BOTTOMS UP

 

BOTTOMS UP is a 1934 comedy-musical produced by Fox, starring Spencer Tracy (before he went over to MGM and became a major star). 

Tracy plays con man Smoothie King, who arrives in Hollywood with all sorts of big plans. He gets together with his pals Limey (Herbert Mundin) and Spud (Sid Silvers), and hatches up a scheme involving an aspiring actress named Wanda Gale (Pat Paterson). Smoothie has Limey and Wanda pose as a British lord and his daughter, so they can get into Hollywood society. The ploy works, and Wanda gets a studio contract through matinee idol Hal Reed (John Boles). Smoothie starts to fall for Wanda, but she and Hal are becoming an item. 

BOTTOMS UP is a decent enough diversion, but the comedy is rather slight, and the musical numbers are not all that memorable (both Pat Paterson and John Boles get to sing). Much of the story is taken up with the relationship between Wanda and Hal. With Wanda being a newcomer trying to break into the movies, and Hal being a disillusioned star turning to drink, the story anticipates the original A STAR IS BORN, which was made a few years later. 

Spencer Tracy, as always, makes the material much better than it should be. He has a James Cagney-type of role here as the fast-talking Smoothie, who manages to take advantage of any situation that comes up. It appears that the film was inspired by the great musicals made by Warners in the early 1930s, but it lacks the pace and the gritty attitude of those productions. If this movie had been made at MGM a few years later with Tracy, the ending would have certainly been very different (let's just say that Smoothie doesn't really get what he wants). 

Pat Paterson is best known now as the wife of Charles Boyer. She's acceptable enough as a woman posing as a British aristocrat (she was an Englishwoman, after all), but she seems too dignified for a musical comedy. It's ironic that John Boles is playing an actor who is fed up with his silly roles, because I get the feeling Boles himself probably wasn't too happy with what he had to do here. Herbert Mundin and Sid Silvers are amusing enough as the comic relief. Silvers also worked on the film's script, along with its director, David Butler. 

Thelma Todd, as studio star Judith Marlowe, once again does a lot with little screen time. Judith Marlowe is hammy and egotistical, and she's quite jealous of Wanda. Todd's exaggerated hoity-toity accent is a hoot, and she has far more screen presence than Pat Paterson does. One wishes that the movie focused mainly on Spencer Tracy and Thelma. Film geeks will notice Robert Emmett O'Connor, playing (what else?) a studio cop. Suzanne Kaaren (who would later be in THE DEVIL BAT with Bela Lugosi) plays a studio secretary, and Lucille Ball is supposed to be in this somewhere as a chorus girl (I honestly didn't notice her). 

John Boles and Thelma Todd in BOTTOMS UP

Harry Green plays studio chief Lewis Wolf, and he gives a very broad caricature of a movie executive who is an immigrant from the old country. As in most Hollywood movies about Hollywood, BOTTOMS UP doesn't have much good to say about the industry. The people involved in it are not portrayed in an appealing manner, and the people in charge seem unable to run a two-car parade. 

The main reasons to watch BOTTOMS UP are Spencer Tracy and Thelma Todd.