El rey del Oeste

Fancy Pants is a musical comedy remake of Ruggles of Red Gap in which Charles Laughton had one of his best roles in the 1935 version that was directed by Leo McCarey. To say that Bob Hope's interpretation of the English butler who went west is different from Laughton's is the difference from porterhouse steak to hog's livers to use one of old Ski nose's favorite expressions.

Not that Fancy Pants is bad, in fact it's very funny and definitely the best of the four films that Bob Hope made with Lucille Ball. Ruggles of Red Gap was funny, but it was also whimsical and dramatic in spots and it was about a shy and proper English butler who adjusts to the new environment in America he finds himself and in the process makes some real friends.

To begin with Hope isn't a butler, he's an actor and a clod of an actor who has the knack for spilling all kinds of liquid on fellow player Norma Varden. The whole company is hired by a guy who was posing as titled nobility to woo wealthy American Lucille Ball.

Unlike a lot of Hope's leading ladies, Lucy gets her innings, especially playing this Calamity Jane type. She and mother Lea Penman are touring the continent and Penman decides Hope is just the guy to put a little refinement into their home and incidentally make them the envy of their small New Mexico town.

One thing leads to another and Hope winds up having to pose as nobility himself when the townspeople are misinformed and President Theodore Roosevelt comes to town for a visit. That doesn't sit well with Bruce Cabot who has designs on Lucy.

John Alexander who was 'Theodore Roosevelt' in Arsenic and Old Lace gets a chance to play him for real in Fancy Pants. His scenes with 'Earl' Hope are classic. I also liked Eric Blore who played the unintelligible 'Earl' in Hope's repertoire company.

Though director George Marshall and stars Hope and Ball go for belly laughs rather than some wry chuckles, Fancy Pants holds up very well after almost 60 years. But if you are looking for Hope to try and out do Mr. Laughton, than don't bother with it.

Bob Hope and Lucille Ball were at the top of their careers when they made "Fancy Pants" in 1950. Both would stay at the top for three more decades. In this film, the two are joined by a supporting cast of several long-time performers for what appears to be a rollicking fun time with the process.

Hope plays an actor (Arthur Tyler) who plays a butler (Humphrey) who plays an English nobleman (the Earl of Brinstead). Ball plays Agie Floud, a wealthy young American Westerner. Joining the fun are Bruce Cabot as Cart Belknap, Jack Kirkwood as Mike Floud, Lea Penman as Effie Floud, Eric Blore as Sir Wimbley, and John Alexander as Teddy Roosevelt.

The movie is a hoot as the plot moves from a theater stage in London, to a train across America, to the Floud's hometown in the American Southwest. This comedy has a nice mix of funny lines, slapstick accidents, and silly to hilarious situations. It's a light piece of entertainment that the whole family should enjoy.

Bob Hope was at the height of his comedy career and reputation when he did FANCY PANTS. Unlike some of the other movies he made in the forties and fifties he actually had a female partner here who matched him as a comedian. Here it was Lucille Ball. Ball and Hope actually proved to be a good pairing.

FANCY PANTS is based on RUGGLES OF RED GAP. Instead of Hope being a genuine butler/valet he is an actor who is playing a butler/valet. Renamed "Humphrey" or Arthur Tyler, Hope is a dreadful actor. His company is performing a ramshackle mystery where he is the villain. The best part of this is Eric Blore as the head of the family, critically wounded in an assassination attempt by "Humphrey" the butler, who shouts out an incomprehensible and accusingly nasty string of words at "Humphrey" ending with the words "DEMNED LYING SCOUNDREL!!" Hope, frightened at being exposed, looks at the other angry cast members and says "He's lying!!".

The cast is hired by a fortune hunter using them to pretend to be his aristocratic family to impress the Flouds and marry their daughter. But the Flouds are not impressed except with "Humphrey" because he tried to overcompensate with his work as a butler when he kept stepping on the "performances" of the others. As a result, Mrs. Floud (Lea Penman) purposely trips him so that he is fired by the fortune hunter (and so Mrs. Floud can hire him).

Despite the suspicions of Mr. Floud (Jack Kirkwood) and daughter Agatha (Ball), Humphrey accompanies the family back to their western estate in the Arizona territory. The territory is looking forward to becoming a new state. Anything that would speed this is encouraged.

It turns out that President Theodore Roosevelt is visiting the territory. The townspeople are excited as it might assist them in pushing for statehood. But there is a misunderstanding: word that Agatha had been pursued by an English lord spread around, and when Humphrey showed up it was assumed he was the Earl of Burnley. The Flouds find they can't disavow this mistake and are forced to treat Humphrey as a potential son-in-law. To add to the natural anger of the Flouds at this error and it's attending problems of stomaching a now arrogant Humphrey, there is the danger from Cart Belknap (Bruce Cabot) a neighbor who has had a kind of understanding with Agatha about eventually marrying her. Everything comes to a head when the President (John Alexander) shows up. For a change Humphrey manages to portray his role perfectly - too perfectly. He boasts too much about his riding abilities, and ends up involved in a fox hunt with the President and the townspeople. To complicate matters, Belknap is double checking "the Earl" and is physically threatening him.

The changes in the script improve it, as the original movie had tedious stretches when nothing was happening to Ruggles and the other characters. There is more unity of actions and Hope's cowardly conniver is quite funny. For example, when he arrives in the west he gets lost and separated from his stagecoach. Suddenly Humphrey refuses to be realistic. Walking through several full puddles and ponds, he convinces himself they are all mirages. There is also a moment when, still believing Humphrey is the perfect butler, Agatha insists he help her fix her hair. Not knowing what to do Humphrey teases her hair upward into a "hive" style, and puts a bird in a cage into the center of it.

The film's structure is smoother even though it does not include the "Gettysburg Address" speech. The cast is quite good especially Hope and Ball, Blore (briefly), Cabot, and John Alexander reprising (this time "legitimately") his "Teddy Roosevelt" from ARSENIC AND OLD LACE.

Made over fifty years ago and still a treat to watch. A wonderful campy performance by Bob Hope,posing an an english Lord and Lucille Ball as a real tough western cowgirl really make this movie a lot of fun. Not to be missed is Bob as the english Lord describing his army exploits at a party.Bruce Cabot playing his usual bad tough guy keeps the movie on an even keel,but the laughs still come thick and fast mainly through Hope's attempt at an english accent. The one disappointing aspect was the finale,which seemed flat and made me wonder if the writers just couldn't be bothered with coming up with any more good lines. The late'40's and '50's were good film years for Hope and this movie shows why audiences kept coming back for more.

A rich American woman hires a British butler and brings him to New Mexico unaware that he's an American actor. A disappointing remake of "Ruggles of Red Gap," given the potentially potent teaming of Hope and Ball. The first segment of the film that takes place in Britain is so lame that it doesn't even elicit a chuckle. Once the action moves to New Mexico, there are a few laughs but the comedy is still labored. The funniest bit has to do with dogs chasing Hope instead of the fox during a fox hunt. Hope and Ball seem to be trying but the script is a dud. Alexander, who imagined he was Teddy Roosevelt in "Arsenic and Old Lace," plays the president here.