Love in the Rough

1930 ComedyMusic 84 minutes Directed by Charles Reisner

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About Love in the Rough

Mr. Waters finds that his shipping clerk Kelly is a champion golfer and pays him for two weeks at an exclusive club, coaching Waters for a match. Kelly’s friend Benny comes as valet and caddy. Kelly falls for Marilyn, whose father is rich. Rumors make him the head of a big shipping firm. Waters tells him not to let the lie stand. He and Marilyn elope. On the wedding night he confesses and leaves. Next day, at the competition, he plays badly until Marilyn’s father, pleased to have a golfer for a son-in-law, puts them back together. Kelly wins.

Cast & crew

More about Love in the Rough

Charles Reisner directed. Sarah Y. Mason, Joseph Farnham, and Robert E. Hopkins wrote the screenplay from Vincent Lawrence’s 1925 play Spring Fever. It is a musical remake of the 1927 silent Spring Fever. MGM released it on 6 September 1930. It runs 84 minutes. Robert Montgomery is Kelly. Dorothy Jordan is Marilyn. Benny Rubin is Benny. J. C. Nugent is Waters. Penny Singleton is Virgie. Tyrell Davis is Tewksbury.

Themes

  • A clerk paid to coach his boss
  • A false name at the country club
  • A wedding-night confession and a match the next day
  • golf
  • Robert Montgomery
  • country club
  • Spring Fever
  • MGM
  • shipping clerk
  • pre-Code

Making

Reisner keeps the 1925 play’s trick: a clerk hired to fix a rich man’s golf, then trapped by the story that he owns the firm. The 1930 version adds songs the silent film did not have.

Music

Songs were added for this musical remake. The 1927 Spring Fever, from the same Vincent Lawrence play, was silent.

Preservation

An 84-minute print survives.

Notes

  • It is pre-Code, released before the 1934 crackdown.
  • Penny Singleton, later Blondie, plays Virgie.
  • Allan Lane, Catherine Moylan, Clarence Wilson, and Roscoe Ates are also in the cast lists.
  • The silent Spring Fever (1927) used the same Lawrence play.
  • Benny’s cover at the club is valet and caddy, not member.

Scenes

  • Waters hires Kelly for two weeks and a match.
  • The club decides the clerk is a shipping magnate.
  • On the wedding night he tells Marilyn the truth and walks out.
  • Her father wants a golfer in the family, and Kelly wins the competition.

Influenced by

  • Spring Fever (Vincent Lawrence, 1925)
  • Spring Fever (1927 film)

Also available

  • Wikimedia Commons (Love in the Rough (1930).webm)

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