Love in the Rough

"Love in the Rough" is a cute little comedy-musical with a golf club setting, starring a callow Robert Montgomery (who sings and dances!). The first hour is quite winning, though the plot bogs down a bit in the latter reels. There is a nice visual fade at the very end, so keep watching. The film has a surprising immediacy since it was filmed open-air on a real golf course rather than being studio-bound. And it provides a nice portrait of innocent courtship (just holding hands is considered pretty erotic).

The film is really a showcase for the comic talents of Benny Rubin, who is hoodwinked into being Montgomery's caddy. A lot of movie history books state that Rubin could not find work in the movies after the early 30s because he looked "too Jewish". Probably what they really mean is that his stereotypical Yiddish character (God-given looks included) was offensive. Of course, Chico Marx, Henry Armetta, Mantan Moreland, etc., got away with coarse ethnic stereotypes for years, so maybe he was really offensive to the moguls. Anyway, he has plenty of entertaining shtick to display in this picture, the highlight being a hilarious Yiddish palaver with another Jewish caddy. He's also menaced by a crude Italian greenskeeper. The politically incorrect portrayals are trumped by Roscoe Ates's incredible take on stuttering. In this movie, he takes his "art" to the extreme (he even gets Young's character to catch the bug). The dancing – much of it comedic – is fine, especially an interlude by one Earl "Snake Hips" Tucker.

One thing that really gets my goat is the writers' obvious ignorance of golf. They think that yelling "fore" means to be quiet, and that if an opponent's golf ball is blocking your putt, you have to putt around it! The latter leads to the climax, where the hero cleverly finds a way to overcome the obstacle.

Jack Kelly (Robert Montgomery) and his buddy Benny Leibowitz get in trouble with their boss, Mr. Waters. They get fired until Waters reveals that he desperately needs help with his golf game. Jack volunteers to help. Jack and Benny arrive at the country club. Jack is completely taken with wealthy wheat heiress Marilyn Crawford.

With the switch to talkies, there is a flood of musicals for the obvious reason. Not all of them are good. I really can't tell if the songs are any good. The white people do their white bread singing and flapper dancing. A few black folks add a dash of coloring. Well, the club is real and the exterior shots at Lake Norconian Club are grand. The comedy between Jack and Benny is mostly fine for old material although I'm not actually laughing. It's hard to grade sometimes. The romance is not much. I don't like when the actors become stationary. This is a lot of borderline takes.

Only three years before "Love in the Rough", MGM made "Spring Fever" with William Haines. Why would they remake a film so quickly? Well, Hollywood OFTEN did remakes only a few years later...but most importantly they did it in this case since the original was a silent and this Robert Montgomery version had sound. In fact, because it was a sound picture, a few songs were added as well to take advantage of the new technology.

When the story starts, Mr. Waters is being a very grouchy boss and starts firing employees for the littlest things. Soon you learn why....he's angry because his golf game stinks. However, when he learns that the employee he just fired, Jack (Robert Montgomery), is an excellent golfer, he re-hires him and begs him to help him improve his game.

Jack and his friend, Benny (Benny Rubin), arrive at the club to play some golf. And, instead of focusing just on his golf game, he's entranced by a lovely lady who is also there. Now, instead of putting all his attention on golf, he's obsessed with Marilyn (Dorothy Jordan).

In many ways, the original film, "Spring Fever" is a better film. Sure, it's a silent but it as also an exceptional silent...one of Haines' best movies. This remake, however, suffers for many reasons. First, the songs don't help the film and the people singing really were NOT singers but were being forced to be. As my daughter said..."they kinda sucked"! Second, and the biggest problem, is that the father-son relationship of the first movie was completely removed from "Love in the Rough". It's a shame, as it was the best aspect of the first film and really gave the film depth...and depth is NOT something you'd notice in "Love in the Rough". To make it worse, Benny Rubin was strictly added as comic relief...again, something they didn't have nor needed in the original. Overall, it's very slight and lightweight....not bad but also not all that good nor memorable.

The film is actually a musical comedy remake of the 1927 silent film "Spring Fever", which starred William Haines and Joan Crawford. Montgomery plays the part of wise-cracking shipping clerk Jack Kelly who gets a holiday at a resort courtesy of his employer when the employer learns that Kelly is a great golfer and the employer needs help with his own golf game. At the resort Kelly meets Marilyn Crawford, daughter of a wealthy industrialist, and the two fall in love. They elope with Marilyn believing that Kelly is wealthy too, but Kelly's conscience soon begins to bother him about the false pretenses under which he has married his new wife.

This movie lacks the poignancy of the silent "Spring Fever". Montgomery does a good job as Kelly, but nobody can really replace Joan Crawford as the leading lady. In fact, you get the feeling that this actress was hired for her musical talents - she is pretty good in the musical numbers - and then as audiences began to reject musical films in 1930, MGM cut a bunch of the musical numbers and was basically left with an ineffective leading lady in a film lacking a good plot. In the original, Kelly is marrying to up his station in life. In this film, Kelly falls in love with a girl who just happens to be the daughter of a wealthy man. This film replaces all of the drama of Spring Fever with a musical comedy style. The musical numbers are catchy, but the comedy is somewhat dated. Released in September 1930, it is a good example of how entertainment was transitioning from the Jazz Age into the Great Depression. Recommended for those interested in films from this time period.

Robert Montgomery may be only a shipping clerk, but he's a fine golfer. So boss J. C. Nugent wangles his a one-week pass at his glf club so he can win against Edwards Davis. Montgomery and Davis' daughter, Dorothy Jordan fall in love. But she thinks he's an important executive. What will happen when she finds out the truth?

This sound remake of 1927's SPRING FEVER hasn't aged well, even if you think that snobbery, gold, Benny Rubin's yiddisher comedy and a not-so-sparkling set of songs by Dorothy Fields and Jimmy McHugh; judging by its constant repetition, Metro must have thought they had a hit in "Go Home And Tell Your Mother". The acting is actually pretty good, With Penny Singleton, Allan Lane, Roscoe Ates, Clarence Wilson, and Ann Dvorak somewhere in the chorus line.