(This review discloses the story)

It's rural America at the start of the 1930s and the visiting carnival isn't doing well. The townspeople have money but they're not buying tickets and circus owner The Colonel (Robert McKenzie) fires his loud-mouth but ineffective press agent Lou (James Donlan). Equally loud-mouthed James 'Jimmy' Bates (Lee Tracy) talks his way into succeeding. He tells the shocked residents that exotic dancer Teresita (Lupe Velez) was fathered by one of them last time the circus came to town, and will reveal the name when she drops her seventh veil tonight. They buy in droves, but the wily Sherrif (Charles Dow Clark) tricks drunk strong-man Achilles (Eugene Pallette) into revealing that it's a scam.

Jimmy Bates has always promised Teresita the big time in New York. As the sherrif moves in to make arrests there's an epic fight between everyone. Jimmy, Teresita and Achilles steal a car, escape, and arrive in New York. Soon enough Jimmy Bates bluffs the manager of a grand hotel (Franklin Pangborn) into giving the trio the best suite, with Teresita re-styled as a Turkish princess. He blags his way to top burlesque theatre owner Mr Farrell (Frank Morgan), and soon Princess Teresita is dancing on top of Farrell's bill and possibly, in the privacy of her suite over dinner for two when Jimmy's away, more. Jimmy photographs Farrell - who is a bit of a buffoon - kissing an olive into Teresita's mouth. It's not just business blackmail. Bates is cross because, hard-man image aside, there'd been an undercurrent of love between Teresita and him.

Achilles - Jimmy Bates has put him down in the register as the Princess's eunuch - takes an interest in chambermaid Gladys, aka Ella Beebee (Shirley Chambers). Bates invents a stunt in which she is naked Eve in a park in New York with a following of bearded nudists. He works the press into a story and, in a trice, Gladys is number one in Mr Farrell's theatre. Teresita is out, Jimmy's star ascends further - he's Mr Farrell's chief publicist. Achilles pines for the simpler life and when the Colonel puts the circus up for sale he buys it. Jimmy Bates tells him he's wasting his time. Secretly, Teresita goes back to her old job with the circus. After a few weeks, Bates is given a telegram by his secretary Miss Flowers (Bess Flowers). It's from Achilles, asking for his help. Will he throw in fame (and fractional boredom) at the pinnacle of power for a return to his roots, and the sake of friendship?

The film concentrates on the mechanism of publicitity stunts, and the collusion involved. As Bates gets the press in to photograph the Princess watching a lion devouring 30 pounds of meat in her suite, a press man (Brooks Benedict) admiringly comments on the lineage of that particular stunt. Press at the nudist camp ask if it's another stunt. In both cases, they print the story straight. Everyone - except the public who embrace all wide-eyed - expects to be conned. As Jimmy Bates foils with Mr Farrell, Farrell only half-protests - he'll go with anything Bates does, whether against him or not, so long as the box-office rockets.

There's a couple of tricky moments for an audience 80 years on. Bates brusquely dismisses Teresita's black maid Emily (Theresa Harris). It just skims over the 21st Century threshold by reading as brusque because she's a maid (only social snobbery, phew), rather than because she's black, but it's close. Also, he shouts at Teresita, pushes her, treats her with contempt. At the start, she tries to shoot him. When she's depicted as a Turk, it's as an exotic - some would say the same stereotyping that has subsequently led America to its criminal war against Iraq. The rendering just avoids mention of Islam, though there's a near reference concerning one of her dances. So, some aspects of the script, and the mood of how people treat each other, are not particularly in tune with contemporary film writing and audience sensitivities, which may account for the film not being widely shown in recent years. It re-emerged on Finnish TV in 2003, titled The Turkish Princess, and was translated into Italian and Catalan.

Lee Tracy evokes energy, bottled-up and un-bottled anger and guile in scheming slimy conniving Jimmy Bates. Lupe Velez delivers Teresita and The Princess with elegance in song and dance moves, and a gloriously exotic-Continental encapsulation of how Americans thought - and still perhaps think - 'foreigners' (people who don't live in America) might be. Eugene Pallette delivers Achilles as slow-witted and sincere, with a slow-burning and quietly very funny characterisation. Gregory La Cava directs the story as a well-interlocked series of encounters between the characters, usually highly antagonistic. It generally shifts along at a good pace without dull spots, and there's a couple of good large pieces - crowd scenes in New York, and the fight at the start which, though not particularly original, raises the action level. The special effects do look like models now (a toy plane in particular), but they work fine, supervised by Harry Redmond Sr. Cinematography, by Bert Glennon, in 1.37:1 aspect ratio, feels oddly modern, despite the poor condition of the print (hair in the projector gate at one point), and crisply framed. Editor Charles L Kimball cuts to emphasise pace and action. Sound, by John E Tribby, hasn't survived well, the volume and audibility is fine but the tonal range is sharp. The film reflects a book - The Anatomy of Ballyhoo: Phantom Fame - on the scam in publicity, by David Freedman and epic publicist of the day Harry Reichenbach.

Credits Source: www.imdb.com/title/tt0022971/ at 7 August 08.

Cast Credits (in credits order): Lupe Velez - Teresita. Lee Tracy - James 'Jimmy' Bates. Eugene Pallette - Achilles. Frank Morgan - Farrell. Shirley Chambers - Gladys, aka Ella Beebee and Eve. Franklin Pangborn - Hotel Clerk. Robert McKenzie - Colonel. Mary Mason - Farrell's Secretary. Rest of Cast (alpha order): Frank Austin - Country Man in Audience. Brooks Benedict - Lion Gag Congratulator. Charles Dow Clark - Sheriff. James Donlan - Lou, Press Agent. Bess Flowers - Miss Flowers, Bates's Secretary. Theresa Harris - Emily, Teresita's Maid. Thomas E Jackson - Marshall, Farrell's Assistant. Si Jenks - Country Man with Beard in Audience. Cyril Ring - Phillips. Henry Roquemore - Man With Guilty Conscience. Cliff Saum - Ticket Seller. Max Steiner - Conductor.

Company & Crew Credits: Director - Gregory La Cava. Writing Credits - (alpha order): Bartlett Cormack; Corey Ford - Writer; David Freedman - Writer of book 'The Anatomy of Ballyhoo: Phantom Fame'; Gregory La Cava - Writer; Ben Markson - Story; Harry Reichenbach - Writer of book 'The Anatomy of Ballyhoo: Phantom Fame'; HN Swanson - Story. Pandro S Berman - Associate Producer. David O Selznick - Executive Producer. Original Music by / Musical Director - Max Steiner. Cinematographer - Bert Glennon. Film Editor - Charles L Kimball. Sound Recorder - John E Tribby. Special Effects Supervisor - Harry Redmond Sr. Production Company - RKO Radio Pictures. Distributor USA Theatrical - RKO Radio Pictures (1932). Distributor USA TV - C&C Television Corporation (1955). Runing Time - 77 min. Country - USA. Language - English. Colour - Black & White. Aspect Ratio - 1.37:1. Sound Mix - Mono (RCA Photophone System) Release Dates: USA - 16 December 1932, Finland - 2 April 2003 (TV premiere). Also Known As: Phantom Fame - USA working title; Turkkilainen prinsessa - Finland; La Verità seminuda - Italy; Veritat a mitges - Spain, Catalan title. Song: 'Hey Mr Carpenter', singer - Lupe Velez, piano Lee Tracy.

END

John Park

reviewed Wednesday 6 August 08 / Riverside Studios, London

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