The actual onscreen title of this clip show with new bridging material is the less poetic Bob Hope's Bag Full of Christmas Memories (1993), one of the last of a very long line of television specials Hope made for NBC. (The Bob Hope Christmas Show: Hopes for the Holidays, which aired in 1994, is apparently something else.) The premise for the special is simple: Hope's family and celebrity friends gather at his home for a big Christmas party, where everyone reminisces about his earlier holiday shows and Christmastime visits to soldiers stationed in Korea, Vietnam, the Persian Gulf and, inexplicably, Iceland.

The "star-studded" line-up in new footage is less than stellar: "Hey! It's Ed Marinaro!" Hope cries out at one point, as if a star the caliber of Sinatra or John Wayne had just walked into the room. Nevertheless, there's a faint, vaguely sad air of authenticity to this staged Christmas party. Hope was 90 years old when this was made, and he had simply outlived nearly all his contemporaries, and was in many ways the last of his breed. Many of Hope's children and grandchildren (and, one suspects, great-great grandchildren) are used to fill out the set. Exteriors for the program clearly were shot outside Hope's actual home in Toluca Lake, California, near both Universal and Warner Bros. Studios, and the interior sets seem to make an effort to recreate the look inside.

Hope wisely doesn't attempt a monologue or sketch comedy, letting the archival clips carry what laughs there are. He's obviously old but not yet red-eyed and frail, though comedy-wise he was long past his prime. The jokes are mostly lame ("Prices are so high this year some folks are doing comparison shoplifting!") or hopelessly dated ("One of the hottest Christmas gifts this year is the game Trivial Pursuit. Trivial Pursuit: that's a guy chasing Phyllis Diller!"). Squint and Hope almost becomes Dave Thomas's hilarious, dead-on impression.

That said, it's still fun to see Hope trade stale one-liners with Phil Silvers, Red Skelton, Bing Crosby, Jack Benny, Lucille Ball and, unexpectedly, Lee Marvin. The sketches aren't exactly side-splitting, especially when everyone is relying so heavily on cue cards (their eyes wander constantly) for the jokes, but sometimes Hope or one of his guests blows a line and, having to improvise, their ad-libs liven things up a bit. Footage of Hope entertaining the troops holds up somewhat better. One undated clip with Hope and an uncredited Jayne Mansfield chatting with soldiers is quite funny.

Video & Audio

The Best of Bob Hope - Hope for the Holidays is presented in full frame format with no subtitle options. It looks fine for what it is, a mid-nineties TV show with clips going back to the early-1950s. Oddly, the program runs 58:55, much too long for an hour time-slot, but too short (one hopes) for a 90-minute show with commercials. New footage is in stereo but nothing special.

Extra Features

Supplements include 12 minutes of Bloopers, most dating from the 1980s and early-'90s, including extended ones with John Forsythe and William "the Refrigerator" Perry. The Silver Bells Collection features Hope singing the popular Jay Livingston/Ray Evans song (which Hope introduced, in 1951's The Lemon Drop Kid) with Gale Storm (in 1953), Marie Osmond (1973), Shirley Jones (1983), and Reba McEntire (1987). Hope and wife Dolores lip-synch the song (so badly it's funny) in new scenes.

Parting Thoughts

This writer used to live in Burbank, and occasionally would see the by then frail and bloodshot-eyed comedian, aided by an assistant, amble into the local supermarket as part of his daily walk. There, as Hope mulled over the kiwis, even jaded Angelinos who'd bump into celebrities all the time would stand star-struck. Indeed, a hush and flurry of whispers would fall over the supermarket as the old man shuffled through check-out. Though his self-effacing monologue days were long past, there was no denying the "legendary comedian" status of Bob Hope.

Stuart Galbraith IV is a Los Angeles and Kyoto-based film historian whose work includes The Emperor and the Wolf -- The Lives and Films of Akira Kurosawa and Toshiro Mifune. His new book, Cinema Nippon will be published by Taschen in 2005.