Love in the Rough

Clerk Jack Kelly goes for the green -- and the girl -- when his golf-crazy boss discovers he's the municipal links champ. Faster than a caddy can pull a six-iron from the bag, Jack is installed at the boss's country club, courting an heiress and challenging the effete elite for the club championship.

Robert Montgomery stars in this remake of the William Haines/Joan Crawford silent Spring Fever, bringing his infectious charm to the comedy scenes and his engaging tenor to the musical numbers, most notably Dorothy Fields and Jimmy McHugh's "Go Home and Tell Your Mother." And that cutie who plays his sweetheart's pal? She's Dorothy McNulty, aka Penny Singleton, who became the screen's beloved Blondie Bumstead.

A remake of the 1927 William Haines comedy SPRING FEVER, LOVE IN THE ROUGH was designed as a musical, though virtually all the songs were cut from the final release print (we see a chorus of secretaries typing rhythmically in the opening scene, yet this obvious song cue is cut short with nary a note). Robert Montgomery steps into the Haines role as Kelly, a shipping clerk who poses as an executive to gain access to a ritzy country club. Here he boasts of his prowess as a golfer, hoping to win the heart of heiress Marilyn (Dorothy Jordan). Amazingly, our hero bluffs his way into a golf tournament -- and wins, with the help of Jewish caddie Benny (Benny Rubin). If second lead Dorothy McNulty looks familiar, she should: eight years later, under her new nom de film of Penny Singleton, she starred in Columbia's BLONDIE series.