Hot Curves (1930) is a weird, dusty baseball time capsule

If you like those old movies where the actors talk like they’ve got a mouth full of marbles and the baseball scenes look like they were filmed in a park across the street, you might actually dig this.

It’s called Hot Curves.

Most people today would probably turn it off after five minutes because the audio is kind of scratchy and the rhythm is all over the place. ⚾

But for the rest of us, it’s a fun little time capsule about a guy named Jim who plays ball and thinks he’s way more important than he actually is.

Rex Lease plays Jim, the star with the big head.

He has this way of looking at the camera that makes you want to trip him in the middle of a play.

He’s dating the manager’s daughter, because of course he is. That’s just how these scripts worked back then.

The manager is played by Paul Hurst, who looks like he’s perpetually about to have a heart attack over his team's performance.

The real reason to watch—or maybe the reason to avoid it, depending on how much you like vaudeville—is Benny Rubin.

He plays the 'comic relief' pitcher who is a great thrower but a terrible catcher.

There is this one scene where he’s trying to catch a ball and he looks like a confused penguin lost in the outfield.

It’s 1930s humor, so it’s very physical and sometimes a little too loud for its own good.

Cinematic perspective: Exploring the visual vocabulary of Hot Curves (1930) through its definitive frames.

He’s dating a girl who the movie describes as 'odd,' and yeah, she definitely is. Her energy is just... different.

I kept thinking about Dangerous Curve Ahead just because the titles are so similar, but this is much more of a locker room story.

There’s this one shot where they’re in the dugout and you can clearly see the painted backdrop behind them. It doesn't even try to look like a real stadium.

It’s so obvious it’s a set, but it adds to the charm if you're into that sort of thing.

The baseball stuff itself isn't very realistic at all.

The way they throw the ball looks like they’re trying to skip a stone across a pond rather than pitch in the majors.

Jim’s ego gets so big he loses the girl, and honestly, she’s probably better off without him.

Greta Granstedt plays the daughter and she has these very wide, expressive eyes that do most of the acting.

She spends a lot of time looking disappointed in the corner of the frame.

I liked the locker room talk, even if it feels a bit staged and stiff.

It reminds me of the silliness you find in Call of the Cuckoo, just with more bats and gloves.

Wait, did I mention the hats?

Cinematic perspective: Exploring the visual vocabulary of Hot Curves (1930) through its definitive frames.

The baseball caps are so tiny and sit so high on their heads. They look like they’d fall off if the players even thought about running to first base.

The movie doesn't really try to be deep or 'profound.'

It’s just a simple story about how being a jerk makes you lose your friends.

There is a bit near the end where things get "serious" and the music gets all dramatic and heavy.

It feels a bit unearned because the rest of the movie is so goofy.

But then Benny Rubin does something stupid again and we’re right back to the comedy.

If you're looking for a masterpiece of cinema, you should probably look elsewhere.

But if you want to see how they did sports movies before they had big budgets or slow-motion cameras, give it a go.

It's definitely better than Dodging Trouble, at least in terms of the energy the cast brings.

The pacing is weird though.

Some scenes drag on forever, like the one where they’re just sitting around talking about stats that don't matter.

Then other scenes, like the actual big game, feel like they’re over in a flash.

It’s a bit messy and the ending is predictable as heck.

But I liked it for what it was. A dusty, weird, loud relic from a time when baseball was king.