Princess Tam Tam is a 1935 French black-and-white film which stars Josephine Baker as a local Tunisian girl who is educated and then introduced to Parisian high society. Baker sings two songs, "Dream Ship" and "Neath the Tropical Blue Skies", in the film, and dances a number of times.
Plot
Frustrated writer Max de Mirecourt goes to Tunisia in search of inspiration for his next novel and meets a local girl named Alwina whose personality intrigues him so greatly that he invents a character based on her for his newest novel. His relation with Alwina serves a dual purpose in that it also angers his wife Lucie who has been flirting with the Maharaja of Datane back in Paris. Max takes Alwina under his wing and teaches her the manners and social graces of a high-society princess. He then whisks her away to Paris and presents her as Princess Tam Tam from faraway Africa. Lucie is further enraged by all the attention that Alwina receives, and after a friend sees Alwina dance provocatively in the sailors' bar, Lucie calls upon her Maharaja to craft a plan which will destroy her husband's relation with "the princess." The Maharaja throws a grand party, inviting the upper crust of Parisian society. Alwina is unable to resist the exotic music, and promptly joins the large, staged dance number, embarrassing Max - until he realizes that the entire audience is on their feet, applauding Alwina. Lucie is furious. Lucie and Max forgive each other in the end and fall in love again, Alwina returns to Tunisia after the frustrating realization that, as the Maharaja puts it, "Some windows face to the West, and the others to the East." Ultimately, however, the entire European affair is revealed to be little more than an enactment of Max's novel-in-progress. Alwina never does go to Europe, and the primary events of the film are simply a staging of how Max has imagined them. Alwina is given Max's Tunisian estate, and Max's new novel is a success. The title of his new work is "Civilisation." When asked about Alwina while back in Europe, Max states that she is "better where she is." The film closes with a scene of Alwina and Dar back in Tunisia with their newborn child, with farm animals strewn about Max's mansion. In the final shot, a donkey eats the title page of "Civilisation" off Max's floor.
Cast
Josephine Baker as Alwina
Albert Préjean as Max de Mirecourt
Robert Arnoux as Coton
Germaine Aussey as Lucie de Mirecourt
Georges Peclet as Dar
Viviane Romance as Lucie's Friend
Jean Galland as Maharajah of Datane
Cast note:
The Comedian Harmonists, a sought-after German act which was later disbanded by the government of Nazi Germany, due to three of its members being Jewish, provided backup singing for the production number.
Although the film had a premiere in New York City, the Hollywood censors of the Hays Office refused to pass the film, which prevented it from being shown in the most theatres in rest of the country, although it did play independent theatres which catered to African-American audiences.
