Love in the Rough

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.