The Groom Wore Spurs

It's kind of hard to believe that Ginger Rogers could possibly have been interested in Jack Carson. This film could have been a whole lot better with Lucille Ball or even Joan Davis who plays Ginger's roommate and confidante in the title role.

The Groom With Spurs casts Ginger as a lawyer and daughter of a famous man of the bar who is just starting to make a name for herself. Until she gets Jack Carson as a client and then she winds up marrying him.

Carson is his usual bloviating blowhard self and he plays a movie cowboy who does little on the screen but mouth dialog. He's got a big gambling debt to Stanley Ridges over in Nevada where it's legal and therefore one can sue. So he hires Rogers as an attorney and winds up marrying her.

For Carson this is a perfect role. And Ginger tries to mold him to be more like the screen image she and rest of a America know. It's not going to be easy, but he gets an opportunity in real life to show what he's made of.

All I can say is those films he did do give him some indication of what a hero is supposed to be.

To be a classic this needed a classic comedienne. Ginger is all right in the part, but what Lucille Ball could have done.

Jack Carson is a singing cowboy star who can't sing, can't ride, and is afraid of guns. He can lose $60,000 to gambler Stanley Ridges. So his studio hires lawyer Ginger Rogers to negotiate with Ridges. But on spending the evening with him in Las Vegas, they get married. Ridges, who was a friend of her father, forgives the debt as a wedding present. That, it turns out, was Carson's plan all along. Miss Rogers decides, at the advice of roommate Joan Davis, to make a man of Carson.

It's one of those movies which are occasionally amusing without being actually funny. Miss Davis certainly tries, but the script goes from post-war, Code-compliant grouchiness to over-the-top frantic with no build-up. Everyone tries hard under director Richard Whorf (who makes an uncredited appearance as a motion picture director). Also appearing are John Litel, Victor Sen Yung, George Meader, Franklyn Farnum, and Ross Hunter.

Whoever or whatever is responsible, the flick's a flop. Maybe it's the hefty staff of 4 writers, each apparently in his own room with no inter-com; or maybe it's unsteady director Whorf soon to flee into TV; or maybe the trail's traceable to both camps. But whatever the case, the promising parody of a kids' cowboy hero who can't ride a horse, shoot a gun, or throw a punch, goes down the drain amidst a mish-mash of contrasting styles and themes. And pity poor Ginger Rogers looking lost in a role that defies description anywhere on planet Earth. Too bad Astaire's not in the wings. Nonetheless, the movie's potential is there with comedic actor Carson in the lead, along with stand-out Joan Davis adding her feisty bits. Unfortunately, their occasional bursts of nutty humor are lost among the off-putting mix of blackmail, jealousy, and murder. Too bad, since the flick's a real lost opportunity for its cowboy time, and even for today's space age.

(In passing - watch for soon-to-be, big-time producer Ross Hunter in minor role of Austin Tisdale. Check out his list of box-office biggies from late 50's through 1960's. So I guess the movie wasn't a complete failure.)

I am writing this only because there are no IMDb user comments at January 2008.

*

I got this and A Shriek In The Night 1933 because they are Ginger Rogers, no other reason.

Shriek has several detailed comments from people who know that era and they tend to rate it as okay entertainment as well as a useful example of the final days of one particular low budget production company. Also, a glimpse of Ginger before her RKO roles with Fred.

The only problem, for me, with Shriek is the sound quality. It gets in the way.

*

Groom as a bit more mature, and also with okay sound and vision. Still only 4x3 black and white, but it is still a carrier for Ginger.

This IMDb page does have a need for some reasonably well informed user comments.

"The Groom Wore Spurs" is a comedy romance that most who enjoy comedies should enjoy. It was made by a Poverty Row studio where Jack Carson could get lead roles from time to time. Carson was a very good actor, and played some wonderful supporting roles in comedies. And, Ginger Rogers, who has billing ahead of him here, was still making films for various studies during the years toward the end of the musicals in which she appeared, especially dancing with Fred Astaire.

The plot for this film is quite wacky, but not solid enough with a very good screenplay to make the grade as a screwball comedy. The script is very loose and not tightly written, and the direction and production leave room for much improvement. But Carson and Rogers do well together for comedy, and the dialog has just enough comedy to put this film over. It's not worth running out to buy, but if one comes across it on one of the TV movie channels, it can be a fun flick. It has no small amount of poking fun at the film industry for its hyping of stars.

In this case, it's Carson who plays Ben Castle, a celebrity Western cowboy star. He even needs help getting on a horse, and the only thing he likes about the West is chuck wagon food. Carson's public image has to be maintained, so he talks with a Western drawl. Ginger Rogers is Abigail (A. J.) Furnival, a young attorney, who gets mixed up with the carousing Castle to help him settle a gambling debt. Well, they get hitched quite soon, and the comedy starts after that.

Here are the best lines.

Las Vegas Hotel Desk Clerk, "Oh, uh, Mr. Castle." Ben Castle, "Hmmm?" Clerk, "If you are planning on entertaining any friends in the hotel this weekend, uh, remember hotel furniture costs money too."

A. J. Furnival, "No, that's all right. I trust you." Ben Castle, "You do?" Abigail, "Intrinsically.

A. J. Furnival, "Oh, he doesn't want a wife. He doesn't need one. What he needs is somebody to grab hold of him and make a man out of him." Alice Dean, A. J.'s roommate, "Well, don't they call those things wives?"

Alice Dean, "Don't you know the one way a woman can really get even with a man is by living with him?"

Mrs. Forbes, "Mr. Castle, I think you should be embalmed and I've just received notice." Ben Castle, still in bed, "Hmmmm?" Mrs. Forbes, yelling, "I've just received notice." Ben Castle, "Well, aren't you a little too old for the draft?" Mrs. Forbes, "I'm not talking about the draft, Mr. Castle. I've just been discharged." Ben Castle, "Already? But, hu.. how can you be discharged before you're drafted?"

Ben Castle, "Can I look sad in this picture? I feel happier that way. Oh, well."

Ben Castle, "You, uh, do you like chuck wagon food?" Abigail Furnival, "Mm hmm. You?" Ben, "It's the only thing about the West I do like."