Comwayon
A Disappointing Continuation
Dana
An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.
SimonJack
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.
vincentlynch-moonoi
The good news is that this is the type of role that Bob Hope usually excelled in playing. It's not exactly his "coward" role, with which he could run away with a picture. But it's close -- in this case a British actor portraying a British servant, playing a British earl...this time a somewhat cowardly braggart. There's nothing wrong with Hope's performance here.And then there's Lucy, playing an American Western woman looking for a husband. As with Hope, it's a good performance.And, Bob and Lucy always were good together...and were here.So what's the problem? Well, many stories need a set up to get going. But the set up for this story lasts about 40 minutes, and that set up is only moderately entertaining. Once the Westerners mistake Hope's character for an earl, things pick up and the film gets relatively entertaining.It's also a rather lush production with high production values.The supporting cast here does okay...with the emphasis on "okay". Bruce Cabot wants to be Lucy's love interest, but of course Hope is in the way; Cabot was, in my view, a marginal supporting actor, although he often looked right for his parts. Jack Kirkwood plays Lucy's father; again, he does "okay". Lea Penman does fairly well as Lucy's overbearing mother. Clearly the studio wanted to save money here -- the supporting actors are largely unknown to the American audience.What I find interesting here is the wide division between reviews here. People either love this film or hate it. I'm more in the middle.BTW, this is somewhat of a musical. The songs sorta work, but it's pretty clear that Lucy is lip-syncing (to Annette Warren singing).Chase scenes can be funny...but 3 chase scenes in a row is a bit much.I'll give this film a weak "7"
theowinthrop
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.
Spuzzlightyear
Fairly tame Bob Hope and Lucille Ball vehicle here which starts out strongly then sort of arfs to a conclusion. Bob Hope is an actor who makes a living doing gawdawful English plays. When a young English man is trying to woo a American girl (played by Lucille Ball) he tricks her and her mother to come to his house for tea and meet his family, but it's not really his family you see, he has hired the actors of the English play to be his relatives! (Watch for the old guy playing the Father, he gives one hilarious unintelligible Cockney rant). The girl and Mother aren't impressed by the suitor, but they ARE impressed by Hope's Butlering, so he joins them in their homestead in America. But Ball's problems aren't over! There's another suitor, so Ball makes Hope a Duke from England who is another suitor.. Soon, all heck breaks out with fights, horse races, and uh, Teddy Roosevelt mixed up in there. While this movie DOES have a lot of heart, and is sure fun to watch Hope and Ball in action, the film sort of loses it in the final act, which is a shame, because I found myself laughing quite a bit during this movie (Hope's "3 against a 1000" story is classic), it's stupid ending doesn't really help much either, what was that all about?
