"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".
