There Goes the Groom

I love old films...absolutely love 'em. However, I am not so infatuated with old movies to ignore that occasionally the studios made a turkey...and "There Goes the Groom" is just awful.

Burgess Meredith plays an oddball who goes off to Alaska to make his fortune--leaving his fiancée (or a lady he THINKS is his fiancée) behind. However, when he returns, she's engaged to someone else and she barely remembers him. But, when she and her slimy family learns that he is now very rich, they fall all over themselves trying to suck up to him and rob him blind. The only one who doesn't is the nice sister (Ann Sothern) and she soon becomes engaged to him. But through the course of the film, he sees that her family is just evil and mercenary and so to get out of the marriage, he pretends to have amnesia!! At this point, the film becomes just god-awful, as Meredith pretends (very broadly) to be crazy and incapable of marrying her.

The writing, acting and direction are all poor. As for the acting and writing, the only character that worked well was Sothern's. She was believable. Meredith came off as some bozo and the family just seemed boorish and unbelievable. An amazingly dopey film towards the end and an embarrassment for all involved...and perhaps part of the reason Meredith never became an A-list star!

Let's say this right off: Mary Boland is in this! Mary Boland could liven up virtually any movie. Here she is meant to be an annoying mother-in-law-to-be. We aren't annoyed by her, though. She's too delightful.

Probably best remembered for her standout performance in "The Women," Boland could also play real, beloved characters, as in "Pride and Prejudice." Local TV used to show "Ruggles of Red Gap" all the time, but it has disappeared. Who can ever forget her pretentious American in France, speaking of the "HOTE-a-MOHN-day"? Burgess Meredith is in it also. He had a great deal of talent, which I have seen for the most part wasted in unimaginative scripts. He was magnificent, though, in "Of Mice and Men." And Ann Sothern. That sly, witty, beautiful comedienne! She isn't cast ideally either, playing a teenager with stars in her eyes (at least at the movie's start.) This isn't going to hit many best-lists. But the stars make it well worth watching.

Backdrops. Backdrops. Lots of fake outdoor scenery locations used. This was only the second thing the Penguin, I mean Burgess Meredith ever did, and he stars as prospector Dick Matthews, returning home to claim his girlfriend. Ann Sothern was a seasoned film star by now, and plays "Betty Russell". Louise Henry is her sister Janet. Their mother is played by Mary Boland, who was hilarious as "The Countess" in The Women one year prior. They all end up at a dance, where things start to go haywire... of course, this is an RKO shortie, so we don't have a lot of time to sort things out. Clever script and good chemistry between the actors keep things moving quickly for most of the film. Things get wacky, and Matthews isn't sure who he wants to marry anymore. It does start to get silly near the end, as everyone is scheming and fighting. Fun way to spend an hour.

Burgess Meredith gives a good effort as a newly minted millionaire rushing home from the gold fields of Alaska - only to find his sweetheart engaged to a stodgy doctor. Ann Sothern is the sweetheart's kid sister who always had a crush on Burgess. Will he notice her this time around?

Sothern is the nominal star of this comedy-romance but mostly finds herself playing it straight to a bunch of other screwballs. Mary Boland is moderately amusing as the girls' bossy mother; unfortunately, her character is mostly annoying rather funny. William Brisbane as a cash-hungry brother and Onslow Stevens as the dull doctor are equally unfunny.

One bright spot is Roger Imhof as Meredith's gold mining buddy, an old prospector type who has tagged along home and offers Meredith advice, mainly of the let's-get-out-of-here-and-go-back-to-Alaska variety. Imhoff gets most of the picture's best wisecracks.

It's a decent enough plot if not particularly original. However, the characters here - especially the two leads - are a little short on believable motivations. Meredith is indifferent to Sothern, and then suddenly he is engaged to her, and then...

Burgess Meredith is actually quite fun to watch, especially in the sequence where he pretends to have amnesia. More interaction between him and Sothern might have made this picture more believable and more fun too.