Fancy Pants (1950)

July 19, 1950 (US) • Music, Comedy, Western • 92m

Overview

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.

Director

George Marshall

Writers

Harry Leon Wilson, Edmund L. Hartmann, Robert O'Brien

Top Billed

Bob Hope

Keywords

daughter butler musical president nouveau riche

Where to watch

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Buy

Top Billed Cast

Bob Hope

Humphrey / Arthur Tyler

Lucille Ball

Agatha Floud

Bruce Cabot

Cart Belknap

Jack Kirkwood

Mike Floud

Lea Penman

Effie Floud

Hugh French

George Van Basingwell

Eric Blore

Lionel Boswell / Sir Wimbley

Joseph Vitale

Wampum

John Alexander

Teddy Roosevelt

Norma Varden

Lady Maude

Virginia Keiley

Rosalind

Colin Keith-Johnston

Lord Twombley

Joe Wong

Wong

Ida Moore

Elderly Mother

Oliver Blake

Mr. Andrews

Percy Helton

Mayor

Edgar Dearing

Mr. Jones

Hope Sansberry

Millie

Crew

Billy Daniel

Choreographer

Harry Leon Wilson

Story

Edmund L. Hartmann

Screenplay

George Marshall

Director

Polly Burson

Stunt Double

Ray Evans

Songs

Robert O'Brien

Screenplay

Don Johnson

Sound Recordist

Jay Livingston

Songs

Mary Kay Dodson

Costume Design

Oscar Rudolph

Assistant Director

Gile Steele

Costume Design

Gordon Jennings

Special Effects

Wally Westmore

Makeup Supervisor

Gene Merritt

Sound Recordist

Emile Kuri

Set Decoration

Sam Comer

Set Decoration

Hans Dreier

Art Direction

Archie Marshek

Editor

A. Earl Hedrick

Art Direction

Robert L. Welch

Producer

Van Cleave

Original Music Composer

Charles Lang

Director of Photography

Farciot Edouart

Visual Effects

Francis Cugat

Color Designer

Michael D. Moore

Second Assistant Director

Ronnie Lubin

Script Supervisor

Reviews

John Chard

⭐ 7/10

September 2, 2019

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

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Fancy Pants (1950)

Harry Leon Wilson, Edmund L. Hartmann, Robert O'Brien

Where to watch

Top Billed Cast

Crew

Reviews

John Chard

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Status

Original Language

Budget

Revenue

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