I have been wanting to see this film for years, because I'm a fan of Hope's early films and the ones with Crosby, and this one has the reputation of being better than the losers he began to crank out in the '50s and '60s; because Gerd Oswald directed the superb (long unavailable because of the dreadful remake) A Kiss Before Dying; and because Preston Sturges appears in it as an actor. I should have known when I saw the low price tag and the unknown logo (Brentwood) that this would be a bargain basement ripoff. To begin with, it's pan and scan; just the credits are letterboxed--then you apruptly switch to seeing only a third of the Cinemascope image. The print itself in not good, a lot worse than a decent VHS tape, with drifting colors. As for the movie, I lasted midway; the jokes are definitely late Hope, smirky and obvious, and the action is slowed considerably by the fact that Hope plays opposite Fernandel, who speaks only French--you have to wait while another character translates what he says or watch him looking confused. Still, is the movie really as deadly as it seems? I'm not sure. Oswald proved in his others pictures that he knew how to fill a Cinemascope screen and it's possible that that in the correct aspect-ratio this picture as some style; the letterboxed pre-credit sequence is certainly more watchable than what follows. What's really troubling is that this same company is putting out a bunch of Hope's films, including some of his best (ie The Seven Little Foys). Are all the DVDs in the series as lousy as this? Has anyone made the mistake I made with this one, of actually buying one? Let's hear from you.