Although Ambassador Bill depends a wee bit too much on the folksy charm of Will Rogers it's still a good introduction to the person who may well have been America's most beloved entertainer. The film also gets a few interesting, but dated barbs at a few topics of the time.
Twenty years later Irving Berlin went over some of the same material in Call Me Madam about an Oklahoma heiress who became a European ambassador. Rogers is an Oklahoma cattle baron who's been appointed an ambassador to the mythical Balkan kingdom of Sylvania. It's being ruled by a boy king Tad Alexander with his mother Marguerite Churchill as regent. In charge of the regency is Gustav Von Seyfertiz and he's our Snidely Whiplash villain.
A little bedroom escapade forced the abdication of the former king Ray Milland and he's coming back to reclaim family and kingdom.
While Milland plots counterrevolution, Rogers teaches the young king about such plebeian pursuits as baseball. He also gets him a cowboy suit and teaches him the art of rope tricks. All this is not making Von Seyfertitz happy as he sees his control slipping.
Providing a convenient target for some of Rogers's amusing barbs is Ferdinand Munier playing a flannel-mouth Senator on an inspection tour. He's a wonderful performer essentially being Rogers's straight man.
It's not the best the work of Will Rogers, but it still is amusing providing you have a knowledge of the world it was made in.
Twenty years later Irving Berlin went over some of the same material in Call Me Madam about an Oklahoma heiress who became a European ambassador. Rogers is an Oklahoma cattle baron who's been appointed an ambassador to the mythical Balkan kingdom of Sylvania. It's being ruled by a boy king Tad Alexander with his mother Marguerite Churchill as regent. In charge of the regency is Gustav Von Seyfertiz and he's our Snidely Whiplash villain.
A little bedroom escapade forced the abdication of the former king Ray Milland and he's coming back to reclaim family and kingdom.
While Milland plots counterrevolution, Rogers teaches the young king about such plebeian pursuits as baseball. He also gets him a cowboy suit and teaches him the art of rope tricks. All this is not making Von Seyfertitz happy as he sees his control slipping.
Providing a convenient target for some of Rogers's amusing barbs is Ferdinand Munier playing a flannel-mouth Senator on an inspection tour. He's a wonderful performer essentially being Rogers's straight man.
It's not the best the work of Will Rogers, but it still is amusing providing you have a knowledge of the world it was made in.