Le fond de la bouteille

This one looks like it's almost lost in the mists of cinematic antiquity, since it doesn't appear to be available on video in a widescreen DVD. About the only place to catch it is on the FOX MOVIE CHANNEL, which occasionally hauls it out of the vaults for a letterboxed showing(e.g., currently during the month of June 2005).

Henry Hathaway was a particularly congenial director when it came to using the CinemaScope frame effectively and his cinematographer on this one, Lee Garmes, did some effectively moody work on the interiors and some first-class use of the exterior locations, as well, including what looked like a sequence that was difficult to shoot - at night in inclement weather on a river bank with floodwaters raging. Joseph Cotten, in a fairly unsympathetic role, led the cast, along with Ruth Roman as his wife. Also among the thespians were Jack Carson and Van Johnson, who was, not for the first time, quite convincing as a man whose addiction to alcohol was a primary focus of the fairly sardonic script by Sydney Boehm. One thing that sticks in my mind, so many years after seeing this film on a theater screen during its first release, is the fact that Peggy Knudsen, playing a rich married woman of the contemporary American southwest, is seen behind the wheel of a Mercedes-Benz 300SL "gullwing" roadster, one of the most desirable upscale cars of that era and an unimpeachable choice to display her character's privileged status.

Woke up in the early-AM with the opening credits to this film just rolling on the screen. Tired as I still was, I couldn't take my eyes off of it and watched the whole thing. Beautifully-shot. Script sensitively handles both Van Johnson's character's alcoholism and the familial-strife at its roots - very adept for it's day. Capably acted by all.

And I agree with previous comments: Ruth Roman is someone whose career is deserving of a serious re-visiting. She rarely seemed to get choice parts, but always managed to impress. Indeed, some of the films she was in may have been bad but from what I've seen, SHE was never the reason.

Here is yet another example of a good, solid 1950's film that is wrongfully ignored/neglected for the simple reason that it doesn't star "Marilyn," "Marlon," or "Audrey".

On the surface Bottom of the Bottle seems like it could be really interesting. I like movies that show the middle 50's, there's a really nifty house with a kitchen right out of a mid 50's design book, it is beautifully shot with some nice scenery outdoors.

The key for me to really enjoy a movie is when I get hooked into the characters. I have to be interested in them, worried about them, find them likable or appealing even if in a sinister way. This movie fell flat for me because frankly I didn't much care for any of the characters. I guess I felt a little sorry for Ruth Roman, the wife who wanted children and her husband (Joseph Cotten) wouldn't 'give' her any... but Joseph Cotten just isn't the kind of person you can generate much warmth for. He's about as appealing as a first-aid cabinet. I like Van Johnson - usually - but his character here is a jerk even when he's sober. While his love and concern for his family makes him seem a little more human, I just couldn't empathize with him. He and Joseph Cotten, brothers in the story, never seemed very brotherly to me and between them it's hard to say which one I cared less about.

What happened to the horses when they crossed the river? I guess they were both just washed away and nobody cared? I didn't like that. They were Cotten's horses; the least he could have done was ask 'are they all right' and look pained when he found out what happened, but not even a mention.

If you want to watch a movie that shows some dysfunctional family life in the middle 50's including people battling the bottle and other demons, I would suggest the real gem 'No Down Payment'. I think it's ten times the movie that this one is. For me, this one is a yawn. If I hadn't been exercising during the time it was on it would have been a total waste of my time. I'll give it five stars because it's not BAD bad, but it's just not that good either. It's just a so-what movie.

While not quite a masterpiece or a classic, The Bottom Of The Bottle is involving, suspenseful, and watchable. Like many movies of the era filmed on location, especially those made by director Henry Hathaway, it uses the atmosphere and landscape to get you involved. It's hard to picture this story taking place anywhere else (though it's based on a novel that took place in France).

Van Johnson heads the cast as an escaped convict and an alcoholic, who ends up at the doorstep of his older brother (Joseph Cotten), an affluent lawyer in Nogales. Arizona, during the aftermath of a big rainstorm that has caused the local river to rage and flood its banks. Johnson needs to get across to Mexico, where his wife and children are waiting, down to their last cent.

As a prominent attorney, it would be career suicide for Cotten to help his brother to leave the country. He seems cold and unfeeling, but after all, he has his own life to think of. It turns out, though, that years ago, he had a chance to help his brother (who's innocent) and didn't. He has become a shell of his former self, and his wife (Ruth Roman) realizes they're living a kind of half-life, partying and socializing with the other well-off people in town, in a kind of substitute for real happiness.

Eventually their friends (who have met Johnson, whom Cotten has passed off as someone else) realize Johnson is the escaped convict they've all become aware is in the area. But he has escaped into the wilderness, and is going to try to cross the turbulent river waters - even though he's gone back to drinking, in his desperate state. What happens from then on, you'll have to see.

Van Johnson is pretty great - he was an actor who played for charm, usually, and created a kind of familiar, laid back personality that he used in a lot of his roles. But here he has to create a completely different character, that you might expect to see played by a different type of actor.. And he pulls it off. Cotten, also, plays against type, and does it well. They don't really seem much like brothers. There's roughly a 10 year age difference, and they're different physical types. But being good actors, they make it work.

The great Lee Garmes photographed in CinemaScope, and the screenplay is by Sidney Boehm. Though somewhat turgid and heavy, the movie keeps you going and has a suspenseful last quarter and a satisfying pay off.

Usually Van Johnson is cast as a nice guy next door, the kid from just around the block who just happens to be around when everybody wants to dance--and in many ways, he was the happy simpleton to June Allyson's perky plans, or played off Esther Williams by just being nice and attractive in a chubby way. Here, Johnson earns his chops as an escaped convict with a severe drinking problem who runs to his brother for help only to meet the same brick wall the two of them built growing up. The brother, played coldly by stolid Joseph Cotten, is a wealthy rancher, but has problems of his own, having married for reasons never quite made clear, but mired in a long-time childless relationship with svelte, intelligent Ruth Roman, here, as in so many films, holding an anchor on some out of control emotions. Except for what I felt was an unnecessarily saccharin final five minutes, the plot zips with some intensity along the Mexican-American border, and the assured direction of veteran Henry Hathaway assures the viewer of a Cain-Abel story with modern ranch trimmings. Johnson, who passed away in 2008, could always be relied upon to be an easy leading man in musicals, from Two Girls and A Sailor, In The Good Old Summertime (with Judy Garland), but also served well in wartime dramas Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo and Caine Mutiny; in this film, however, Johnson stretched his talents beyond the usual and turned in his most distinctive role.