Bottoms Up

...from Fox and director David Butler. Spencer Tracy stars as "Smoothie" King, a fast-talking hustler who discovers unknown singing sensation Wanda Gale (Pat Paterson). He and his shady partners Spud (Sid Silvers) and Limey (Herbert Mundin) take Wanda out west to Hollywood, where they manage to get her a movie contract under dubious circumstances. Look for Lynn Bari and Lucille Ball among the chorines.

This is Tracy's one and only musical, although he doesn't sing. His slick huckster role is routine work for him, and could have been as easily assayed by James Cagney or Lee Tracy. I was unfamiliar with Pat Paterson, although I found her likable and with a pleasant singing voice. She married Charles Boyer this same year, and they remained together for 44 years. As for the songs themselves, most of which are performed on the sets of other fictional movies, they aren't very memorable.

Apart from the singing scenes, which I found a bit cheesy and felt was a slight downside of this movie, (and I don't care much for musical comedies in general), this one was very enjoyable. The story was good, the plot funny with some great lines "But if you're so smart, why did you make me lie down to tie my Bow Tie?... I used to be an undertaker's assistant!". Spencer Tracy was excellent but then again he's always great in whatever movie he appears in. His character was so sweet and charming and his self-sacrifice...Wow. The ending had me chocked up. I wasn't expecting that! An all around enjoyable old school entertainment.

David Butler's "Bottoms Up" has a funny plot, with a group of con artists trying to get a starlet a shot at the big time. Unfortunately, the musical aspect weakens the movie. Without all that, the movie would've been a typical enjoyable screwball comedy from the era. It also doesn't help that a Canadian character talks like an upper-crust English person. Any US citizen who knows a Canuck knows that our northern neighbors don't talk like Maggie Smith.

Other than that, it's a fun movie. Specifically, it's a pre-code movie, so there are a couple of steamy scenes (steamy for 1934, that is). There are the common jabs at Hollywood (the jealous actress, the hard-drinking actor, and the neurotic producer), and an uncredited Lucille Ball appears during the Katie sequence.

A piece of trivia relevant to the present is that Suzanne Kaaren (the producer's secretary) later lived in a property owned by Donald Trump. Trump wanted to tear it down but Kaaren refused to leave, and a court eventually ruled that Trump had to leave it up.

A down-on-his-luck promoter helps a young woman become a star. An early Spencer Tracy vehicle that is not without charm, but which is never as good as it could be due to some loose plotting and slack pace. Harry Green stands out amongst a likeable cast as a nervous movie mogul and Pat Paterson is a vivacious leading lady. Never thought I would see a Hollywood movie about the movie-making business that would mention Biggleswade, the English country town just five miles down the road from my home town.

A conman and his pals bulldoze their way into a studio and make a young girl a star by way of a deception. Harmless, except for a semi-musical the songs and production numbers are horrid, but run of the mill programmer would be forgotten totally if it wasn't headlined by Spencer Tracy. He's far better than the material as is Thelma Todd who lights up the film the few times she appears as a back stabbing starlet. It makes you wish the two of them had been teamed in a better script.