When the dictator of a South American country is shot and killed on the eve of Americans coming to make a ten million dollar loan, his aides, including Lloyd Nolan, hire actor Akim Tamiroff to play the dead man until the money is in their hands. Tamiroff is being pursued by a Surete officer for murder. Beautiful Patricia Morrison complicates Nolan's attitudes, as Mary Boland does Tamiroff's.
It's a cute story that has been done many times since Charles Booth wrote the original of this, and Tamiroff has a wonderful time in a rare title role. It's directed by Robert Florey with all the programmer trappings that Paramount put into its routine productions, but Nolan, as the central character, gives a performance in a role that he clearly decided didn't suit him, especially as he was leaving Paramount anyway. He looks positively oily in the early scenes. Ralph Forbes is perfectly cast as the stuffy American who comes south to give away money, and Steffi Duna gets to dance up a storm.
It's a cute story that has been done many times since Charles Booth wrote the original of this, and Tamiroff has a wonderful time in a rare title role. It's directed by Robert Florey with all the programmer trappings that Paramount put into its routine productions, but Nolan, as the central character, gives a performance in a role that he clearly decided didn't suit him, especially as he was leaving Paramount anyway. He looks positively oily in the early scenes. Ralph Forbes is perfectly cast as the stuffy American who comes south to give away money, and Steffi Duna gets to dance up a storm.