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HOT TO TROT
Rating: 
USA. 1988.
Director – Michael Dinner, Screenplay – Hugo Gilbert & Stephen Neigher, Story – Gilbert, Neigher & Charlie Peters, Producer – Steve Tisch, Photography – Victor J. Kemper, Music – Danny Elfman, Makeup Effects – Chris Walas, Production Design – William Matthews. Production Company – Warner Bros.
Cast:
Bobcat Goldthwaite (Fred Chaney), John Candy (Voice of Don), Dabney Coleman (Walter Sawyer), Virginia Madsen (Alison Rowe), Jim Metzler (Boyd Osborne), Cindy Pickett (Victoria Payton)
Plot: Following the death of his mother, bumbling idiot Fred Chaney inherits half of the family stockbroking firm and a horse. He is startled when the horse Don, which has learned to speak human, talks to him. Fred’s mother’s husband, the ruthless Walter Sawyer, offers Fred $525 for his half of the firm, but Fred decides he will manage it himself, and so Sawyer resolves to financially ruin him. But with the help of Don who has picked up valuable tips about the stockmarket from the brokers who visit the stables, Fred is able to make a success of the business, even further angering Sawyer.
The talking horse theme is one that has proven surprisingly popular on film. Hot to Trot is the most recent incarnation. It offers a reworking of all the gags that were done to death by Francis (1950) and sequels and the Mr Ed tv series (1961-6). It is a genuine puzzle what audiences possibly see in the single-gag idea of a talking horse, nevertheless Francis managed to produce six sequels and Mr Ed stayed on air for five seasons.
Hot to Trot is an excruciating one-note, one-joke effort that plumbs some truly abysmal depths. One comes out at the end totally stunned by the moronic mugging, blinking and gibbering of Bobcat Goldthwaite. Goldthwaite came to fame in the Police Academy films and it shall remain one of the great unsolved mysteries of the 1980s as to exactly how he has managed to end up on the wrong side of a psychiatric institution. Not quite as awful, but still pretty dumb is Dabney Coleman’s aggressive performance, which is okay in itself but for the fact that he has chosen to play it all through an ill-fitting pair of false buck teeth. Incredibly unfunny.
Copyright Richard Scheib 1999-2012
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