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.
Acting
Hope and Ball's electric, underrated comedic chemistry.
Costume
Ball's extravagant frontier fashion is pure camp delight.
Production
Roosevelt visit subplot adds unexpected political farce.
Director
George Marshall
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
Colin Keith-Johnston
Lord Twombley
Joe Wong
Wong
Ida Moore
Elderly Mother
Oliver Blake
Mr. Andrews
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
This was Hope and Ball's second pairing; their first, 'Sorrowful Jones' (1949), was a massive hit that studio rushed to replicate.
The 'fake English butler' trope here parodies postwar American anxiety about European sophistication—a comedy of inferiority complexes.
US
