MusicComedyWestern

Fancy Pants

- Bob tames that "Wildcat" Gal!

An American actor, impersonating an English butler, is hired by a rich woman from New Mexico to refine her husband and headstrong daughter. The complications increase when the town believes the actor/butler to be an earl and President Roosevelt decides to pay a visit.

Release Date : 1950-07-19

Language :English

Adult : false

Status : Released

Production Company : Paramount Pictures

Production Country : United States of America

Alternative Titles :

Cast

Character Name : Humphrey / Arthur Tyler

Original Name : Bob Hope

Gender : Male

Character Name : Agatha Floud

Original Name : Lucille Ball

Gender : Female

Character Name : Cart Belknap

Original Name : Bruce Cabot

Gender : Male

Character Name : Mike Floud

Original Name : Jack Kirkwood

Gender : Male

Character Name : Effie Floud

Original Name : Lea Penman

Gender : Female

Character Name : George Van Basingwell

Original Name : Hugh French

Gender : Male

Character Name : Lionel Boswell / Sir Wimbley

Original Name : Eric Blore

Gender : Male

Character Name : Wampum

Original Name : Joseph Vitale

Gender : Male

Character Name : Teddy Roosevelt

Original Name : John Alexander

Gender : Male

Character Name : Lady Maude

Original Name : Norma Varden

Gender : Female

Character Name : Rosalind

Original Name : Virginia Keiley

Gender : Male

Character Name : Lord Twombley

Original Name : Colin Keith-Johnston

Gender : Male

Character Name : Wong

Original Name : Joe Wong

Gender : Male

Character Name : Elderly Mother

Original Name : Ida Moore

Gender : Female

Character Name : Mr. Andrews

Original Name : Oliver Blake

Gender : Male

Character Name : Mayor

Original Name : Percy Helton

Gender : Male

Character Name : Mr. Jones

Original Name : Edgar Dearing

Gender : Male

Character Name : Millie

Original Name : Hope Sansberry

Gender : Female

Reviews

John Chard

@John Chard

2024-05-16

Hey fancy pants-you're a pussyfooting critter. Fancy Pants is directed by George Marshall and adapted from the Harry Leon Wilson story by Edmund L. Hartmann & Robert O'Brien. It stars Bob Hope, Lucille Ball, Bruce Cabot, Jack Kirkwood and Lea Penman. A Technicolor production, it's scored by Van Cleave and cinematography is by Charles Lang. Plot is a reworking of Ruggles of Red Gap, which was made into a successful film in 1935, directed by Leo McCarey and starring Charles Laughton. This take finds Bob Hope as a low grade American stage actor who gets hired by a Western family in the hope that his refined manner will rub off on the more rough and tumble members of the family. Finds start to spiral out of control when the town mistake him for a noble lord, bringing the attention of one president Teddy Roosevelt, who plans a visit to the family home. Not only that, but Hope has to contend with town bully Bruce Cabot, who is convinced that Hope is trying to steal his girl, Lucille Ball. Bright and bubbly comedy musical fare, played purely for laughs and given a good quality production. Hope and Ball featured together in a total of five film's, their chemistry a winning formula, even if the material wasn't always that beneficial to their respective comedy leanings. Fancy Pants is one of the better ones, but it's bookended by indifference. The start is laborious, and not really setting the standard for what is to come, but once we land in the Wild West it not only lets Hope shine, but also it brings into play Kirkwood and Cabot (excellent). Then it's a case of letting Hope ponce about as a noble butler/Lord, while Ball and Kirkwood plot to have his nuisance self sent packing back to England. It's during this meaty middle section that we get some genuine laugh out loud moments, briskly constructed by Marshall and scripted as sharp as a razor. We even have time for a couple of tunes, with the quite wonderful "Home Cookin" the stand out. Sadly the ending lacks impact and comes all too quickly, which is doubly disappointing since the big build up was great fun. A good but not great Bob Hope film as a whole, but when it's good it's very good and therefore easily recommended to the comedy classic fan. 6.5/10