Featuring Bob Hope and Lucille Ball, plus a few musical numbers thrown in for good measure, FANCY PANTS ($15) is a fine and funny reworking of the Charles Laughton comedy classic. Thanks to Bob and Lucy’s efforts, FANCY PANTS features a lot of good slapstick moments, funny lines and some delightful sight gags. In FANCY PANTS, Bob Hope portrays Arthur Tyler, a hambone American actor stranded in England, who is portraying an English butler in a play. When the entire stage company is hired to recreate their stage roles a fortune hunting British noble, Tyler’s "English Butler" finds himself with a Stateside job offer, thanks to Effie Floud (Lea Penman), a social climbing nouveau riche American, who wants Tyler to add a bit of polish to her uncouth husband Mike (Jack Kirkwood) and tomboy daughter Agatha (Lucille Ball). Of course, a misunderstanding has the New Mexico townsfolk believing that the new addition to the Floud household is an English Earl, which attracts the attention of President Teddy Roosevelt (John Alexander), who will be passing through the territory.

Paramount Home Entertainment has made FANCY PANTS available on DVD in a very nice looking transfer that frames the movie in its proper 1.37:1 full screen aspect ratio. The image usually appears quite sharp and rather nicely defined. Colors are bold, nicely saturated and give an excellent indication of what an original IB Technicolor print would have looked like. Blacks are accurate, whites are crisp and the picture produces smooth contrast. While not perfect, the film elements are in great shape for a movie over half a century old; displaying few signs of age related anomalies, or other damage, and little grain. Digital compression artifacts are always well contained.

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FANCY PANTS comes with a decent Dolby Digital monaural soundtrack. For the most part, noticeable traces of background hiss have been cleaned up in the mastering process. Fidelity has all the expected limitations, but nothing is ever particularly harsh or brittle sounding. In a few places, there are some mild distortions in the track, but for the most part, the sound holds up rather well. Voices are cleanly rendered and the dialogue is always completely understandable. No other language tracks are provided, but English subtitles have been included. The basic interactive menus allow one access to the standard scene selection and set up features. No supplements have been included on the DVD.

FANCY PANTS is a funny movie that will appeal to movie buffs, as well as fans of Bob Hope and Lucille Ball. The DVD looks quite good and sounds okay, so you really can’t go wrong in that area. Considering online discounts, the disc can practically be had for a song.

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Fancy Pants (1950)

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