Love in the Rough

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.