look after her. So the three go to Cuba together and eventually discover that the reason people were trying to keep them away from the castle is that embedded in the island was actually a huge vein of silver that was enough to make anyone rich beyond their wildest dreams.

It turns out that the castle was indeed haunted but that didn't have anything to do with why people didn't survive the night in there. I don’t know where the zombies came from or why they were there as that was never explained. Their presence did make for some nice comic moments between Larry and Alex though, so I'm really happy they were included in the film despite their lack of back story.

In the end, the bad guy turns out to be not who you thought it was, and all the guys you thought were bad, turn out to be good. It was a nice way to play out the story and it kept you guessing about who the real villain was. The scene where the villain is finally done a way with made me laugh harder than almost anything else in the movie. The laugh came not so much from how he met his end, but how it came about and what Alex said afterwards. I don’t want to spoil it because you really should see this movie.

Anthony Quinn was credited as being in this movie, and he was. The thing is, he didn't have all that big of a part in it, so it seemed a little disingenuous to list him as one of the starring characters. He played twin brothers Ramon and Francisco Mederos, and although his acting was fine, the characters just didn't seem to really fit into the movie properly. They had a very small involvement with the plot and if they weren't in the movie at all, I don’t think they’d have been missed all that much. They were basically there to steer events a certain way and that's it. I would have thought that they’d have given Anthony Quinn a bigger role than that. He probably would have been better as Parada or maybe even as Geoff.

Paulette Goddard played her role in a rather bizarre fashion. Sometimes she would get wild eyed and bizarre and other times she was mellow and nice. Mary was very strong willed, and the way Paulette portrayed her character really made that sense of independence and strength come across on the screen.

My only problem with her performance is that some of the lines that were written for her character, which normally would have been fine, were delivered in an odd fashion. It made it feel like something wasn't right, but this was only a problem at the beginning of the movie. Eventually she settled into her character and everything was just fine.

One thing that still has me puzzled is that there’s a character in this movie that Mary keeps bumping into all over the place. He was a friendly little chubby kinda guy and since he kept popping up I kind of expected him to end up being a cop or something. In fact, there was a certain point about three quarters of the way though the movie where he just disappeared and we never saw him again. I don’t know if he was supposed to play a part in the end and got written out or what, but there just didn't seem to be any real reason for him to be there.

Overall, the performances in this movie were excellent and if you’re looking for a really good time, then this is the movie you should grab. Normally I don’t review Bob Hope movies since I am by definition a B-Movie reviewer, but I'm thinking I might just expand myself and do regular classic movies as well when I come across a gem like this one. It was a pleasure for me to review this film, and I'm very happy to give it my highest rating of…

B-Movie Central's Rating: 5 Bees!

(from 2003)

Hope Over Darkness
By Aaron Hanscom, Contibutor

Bob Hope in 1994      PACIFIC PALISADES -- Judging from my regal bowl cut, I must have been about ten years old when the photograph was taken. I’m seated a couple of rows behind third base close to where a few years later I’d witness a lame Kirk Gibson hobble to the plate and put the finishing touches on an improbable Cinderella Season. Unlike on that magical night, there are no ecstatic fans around me. Only Kevin, another shaggy lad, is at my side. Kevin’s well-connected father had allowed him to choose one lucky friend to join him for this Dodger pre-game interview. The two of us were going to offer up the valuable insights we’d attained after a full decade on the planet. I’d have to wait another decade to realize how profound and prescient I had in fact been during my first and only brush with fame.
     The first question (the only one that I can remember) completely took me by surprise.
     “Who’s your hero?” the interviewer asked.
     Hero? If Kevin had answered first, I probably would have stolen his answer and said Steve Sax, too. After all, he was my favorite player and this was the Dodger pre-game show. Leave it to eccentric Aaron, however, to come up with probably the oddest answer a ten year old could have.
     “Bob Hope,” I blurted out without thinking, when the microphone was shoved in my face.
     The mortification was immediate. I had announced to the world that my hero was an old fart whose jokes I really didn’t get. I stayed awake all that night pondering over my silly remark, but was unable to comprehend that my admiration for the ancient fellow could be explained by the laughter he generated in adults.
     As I got older I would suffer through many more severe bouts of insomnia, although I didn’t revisit my Bob Hope pronouncement until recently. The most horrible of these sleepless nights were comparable to those of one of Hemingway’s nocturnal waiters in Spain. Only wide awake in the dark did I ever feel like I had lapsed into a state of nihilism. It was during these moments that I truly made sense of the hopelessness in the waiter’s version of the Lord’s Prayer: “Our nada who art in nada, nada be thy name thy kingdom nada thy will be nada in nada as it is in nada. Give us this nada our daily nada and nada us our nada as we nada our nadas and nada us not into nada but deliver us from nada; pues nada. Hail nothing full of nothing, nothing is with thee.” My elevation of nothingness came to an end only when I flipped on the light and turned my room into “a clean well-lighted place.”
     This year I was finally able to place my own fears in the proper perspective. Warm under my covers, I began to turn my thoughts to the American troops sleeping in the deserts of Iraq and Afghanistan. Surely their nights are more troublesome than mine. Death definitely creeps closer during war, when one faces a ruthless enemy and is separated from the comfort of friends and family. These young men and women have no light to switch on to make the darkness disappear. Witnessing the evil of tyranny all around them, they can only hope that the light of freedom will eventually shine through this darkness.
     Bob Hope understands this well, and he has lived up to his name for 100 years now. “I have seen what a laugh can do,” he once said. “It can transform almost unbearable tears into something bearable, even hopeful.” Hope entertained American troops for over fifty years, lifting their morale and reminding them “of what they were fighting for.”
     How telling then that Bob Hope will celebrate his 100th birthday so soon after the liberation of Iraq. He has lived through several wars and he has seen how much he’s meant to those fighting in them. Thousands of letters express this appreciation, like this one from a World War 2 veteran:

Dear Bob,
In a crowded ship, going through sub-infested water it was a big thrill to me to hear the boys laughing their heads off at your jokes. It really brought to us, home, right there in the middle of a damn big ocean. What I'm trying to say, Bob, is that, to us, far, far away from home, you really typify our way of living and bring us thousands of miles back to our beloved country. -- John M., United States Army

     I haven’t had insomnia for awhile now. The dark is quite different when you’re convinced it is necessary in order to give light its significance. Evil exists and only courage can beat it. Hope plays an essential part in the formation of this courage. It might look naïve and hubristic to those who retreat in times of danger, but it is necessary to inspire action. Its counterpart, despair, only leads to paralysis and the empty rhetoric devised to mitigate it. Take a look at the dire predictions of the French and others who opposed war in Iraq. Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin of France tersely explained the rationale for inaction when he said, “No one can claim either that [war] might lead to a safer, more just and more stable world. For war is always the penalty of failure.” These types of statements only strengthened Saddam during the buildup to war. Another Foreign Minister, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer of Holland, explained the problems of a passive approach. "We don't need more inspectors with flashlights," he said. "We need Saddam to turn the lights on."
     Well, Saddam never did turn on the lights. Darkness reigned over Iraq until the United States and her partners brought it to an end. Say what you will about the motivations for waging war (liberation of Iraq, destruction of weapons of mass destruction, impetus for democratic reform in the Middle East), at the bottom of all of these was hope for a safer and freer world. If we ever forget this, we’ll watch from the sidelines like the French did in this war. Left out of the glory just like my friends were  who gave up on the Dodgers and left Game 1 of the World Series a couple of outs before Kirk Gibson limped around the bases.
     Looking at the photograph of me at Dodger Stadium, I'm amazed at how much I've changed over the years. For one thing, I don't have that hideous bowl on top of my head any longer. Some things remain the same, however. If I’m ever asked who my hero is, I won’t have to think twice. My answer will be the same as it was when I was ten…Mr. Hope, of course.

[EDITOR'S NOTE: Aaron Hanscome is a writer in Pacific Palisades, CA. and a columnist in the American Daily online.]

In the late 30s, Hope made fun of veterans on his radio show. Performing at army bases was a way to bring up ratings. Then came World War II with Hope and a number of other stars recruited by the government for a war bond selling, victory caravan tour. Unlike many of the pampered celebrities who complained about the cramped quarters on their shared train, the ex-vaudevillian Hope was exhilarated by the travel. It was no problem for him to go overseas to entertain the troops.

At first Hope found America's homesick young fighting men to be the easiest audience he ever faced. Jokes that would die in the states would get uproarious laughter from the troops. In the beginning Hope stayed out of combat areas, but then he reasoned that those in actual battles needed him the most. Hope became addicted to the to the danger of flying in planes that might get shot down or performing in places that had recently been attacked. But he was greatly moved by the injuries he saw in hospital wards, and quietly help set up several of the soldiers he met in their own businesses after the war ended. Later he could not understand the Vietnam situation, getting in trouble when he repeatedly suggested we should bomb the enemy into submission. Hope's love for the troops stayed constant, even in Nam when they booed him.

Hope got along great with all the Presidents he met, whether he agreed with them or not. He once said that Roosevelt laughed so hard at his jokes he almost voted democratic. He loved telling the story about a marine in World War II who was disappointed that he had not killed a Japanese soldier. At the edge of a jungle he tried to smoke them out, by shouting," To hell with Hirohito!" It worked, a Japanese soldier came out and shouted," To hell with Roosevelt!" But the marine lowered his weapon," Darn it, I can't shoot a fellow Republican."

T-AKR USNS Bob Hope
Large, Medium-speed, roll-on/roll-off ships [LMSR]

Military Sealift Command's newest class of ships — Large, Medium-speed, Roll-on/Roll-off Ships, or LMSR — will significantly expand the nation's sealift capability in the 1990s and beyond. Nineteen LMSRs will have been converted or built at U.S. shipyards by the year 2001. The LMSRs will provide afloat prepositioning of an Army heavy brigade’s equipment and a corps’ combat support, as well as surge capability for lift of a heavy division’s equipment from the United States.

The need for additional military sealift ships was identified in a Congressionally-mandated study by the Joint Chiefs of Staff in the early 1990s. The Mobility Requirements Study focused on Department of Defense transportation during the Persian Gulf War. It highlighted the urgent need for greater sealift capacity to transport military equipment and supplies during wartime and other national contingencies. In response to the sealift shortfall, an ambitious Strategic Sealift Acquisition Program was introduced. Plans called for adding 19 LMSRs which will provide five million square feet of capacity early in the next century.

The LMSR program currently has 19 ships, 5 of which will be conversions of existing commercial container vessels to replace the existing fleet of seven RO/ROs , and 14 of which will be newly constructed ships. In FY 98, three newly constructed LMSRs joined the fleet, followed by four more in FY 99-02. At that time, the five converted LMSRs will be removed from service. All 19 ships use common cargo handling systems, procured by the Navy. LMSRs are being built by three contractors. A performance type procurement description was used, therefore specific ship configurations differ as the respective builders interpret the mission requirements.

LMSRs can carry an entire U.S. Army Task Force, including 58 tanks, 48 other track vehicles, plus more than 900 trucks and other wheeled vehicles. The ship carries vehicles and equipment to support humanitarian missions, as well as combat missions. The new construction vessels have a cargo carrying capacity of more than 380,000 square feet, equivalent to almost eight football fields. In addition, LMSRs have a slewing stern ramp and a removable ramp which services two side ports making it easy to drive vehicles on and off the ship. Interior ramps between decks ease traffic flow once cargo is loaded aboard ship. Two 110-ton single pedestal twin cranes make it possible to load and unload cargo where shoreside infrastructure is limited or nonexistent. A commercial helicopter deck was added for emergency, daytime landing.

The LMSR ships are Large (950 feet long, 106 feet wide, 55,000 long ton displacement), Medium Speed (24 knots), Roll-on/Roll-off (RO/RO) vessels. The sealift ships will be capable of self-sustained RO/RO and Lift on/Lift off (LO/LO) operations at a pier and in a Logistics-Over-the Shore (LOTS) scenario through stern and side port ramps to a RO/RO Discharge Facility (RRDF). In addition, the LMSR will be capable of self-sustained LO/LO cargo operations in a LOTS scenario by interfacing with lighterage. The LMSR ships are not armed, and do not have a combat system. They do have C3I suite sufficient to perform their intended mission in conjunction with other Naval vessels.

Christening ceremonies for the Navy's new Military Sealift Command (MSC) ship took place 15 March 1997 at Avondale Shipyards in New Orleans. The ship was named Bob Hope (T-AKR 300) in honor of the veteran entertainer's decades of devoted service to US military men and women around the world. Bob Hope is the first of 14 large, medium-speed, roll-on, roll-off ships constructed from the keel up for the Military Sealift Command. Bob Hope joined MSC's Afloat Pre-positioning Force in 1998.

USNS Bob Hope is the lead ship in the new Bob Hope class of sealift ships being built by Avondale Industries. The contract for the lead ship was awarded in September 1993 and called for one ship at a cost of $265 million and included options for up to five additional ships at a total cost of $1.3 billion. On 27 May 1997 Avondale Industries announced that it was awarded a new option for the construction of the seventh ship in the Bob Hope class. The option has a value of $228.2 million upon its exercise which is anticipated in 1999. After consideration of certain additional components and cost escalations, the option when exercised is expected to total more than $250 million. Avondale's peak production on the Sealift vessels is anticipated to involve the direct employment by the company of approximately 3,000 individuals.

In addition to the Bob Hope class ships, contracts for other sealift ships have been awarded in 1993 including a $1.3 billion contract to the National Steel and Shipbuilding Company (NASSCO) for one new construction ship plus an option for up to five additional ships, a $426 million contract to Newport News Shipyard for two converted ships and a $635 million contract to NASSCO for three converted ships. On 28 May 1997 National Steel and Shipbuilding Company (NASSCO) received a $227 million Navy contract to build a sixth strategic Sealift ship. And on 14 November 1997 NASSCO announced that the company had been awarded a $195 million contract for the construction of the seventh Strategic Sealift Ship.

Initially it appeared that a total of 14 ships of this class would be constructed, equally divided between NASSCO and Avondale. However, the class will now apparently consist of at least 15 ships, with the addition of TAKR 317, to be delivered in October 2002. The Soderman was originally converted by NASSCO from a commercial containership to a large, medium-speed, roll-on/roll-off (LMSR) vessel and delivered to the Navy in November 1997. Funding for construction of a new LMSR to replace the Soderman in the Navy's combat prepositioning squadron of LMSRs was included in the FY-2001 Defense Appropriations bill approved by Congress in October 1999.

The US Navy's Military Sealift Command ship USNS Bob Hope completed its Balkan operation in early July 1999, moving heavy combat equipment and supplies to U.S. peacekeeping forces in Kosovo. Following Joint Guardian operations, Bob Hope was loaded with Army combat equipment and prepositioned off Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean.

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