Louisiana Purchase (1941)
Genres: Comedy, Musical
Cast: Bob Hope, Vera Zorina, Irène Bordoni
Louisiana Purchase is a 1941 American musical comedy film directed by Irving Cummings and starring Bob Hope, Vera Zorina, and Victor Moore. It is an adaptation of Irving Berlin's 1940 Broadway musical of the same name. A Paramount Pictures production, the film was directed by Irving Cummings, with Robert Emmett Dolan serving as musical director as he had done for the play. The film satirises the US Democratic Party and political corruption. The film was Bob Hope's first feature film in Technicolor. The title refers to the State of Louisiana offering to drop the deceased leader Huey Long's controversial Share Our Wealth program, and fully support President Franklin Roosevelt and his New Deal. In return, FDR promised federal dollars for public works in Louisiana, a deal cynically referred to by many as the second Louisiana Purchase.