Hot Curves (1930) User Reviews

Fun, but not up to the level of the first Rex Lease/Benny Rubin film, SUNNY SKIES

[django-1 · 6/10 · 22 September 2003]

This is the second pairing of western/action-film/serial leading man Rex Lease and dialect comedian Benny Rubin for Tiffany Pictures in 1930, and it follows in the footsteps of their first film SUNNY SKIES, although it is not as well thought-out nor as charming as SUNNY SKIES. The setting this time is baseball (it was college football in the earlier film), and although the characters have different last names in this film, it seems as though we enter the film with their characters already established, although they are playing DIFFERENT people in a different environment. There are no songs here, no dancing, and not much of the pathos found in the earlier film. Although the handsome-popular gentile paired with the nerdy bumbling Jew was probably a well-established archetype in the vaudeville tradition by the time this film was made, I can't help but think of Lease and Rubin as a kind of earlier version of Martin and Lewis. That Jerry Lewis was aware of Benny Rubin can be inferred from the fact that Rubin appeared in small roles in a number of Lewis' solo films. People between 40 and 60 probably know Rubin best from his many appearances on Jack Benny's TV programs--those two probably played many of the same vaudeville houses together in the 20s and 30s. The supporting players are once again well-chosen (John Ince as the crusty team manager, Pert Kelton as Benny's girlfriend, Alice Day as the girl Rex foolishly ignores but eventually appreciates, Natalie Moorhead as the golddigger who teases and takes advantage of Rex), and Norman Taurog as always handles romantic comedy well (as he would do for decades after this!). See SUNNY SKIES first, but after that this film is worth watching too. The Rex Lease/Benny Rubin duo are still entertaining after 70+ years and these formulas are STILL being used today...but often not as well!

Doesn't stand the test of time very well

[the-antichrist-is-near · 5/10 · 6 February 2021]

Very slow starting, becoming increasingly more entertaining throughout, with more characters coming in and a bit more character development. Some entertaining gags and jokes pass by too, but it doesn't save from a very weak, almost weird, ending.

The basic story idea is sound but the film was way too rushed and this seriously compromised the picture.

[planktonrules · 6/10 · 22 February 2016]

"Hot Curves" is a film that made me a bit frustrated. While the basic story idea wasn't bad, the execution was awful...mostly because the story was so rushed and often made little sense as a result.

The film begins at a baseball training camp. Jim (Rex Lease) is a terrible pitcher but he somehow makes the team. Another new guy, Benny (Benny Rubin), appears terrible and out of place but WOW can he pitch! The two become roommates and instantly Jim becomes a star pitcher AND a totally conceited jerk-face. You don't see him winning any games...they just announce he's a star. You don't see a progression to jerk-face...he's just one the instant he meets a sleazy dame. Had there been some progression in both areas, it really could have been a much better film.

Everything comes to a head when Jim's sweet grandmother comes to see him. It's her birthday and he's supposed to spend it with her...but instead is out making time with his evil hoochie mama. Benny is a real stand up guy (as well as walking Jewish stereotype) and tries to cover for Jim but Jim is a drunk jerk-face and makes a fool of himself and uses Benny badly. The coach has had enough and suspends Jim indefinitely. Can Jim somehow redeem himself by the end of the movie? Will the nice girl manage to get through to this idiot?! What do you think!!

So what we have is an early version of a very familiar morality tale. You can see bits of this film in some of the Joe E. Brown pictures as well as "The Natural"...among other movies. But as I already mentioned, it all moves way too quickly and adding an extra 10-15 minutes to the story would have helped tremendously. Also, seeing baseball footage (other than at the very beginning and end) would have helped because it seemed little like a baseball tale during much of the film. Finally, although Pert Kelton was probably a nice person and was nice as the first Alice from "The Honeymooners", here she's rather annoying and easy to hate.

By the way, earlier in 1930, Lease and Rubin also made a nearly identical film but about football called "Sunny Skies".

America's favorite past time turns into sleepy time.

[mark.waltz · 1/10 · 2 June 2015]

Having grown up going to Pittsburgh Pirates games, I still recall the thrill of each game I went to. During the 1970's, the Pirates were the team to try and beat, but if they were as dull as this movie was, I would have switched my allegiance to the New York Mets. Even if the pirates are never identified by name, it is clear that this is supposed to be a professional baseball team, and Pittsburgh is indeed identified, the "P" very prominent on the uniform. It makes me wonder if somebody from the Pirates management got a hold of the script and refused to allow their name to be used, making this instead a generic baseball team rather than the real-life team that had existed in one form or another since the 1880's.

The opening scene has the management searching for a hot dog player who just happens to be Jewish. It reminded me of that song from the Broadway musical "Falsettos" where Jewish parents watch a little league game singing "We're sitting here watching Jewish boys who cannot play baseball play baseball". In this case, the hot dog Jewish baseball player is Benny Rubin, a vaudeville performer who was obviously a subject of his time and performed a sort of schtick that today is even far more dated than his Jewish contemporaries Eddie Cantor and Al Jolson. Rex Lease comes off somewhat better as his pal, his storyline at least more interesting while he's having an obvious affair with vampish Natalie Moorhead and caught by girlfriend Alice Day in spite of the fact that she's definitely the girl next door, loved by his granny (Mary Carr). Day has a crying fit towards the end of the film that makes nails down a chalkboard sound like Jeanette MacDonald, while Rubin is paired with comical Pert Kelton, utilized weakly here and much better years later when she utilized her Irish-American charm as the heroine's mother in "The Music Man".

Most of the plot seems to be truncated in order to give time for Rubin to do his vaudeville routines, and the only real action comes along when Rubin is believed to have been killed in a plane crash. The final scene is melodramatic and over-the-top, making me wish for Gary Cooper to appear and teach the Pittsburgh team a thing or two about making a great baseball story by reciting Lou Gehrig's speech more than a decade before he did in "The Pride of the Yankees". Made by Tiffany studios, this comes off more as Woolworth's, the baseball diamond definitely a cubic zirconia. Historically, this may seem to be more important than it actually is because it was one of director Norman Taurog's first feature films after having directed a series of silent shorts. I wish this one was a lot shorter. Pardon the baseball pun, but I felt like yelling "Short! Stop!" so this would end long before the hour long length that creaks by like the intermission between a double header.

It's a shame about the songs!

[JohnHowardReid · 7/10 · 8 November 2012]

Norman Taurog, Benny Rubin and Rex Lease made a follow-up movie of sorts to "Sunny Skies" (1930) called "Hot Curves" (1930) in which the voice-troubled Marceline Day has only a very small role. This one is not a musical (although that was the original intention) but a straight romantic comedy-drama with a baseball background and a few good laughs at the expense of air travel. Rubin is much more restrained in this one – and much more likable! The lovely Alice Day is the romantic lead while the inclined-to-overact Pert Kelton plays Rubin's sweetheart. Mary Carr is along to do her grandma routines, Natalie Moorhead rates as just perfect as the short-haired blonde with fast fingers and faster heels, while way-down-the-cast-list John Ince impresses in a major role as the baseball manager. Paul Hurst has a nothing role which seems to have been added after the movie was finished. He doesn't interact with any of the principals. And the good news is that this movie also is now available on a very good Alpha DVD. However, it runs only 64 minutes despite the fact that the copyright length is given 7,893 feet, which translates as 87 minutes. Both AFI and IMDb credit Sol Violinsky and Dave Silverstein for "music and lyrics", although there are no songs in the presently available 64 minutes version. My guess is that they were removed before the movie went into general release because audiences were no longer in a mood for song and dance.