The Half-Naked Truth

Flim-flamming carny barker Jimmy Bates (Lee Tracy) vows to turn a hooch dancer into a Broadway sensation. Since the hooch dancer is played by incendiary Lupe Velez, the screens Mexican Spitfire, its a good bet shes going to see her name in lights! To start, Jimmy passes off his protg as a Turkish princess and goes straight to the Imperial Suite at a posh Manhattan hotel. Now all he needs to generate a blitz of ballyhoo is a lion and 30 pounds of raw meat ordered from room service -- and in a New Yorkminute, the hooch dancer is a headliner. Gregory La Cavas (My Man Godfrey) direction and razor-sharp comic support from Frank Morgan, Eugene Pallette and Franklin Pangborn add even more sparkle to this effervescent Depression-era spirit-lifter. The HalfNaked Truth delivers delightful comedyplenty of laughs, and wonderful performance by Morgan as neurotic Ziegfeld-ish producer (Leonard Maltins Classic Movie Guide).