Love in the Rough (1930)

The William Haines-Joan Crawford silent Spring Fever (1927) was remade with Robert Montgomery & Dorothy Jordan into this early talkie musical comedy which also features Benny Rubin J.C. Nugent and Penny Singleton (as Dorothy McNulty) among others. It was directed by Charles Reisner and features a screenplay by Joseph Farnham Robert Hopkins and Sarah Mason.

Jack Kelly (Montgomery) is Dave Waters’s (Nugent) shipping clerk. But after Jack and his assistant Benny (Rubin) break all the inventory Waters fires them. Then Waters discovers that Jack was the municipal park golfing champion and desperately needing help with his game he rehires them both and sets up Jack at his swanky country club to get some needed coaching. However once Jack and Benny who’s really a fish out of water (most anywhere) are checked in at the resort Jack sees and later meets a rich debutante Marilyn Crawford (Jordan) who quickly occupies all of his time. Singleton plays Virgie Wilson one of Marilyn’s friends. Waters learns of Jack’s preoccupation with Marilyn and warns his employee that he’ll not tolerate any fortune hunting but of course the two young lovers can’t help themselves.

*** SPOILERS ***

Jack and Marilyn elope and her father is furious until he learns that Jack is a champion golfer and then everything is O.K.. Father & daughter then follow Jack around the golf course as he competes against the club’s champion in a tournament. Guess who wins. Interesting note: it appears the old rules in golf didn’t require (or allow?) someone to move (e.g. mark) their ball if it ended up in front of someone else’s on the green. This fact adds the only suspense to the match’s outcome.

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