My Favorite Brunette is a 1947 comedy parodying the Film Noir genre, directed by Elliott Nugent and starring Bob Hope and Dorothy Lamour. It's quite similar to My Favorite Blonde, one of Hope's earlier films.
Ronnie Jackson (Hope) is a baby photographer who dreams of being a detective. He gets his chance when Baroness Carlotta Montay (Lamour) mistakes him for a detective and hires him to find her missing "husband" (actually her uncle). Ronnie soon finds himself getting mixed up with the missing man's sinister former business partner and his henchmen (Peter Lorre and Lon Chaney Jr.).
Tropes:
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: Ronnie makes several aside comments to the audience. In the final scene, he insults Harry with "He'll take any kind of a part!"
- The Blade Always Lands Pointy End In: Every time Kismet throws his knives, they land this way.
- Brick Joke: Ronnie gave Mrs. Fong the wrong photograph. This is what leads to him being cleared of murder.
- The Cameo: Alan Ladd as Sam McCloud,note Ronnie's detective friend, and Bing Crosby as Harry,note the executioner at San Quentin.
- Catch and Return: Ronnie pulls on of the knives from the Knife Outline around him and throws it back and Kismet. Kismet casually catches it and throws it back at him.
- Caught on Tape: In the Montague gang's suite, Ronnie and Carlotta record the gang's confessions on a recording machine, including Kismet's confession that he murdered Collins.
- Celebrity Paradox: Played for Laughs when Ronnie tells McCloud he wants to be a detective "like Alan Ladd". Guess who plays McCloud?
- Creator In-Joke: During Crosby's cameo, Lamour gives her love interest from the Road to ... films a "who is that?" stare before finally having her attention dragged back to Hope.
- Danger Takes a Backseat: As Ronnie parks outside the police station, Kismet, who's hiding in the back seat with Ronnie's gun, shoots Collins and steals the map from his pocket. Ronnie and the dead Collins are spotted by the police, and Ronnie flees the scene, now wanted for Collins' murder.
- Destroy the Evidence: After knocking out Ronnie in McCloud's office, Kismet burns the only print and what he thinks is the only negative of the photo exposing Baron Montay as a phony. However,it turns out Ronnie had picked up the wrong negative from his darkroom.
- Diagnosis: Knowing Too Much: The conspirators tell Ronnie that Carlotta's story is a delusion. Later, she's locked in a sanitarium to keep her from talking.
- Dumb Muscle: Willie is strong enough to bend iron bars out of shape and dumb enough to be constantly fooled by Ronnie.
- Femme Fatale: Parodied, of course, by Carlotta.
- Gallows Humor: The scenes in the prison are full of Ronnie making jokes about his impending execution.
- Grievous Bottley Harm: Ronnie knocks out Willie by smashing him over the head with a champagne bottle he finds wedged in the chandelier.
- How We Got Here: The film starts with Ronnie on Death Row, telling a group of journalists how he got falsely accused of murder.
- It Was Here, I Swear!: Ronnie summons the police and drives back to the mansion with them. The mansion is deserted, and Kismet poses as the gardener for the owners, who are out of the country. The police apologize to Kismet for the interruption.
- Knife Outline: In the kitchen at sanitarium, Kismet throws multiple knives at Ronnie, which form an outline around his head and shoulders.
- Mistaken for Badass: While taking care of his private-eye neighbor's office, baby photographer Ronnie Jackson is asked by an irresistible baroness to find a missing baron, which initiates a series of confusing but sinister events in a gloomy mansion and a private sanatorium.
- Mistaken for Crazy:
- Montague tells Ronnie that Carlotta is crazy. She isn't, but Ronnie misinterprets her actions to mean she is. It doesn't help that she's waving a knife around while talking to him.
- Later, Ronnie and Carlotta are both locked up in a sanitarium. Played with, because the people who locked them up know they're sane, but they want everyone else to believe they're mad.
- Mistaken Identity: How Ronnie gets involved in the case.
- Mugged for Disguise: In the sanatorium, Carlotta knocks out her nurse and steals her uniform in order to sneak her and Ronnie. Unfortunately, the uniform is way too big for her.
- Obfuscating Disability: Ronnie peeking through the window at Major Simon Montague's mansion when he sees the supposedly wheelchair bound Baron Montay stand up.
- Replaced with Replica: Ronnie manages to make a record of the spies, but one of the spies switches it for a swing music record.
