There Goes the Bride

With a wonderful all-star cast and great plotline can't go wrong, but it did. I guess as a Broadway play this film would've run better, but as a film it runs really flat. Not even the wit of Tom Smothers can't save this picture from going down hill. Cameo of Phil Silvers, Broadrick Crawford (in a nothing role), and Jim Backus doesn't help either, also third bill Martin Balsam (who starred with Tom in SILVER BEARS the same year) has less scenes than Backus. Shot in Florida and U.k. (which explains why Graham Stark is in the film as an Italian(?)). Not recommended.

The cast is first rate with Tom Smothers as the troubled father of the bride on his daughter's wedding day. He becomes fixated on a cardboard cut out of a flapper played by Dame Twiggy. British Sylvia Syms OBE played his long-suffering wife. The late great Hermione Baddeley is worth watching just to see her act as the mother-in-law. It is supposedly based on the British comedy by Ray Cooney. While the cast is first rate, the film lacks believability in the father's belief that he is talking to Polly Perkins, a 1920s flapper in costume. It's silly comedy fair.

When a US movie has its first premiere overseas, as this one did, YOU KNOW something's amiss with the movie and that the producers were nervous about its US premiere. Not many US movies premiere first overseas and then are shown in the US, as this one was. The IMDb indicates that this movie was first shown in the UK, then premiered in NYC the following December. The movie attempts-horribly, I might add, to spoof those goofy, beloved depression era dance movies--specifically, the ones with Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire. Yup, there are truly awful dance sequences in this film! (Astaire would be turning in his grave!) Perhaps a better explanation would be that this is an example of a potentially "good" movie idea, but which was sunk by a bad script and horribly miscast. I can just see the producer pitching this idea: "Hey, why I've got this idea to parody the old dance movies using a card-board cut out of a Roaring Twenties flapper...I want Twiggy and Tommy Smothers for the principal roles..."

Smothers, who once upon a time was on the cutting edge of comedy, doesn't stand up well against his various co-stars. Playing a funny character in a movie is not the same as hosting a variety TV show. But that is not to completely blame the Tommy Smothers for this collosal dud: the script is vapid and lame. This movie appears to have employed a veritable "who's who" of once great '50-'60s out of work character actors, like Broderick Crawford, Jim Backus, and Maude's funny maid, Hermoine Baddeley (who, btw winds up stealing the movie with her funny expressions).

This movie, doubled billed on a 99 cent DVD, was renamed "There Goes the Neighborhood".

Hidden gem of a film. A charming comedy with some wonderful banter between characters and some great old fashioned laughs. Smothers and Balsam team up again after starring together in the 1977 caper Silver Bears. Smothers steals the show as the anxiety ridden father of the bride. Good performances all round with Smothers, Balsam, and Sumner leading the way.

A few flaws of course; I found the opening scene at the house a little tedious and the grandpa in the golf buggy was a bit cringe. The print quality of the DVD release I have is also quite poor. You might find the VHS release a better option.

Nice soundtrack with two charming vocal and dance performances from Smothers. The "Polly Perkins" performance is a real treat and that song is super catchey.

If you like the comedy style of Tom Smothers you'll surely enjoy this film.

There Goes the Bride is a very witless fantasy-comedy that is even more disappointing when you consider the cast: Tom Smothers, Twiggy, Martin Balsam, Broderick Crawford, Hermione Baddeley, Jim Backus, Phil Silvers, and Graham Stark. All have had better roles in better pictures or TV shows. None can save the very lame material here. I do have to admit to some charm concerning some dance moves by Smothers and Twiggy when they reenact Astaire and Rogers in their prime. Those scenes make the picture somewhat tolerable. There was even some amusement at the way it all ended. Otherwise, this movie is not even worth the $1.00 I paid for this DVD which was double billed with the mediocre It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time which featured a young John Candy. Avoid at all costs unless you're really curious.