Fancy Pants (1950)
Picture:
B- Sound: C+ Extras: D Film: B-
Bob Hope
had a much longer list of hit films than most filmgoers know today, and one of
the more interesting ones is Fancy Pants
(1950), a film that pairs him with Lucille Ball. The film is in Technicolor, taking advantage
of her glaring red hair long before color TV arrived and they are well matched
in the Edmund Hartmann/Robert O’Brien screenplay, based on the Harry Leon
Wilson story.
Butler
Bob knows high culture as if he was born with it, and he needs all the help he
can get. No matter how “fancy” she
dresses, it is obvious the new society lady (Ball) is not ready for prime
time. The twist is that our butler is an
actor and impostor, so insanity ensures.
This twists the Pygmalion
story (and original British feature film, now out on Criterion DVD) years
before the musical My Fair Lady
(1964). By the time the musical was a
hit, Lucy did a spoof on her full-color Lucy
Show, arriving with the same type of dog as seen in this film. Great in-joke!
After
this, it is amazing Ball was not a huge box office name, but in a few years,
she would be the Queen of TV and the Queen of Comedy, so even black and white
could not stop her. Some of the comedy
is obvious, but other moments have great comic timing and director George
Marshall deserves some of the credit. I
should also add that this is a lavishly produced comedy where the money is on
the screen. Paramount knew how to do up their biggest
stars.
The full
frame image is surprisingly clear and color correct, shot by cinematographer Charles
B. Lang Jr., A.S.C., in original three-strip Technicolor. This is one of the masters of such color
filmmaking and it shows. The three black
and white strips (the way all such films were produced until the mid-1950s)
align exceptionally well here, offering fine depth and clarity typical of the
format at its best at that point. The
Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono is not bad for its age, with all the dialogue and jokes
coming through just well enough. There
are no extras, not even a trailer, which is a surprise considering who the
stars are. However, this is a good
presentation of the film and is recommended for anyone who wants a good laugh,
no matter how politically incorrect it gets.
- Nicholas Sheffo
