Ambassador Bill
Brief Synopsis
Cast & Crew
Sam Taylor
Will Rogers
Marguerite Churchill
Greta Nissen
Tad Alexander
Ray Milland
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
United States ambassador Bill Harper, formerly a cattle king from Oklahoma, arrives in the Balkan country of Sylvania amidst an outburst of revolutionary street fighting. Battles have been erupting in Sylvania with great frequency since King Lothar abdicated and left the country because he thought his wife, Queen Vania, had been unfaithful to him. Although nominally headed by Lothar's eight-year-old son Paul, the country is actually ruled by Prince de Polikoff, the prime minister, who plotted to get rid of Lothar. Bill's defiance of court etiquette does not bother the queen or Paul, but he infuriates de Polikoff and the first secretary of the U.S. legation, Elton Montgomery. De Polikoff and Montgomery want to prevent Bill from negotiating a commercial treaty with Sylvania because the interests they represent have gotten rich selling supplies to Sylvania. After Lothar, who has entered Sylvania disguised as Bill's pilot, visits Vania to try to reconcile with her, she allows him to kiss her but then orders him to leave. He hides at Bill's house and, with Bill's connivance, escapes de Polikoff's sentries. Bill wins Paul's affection after teaching him baseball, sportsmanship and lasso tricks. During the visit of the pompous U.S. Senator Pillsbury, Bill is caught in a compromising position with de Polikoff's blonde cohort, Countess Ilka. He is asked to resign, but before he is to leave, Lothar announces plans for a revolution. While the fighting goes on, Bill and the senator are captured and ordered to be shot. They escape to a cafe, where the senator gets drunk and, as senators are apt to do, makes a speech. Meanwhile, Paul, anxious to lead his troops, escapes his bedroom with a toy airgun, which Bill gave him. Bill sees Paul through a window and, just as an enemy is about to fire on the boy, lassoes and rescues him. De Polikoff's forces are beaten, the treaty is signed, and the queen and Lothar, through mutual worry over Paul, are reconciled.
Director
Sam Taylor
Cast
Will Rogers
Marguerite Churchill
Greta Nissen
Tad Alexander
Ray Milland
Gustav Von Seyffertitz
Arnold Korff
Ferdinand Munier
Edwin Maxwell
Ernest Wood
Tom Ricketts
Theodore Lodi
Herbert Bunston
Ben Turpin
Crew
Guy Bolton
Alfred Bruzlin
Duncan Cramer
Guy Duty
Alexander Kahle
Walter Mayo
John Mescall
Irving Rosenberg
Harold Schuster
Roger Shearman
Harkness Smith
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
The working title of this film was Dollar Bill. The film was re-issued by Twentieth Century-Fox on October 16, 1936. Will Rogers also played the role of a U.S. ambassador to an imaginary kingdom in the two-reel 1924 film A Truthful Liar, produced by Hal Roach and distributed by Pathé.
