Princess Tam Tam

Infobox Film | name = Princess Tam Tam


caption = "Danish film poster"
director = Edmond T. Gréville
producer = Arys Nissotti
writer = Pepito Abatino, Yves Mirande
starring = Josephine Baker
Albert Préjean
Germaine Aussey
music = Jacques Dallin
cinematography = Georges Benoît
editing = Jean Feyte
distributor =
released = November 2, 1935 (French release)
runtime = 77 min
language = French
budget =
imdb_id = 0026891

"Princes Tam Tam" is a 1935 black-and-white film which starred Josephine Baker as a Tunisian local girl who is introduced to Parisian high society. Baker sings two songs in the film.

Plot

Max de Mirecourt (Albert Préjean), a frustrated writer, goes to Tunisia in search of inspiration for his next novel. He meets a local girl named Alwina (Baker) who's personality intrigues Max so greatly that he invents a character based on her for his newest (and 'most exciting') novel. His relation with Alwina serves a dual purpose in that it also angers (or at least highly annoys) his wife Lucie (Germaine Aussey) who has been flirting with the Maharajah of Datane (Jean Galland) back in Paris. Alwina is taken under Max's wing and taught the manners and social graces of a high society princess. She is then whisked away to Paris with Max and pretends to be Princess Tam Tam, from far away India. Lucie is only further enraged by all the attention that Alwina receives and calls upon her Maharajah to craft a plan which will destroy her husband's relation with "the princess." Lucie and Max forgive each other in the end and fall in love again. Alwina returns back to Tunisia after the frustrating realization that, as the Maharajah puts it, "Some windows face to the West, and the others to the East." This is an obvious reference to the extreme orientalist tendencies of society Paris at this time.

Cast

*Josephine Baker as Alwina
*Albert Préjean as Max de Mirecourt
*Robert Arnoux as Coton
*Germaine Aussey as Lucie de Mirecourt
*Georges Péclet as Dar
*Viviane Romance as Lucie's Friend
*Jean Galland as Maharajah of Datane