I'm always intrigued when a dramatic actor stars in a musical. 'Bottoms Up' is as close as Spencer Tracy ever came to starring in a musical ... but he doesn't sing or dance, and at this early point in his film career Tracy was still primarily a light comedian. The musical numbers here are eminently forgettable, and they aren't integrated into the plot.
'Bottoms Up' is a deft and breezy comedy that unfortunately borrows most of its premise from Kaufman and Hart's first collaboration 'Once in a Lifetime'. The rest of the premise is based (without screen credit) on one of the practical jokes staged by real-life Hollywood gagster Charles MacArthur, who once palmed off a handsome young filling-station attendant as a prominent English playwright, and fooled a major Hollywood studio into putting this young 'genius' on the payroll for a year (at a high salary) as a screenwriter ... even though the petrol-pumper couldn't actually write.
In 'Bottoms Up', Tracy plays Smoothey King, a wiseguy publicist who just barely operates within the law. His pal 'Limey' (English-born character actor Herbert Mundin) is a forger with a prison record, looking for some easy money. Smoothey meets Wanda Gale, an attractive young blonde Canadian working as a movie extra, who has a convincing cut-glass English accent. Smoothey promptly touts Limey and Wanda as members of the British peerage, who are visiting America but who would never stoop to work in motion pictures. Naturally, the studio offers a contract to Wanda on the publicity value of her (fake) title, and soon this 'lady' is being groomed for stardom. Meanwhile, Limey is acting like an autograph hound, collecting the signatures of Hollywood figures who don't realise he's a forger! Mundin is excellent here: if not for his untimely death in a road accident, he might have become one of the most memorable character actors of Hollywood's great studio era.
Smoothey finds himself attracted to Wanda. Meanwhile, she stars in a film with matinée idol Hal Reed (played by John Boles, who was a little too unbelievably handsome). Naturally, Wanda falls in love with Hal. Around the periphery of this is a bright performance by Sid Silvers, a very talented gag writer whose second career as a screen actor never took off, due to his unappealing face and physique. Harry Green, the Jewish equivalent of Stepin Fetchit, is less offensive than usual in his role here as an excitable film producer named Louis Baer. (A clear dig at Louis B. Mayer.) Robert Emmett O'Connor does his usual sourpuss gumshoe routine. Thelma Todd is attractive in a small role, and John Boles sings pleasantly. 'Bottoms Up', with its cheeky title, is well-directed by David Butler, one of the most underrated directors of Hollywood's studio era. This movie is harmless candyfloss, and I'll rate it 6 out of 10.
