The Groom Wore Spurs (1951) User Reviews

The Groom Wore Spurs Review.

[Ben-Hibburd · 5/10 · 29 May 2017]

The Groom Wore Spurs is an Incredibly muddled film. Ginger Rogers stars as attorney Abigail Furnival, whose been assigned to a famous cowboy film actor Ben Castle(Jack Carson). Whose found himself in debt to a mob boss. Over the course of the case she begins to fall in love with him. The film has some structural problems, it goes from starting out as a mob film, then quickly changes Into a romantic comedy, then delves into slapstick, and finally back Into a mob film. These changes aren't seamless and feel jarring when the film switches between tones.

Both the screenplay and direction are uninspired and feels like the film was made on the whim of an Idea. Thankfully the shining part of the film is the acting and chemistry between Rogers and Carson. They are both charming and extremely likable and they play off each other with great sincerity. Their chemistry kept me engaged enough to see how the film played out.

Overall the film is fairly average, it's bringing nothing original to the table. the camera-work and cinematography are both passable. There's no real standout moment in the film which felt like the result of It's messy screenplay and structure. However it's a film worth watching once just for the two engaging performances between Rogers and Carson.

The Bride Wore Heels

[wes-connors · 5/10 · 1 May 2011]

Beautiful blonde lawyer Ginger Rogers (as Abigail "AJ" Furnival) arrives to help chubby cowboy star Jack Carson (as Ben Castle) get rid of a Las Vegas gambling debt. Obviously a fan of her client, Ms. Rogers falls in love at first sight, despite Mr. Carson admittedly being "a little slow on the draw." In fact, Carson hates horses...

This slow-moving star vehicle didn't advance or sustain anyone's career. Rogers and Carson are appealing but unlikely lovers. More sparks are generated between Rogers and Carson's handsome pilot James Brown (as Steve Hall). But "The Groom Wore Spurs" has moments, especially when hilarious maid Mira McKinney (as Mrs. Forbes) makes the scene. The nicely assembled cast includes future producer Ross Hunter (as Austin Tindale), a bank clerk being seduced by Joan Davis (as Alice Dean), and director Richard Whorf.

***** The Groom Wore Spurs (3/14/51) Richard Whorf ~ Ginger Rogers, Jack Carson, Joan Davis, Mira McKinney

Could have been better, never was going to be all that much

[vert001 · 5/10 · 13 September 2016]

THE GROOM WORE SPURS is the sort of low budget comedy that Hollywood turned out by the hundreds during its classical era (approx. 1930-1960). They were mildly funny (if that), contained no hidden meanings, had the definite virtue of being short, and often lacked the fast-pacing that such material desperately needed. That sizes this movie up to a 'T'. It only stands out by virtue of its stars. Jack Carson was on the upper tier of actors often seen in such material, but Ginger Rogers flew far above that level. Presumably the offers were thin for her at that point and she was getting itchy to do something. It had been a long time since Ginger had performed in anything as cheap-looking as THE GROOM WORE SPURS.

Still, she's fine in it, if nothing special. Carson is his usual blustering self (am I the only one who thinks he was far better in his rare serious roles such as A STAR IS BORN or CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF than he was in his more usual comedies?). Their love affair is even more implausible than usual. The ending takes a turn which suggests that the filmmakers had no idea how to fill out the allotted 80 minutes of film time. Joan Davis is almost entirely wasted (though admittedly I'm not a big fan of hers). If you're in the mood for a mild and completely innocuous comedy, this might be a decent choice.

Addendum: Several people have suggested that the movie would be better with Lucille Ball in Ginger's role. It seems to me that Lucy spent 15 years making movies like this without elevating them into anything special.

Relatively flat comedy

[Sycotron · 3/10 · 14 September 2008]

There are very few genuine laughs in this movie. For most of the running time I was somewhat amused. Overall the direction seemed pretty lackadaisical. Scenes that call for some quick cutting just sit there until they run out of steam. But still I did like to see Ginger Rogers and Jack Carson interact. They deserved better material. The film could have used more scenes with Jack Carson being shown up as the phony cowboy he was and that he did not aspire to be. Getting help mounting his horse was amusing and Jack does a nice job. Had they milked and added ideas such as that this could have been much more enjoyable.

Joan Davis provides some nice comic bits to enliven things. However the scene with her erstwhile boyfriend in which they work on an alarm clock thus making it ring at inopportune moments is just painful to watch due to the sheer mugging required. There again the direction is sorely lacking.

Light comedy that Ginger Rogers fans will enjoy.

[archi_cianfrocco · 7/10 · 15 August 2008]

Ben Castle is a Hollywood sensation as a singing cowboy, with his horse Pancho. But Ben can't sing, draw a gun or ride a horse. Heck - he even needs a step-ladder to get on Pancho! Ben seems to have bad luck gambling too, as he owes a $60,000 debt to Las Vegas gambler Harry Kallen. Hoping to find a way to settle the debt, he hires a lawyer - 'A.J.' Furnival, played by Ginger Rogers.

Ben and A.J. fly to Vegas to try to settle the matter. In just a few hours, Ben and A.J. get married. As a wedding present, Harry says the debt is forgiven. After that, we're treated with the ups and down of life married to a big-time celebrity. Things take a drastic change when an unexpected event changes everything.

A little comic relief is provided by Ben's house-boy, Ignacio, played by Victor Sen Yung. What we get from Ignacio is your stereotypical Chinese man for the time. By today's standards, some people might find this - and one scene in particular - very offensive. But back in the early 50's, it was considered funny.

The Groom Wore Spurs is a decent light, breezy sort of romantic comedy that Hollywood used to crank out all the time. What makes it special - for me at least - is the joy of being able to watch Ginger Rogers!Fans of her will really enjoy this movie and they made sure to have a scene where we get to look at Ginger's legs in high heels. Now isn't that reason enough to watch the movie? For me it is!

Okay Ginger

[annevejb · 15 January 2008]

I am writing this only because there are no IMDb user comments at January 2008.

*

I got this and A Shriek In The Night 1933 because they are Ginger Rogers, no other reason.

Shriek has several detailed comments from people who know that era and they tend to rate it as okay entertainment as well as a useful example of the final days of one particular low budget production company. Also, a glimpse of Ginger before her RKO roles with Fred.

The only problem, for me, with Shriek is the sound quality. It gets in the way.

*

Groom as a bit more mature, and also with okay sound and vision. Still only 4x3 black and white, but it is still a carrier for Ginger.

This IMDb page does have a need for some reasonably well informed user comments.

And the spurs punctured the tire, letting the air out of the plot.

[mark.waltz · 3/10 · 3 October 2013]

Long before the original generic product wrapper came tons of formula plots in comedies like this. Some of them were amusing, some of them were obnoxiously forced, but most of them were sadly unfunny. This B grade comedy with an A grade leading lady is sadly one of the later, one of those misfires which makes you wonder how its star got involved in it. In this case, it is Ginger Rogers and the titled groom is Jack Carson, recently free from Warner Brothers. Ms. Rogers was far from a has-been, but her presence in this has signs of desperation.

At first, this is a tale of two egos, she an attorney hired by him for legal advice, he a ham western movie star in trouble over gambling debts. They quickly fall in love and marry, but faster than you can say Merman and Borgnine, they realize what a mistake it was. But she isn't willing to let it go so soon and shows up just in time to prevent his bottle breakfast. An effeminate Asian houseboy and a butch housekeeper add to the complications as does the predictable murder of his bookie.

The waste of the extremely funny Joan Davis is the film's biggest crime. She has no real purpose here but to add a few wisecracks here and there, mostly towards herself. Charlie Chan's number two son, Victor Sen Young, has an amusing moment when he minces to a record on too high a speed. A finale threatening to rip off the hysterical Fuller Brush Girl never goes there, giving an ending that just lays there.

The lawyer rescues the phony Hollywood cowboy star

[SimonJack · 6/10 · 14 June 2022]

"The Groom Wore Spurs" is a comedy romance that most who enjoy comedies should enjoy. It was made by a Poverty Row studio where Jack Carson could get lead roles from time to time. Carson was a very good actor, and played some wonderful supporting roles in comedies. And, Ginger Rogers, who has billing ahead of him here, was still making films for various studies during the years toward the end of the musicals in which she appeared, especially dancing with Fred Astaire.

The plot for this film is quite wacky, but not solid enough with a very good screenplay to make the grade as a screwball comedy. The script is very loose and not tightly written, and the direction and production leave room for much improvement. But Carson and Rogers do well together for comedy, and the dialog has just enough comedy to put this film over. It's not worth running out to buy, but if one comes across it on one of the TV movie channels, it can be a fun flick. It has no small amount of poking fun at the film industry for its hyping of stars.

In this case, it's Carson who plays Ben Castle, a celebrity Western cowboy star. He even needs help getting on a horse, and the only thing he likes about the West is chuck wagon food. Carson's public image has to be maintained, so he talks with a Western drawl. Ginger Rogers is Abigail (A. J.) Furnival, a young attorney, who gets mixed up with the carousing Castle to help him settle a gambling debt. Well, they get hitched quite soon, and the comedy starts after that.

Here are the best lines.

Las Vegas Hotel Desk Clerk, "Oh, uh, Mr. Castle." Ben Castle, "Hmmm?" Clerk, "If you are planning on entertaining any friends in the hotel this weekend, uh, remember hotel furniture costs money too."

A. J. Furnival, "No, that's all right. I trust you." Ben Castle, "You do?" Abigail, "Intrinsically.

A. J. Furnival, "Oh, he doesn't want a wife. He doesn't need one. What he needs is somebody to grab hold of him and make a man out of him." Alice Dean, A. J.'s roommate, "Well, don't they call those things wives?"

Alice Dean, "Don't you know the one way a woman can really get even with a man is by living with him?"

Mrs. Forbes, "Mr. Castle, I think you should be embalmed and I've just received notice." Ben Castle, still in bed, "Hmmmm?" Mrs. Forbes, yelling, "I've just received notice." Ben Castle, "Well, aren't you a little too old for the draft?" Mrs. Forbes, "I'm not talking about the draft, Mr. Castle. I've just been discharged." Ben Castle, "Already? But, hu.. how can you be discharged before you're drafted?"

Ben Castle, "Can I look sad in this picture? I feel happier that way. Oh, well."

Ben Castle, "You, uh, do you like chuck wagon food?" Abigail Furnival, "Mm hmm. You?" Ben, "It's the only thing about the West I do like."

Movie Cowboy marries at the bar

[bkoganbing · 5/10 · 4 January 2014]

It's kind of hard to believe that Ginger Rogers could possibly have been interested in Jack Carson. This film could have been a whole lot better with Lucille Ball or even Joan Davis who plays Ginger's roommate and confidante in the title role.

The Groom With Spurs casts Ginger as a lawyer and daughter of a famous man of the bar who is just starting to make a name for herself. Until she gets Jack Carson as a client and then she winds up marrying him.

Carson is his usual bloviating blowhard self and he plays a movie cowboy who does little on the screen but mouth dialog. He's got a big gambling debt to Stanley Ridges over in Nevada where it's legal and therefore one can sue. So he hires Rogers as an attorney and winds up marrying her.

For Carson this is a perfect role. And Ginger tries to mold him to be more like the screen image she and rest of a America know. It's not going to be easy, but he gets an opportunity in real life to show what he's made of.

All I can say is those films he did do give him some indication of what a hero is supposed to be.

To be a classic this needed a classic comedienne. Ginger is all right in the part, but what Lucille Ball could have done.

One that will delight all five members of Carson's Hollywood Fan Club!

[JohnHowardReid · 7/10 · 16 July 2016]

I don't know how Ginger Rogers was prevailed upon to make a movie supporting the blustering, camera-hogging Jack Carson (who has all the best lines, the best camera angles and the best bits of "business"). She obviously didn't read the script beforehand. Ginger is also upstaged by Joan Davis and some of the character actors including Stanley Ridges and Mira McKinney. Nevertheless, she looks rather attractive in Peverell Marley's photography even though director Richard Whorf obviously doesn't like her and always indulges the egotistical Carson at her expense in just about every frame in which the two stars appear. The plot is also taken too seriously and tends to get in the way of the comedy. A further problem is that the movie seems to have been written on the run. There are some turns in the plot, particularly near the end, which those of us who know Hollywood realize could never ever happen in real life.

lame comedy

[malcolmgsw · 4/10 · 18 November 2019]

Ginger Togets was entering a dangerous age for a star.So presumably she was having to accept everything that was offered.She and Carson have no chemistry whatsoever in this mirthless film.Carson resorts to too much mugging to overcome the lack of laughter.

Flogging A Dead Horse

[writers_reign · 4/10 · 8 January 2012]

The most cursory glance at the CVs of the two leads will reveal sound projects both before and after this turkey - Rogers had just shot Storm Warning at Warners and would go on to Monkey Business with Cary Grant at Fox whilst Carson would land a plum supporting role in the best (Judy Garland) version of A Star Is Born three years later. So one can only guess at the desperation/insecurity both must have felt to get involved in this drek. Inconsistencies? Let me count the ways. We're asked to believe that Carson, a major cowboy star who has his own plane, complete with pilot, can't come up with sixty K to get a gangster off his back, that Ginger Rogers, a successful attorney, shares a small apartment with Joan Davis, that savvy, street-smart attorney Rogers would fall for and marry Carson on the strength of one 'business' meeting at his home and one evening together in Vegas. In fact Rogers and Carson made five films together at RKO and this one, at Universal, is the only time he ever wound up with her. This is definitely one to avoid.

Floppo!

[dougdoepke · 16 January 2022]

Whoever or whatever is responsible, the flick's a flop. Maybe it's the hefty staff of 4 writers, each apparently in his own room with no inter-com; or maybe it's unsteady director Whorf soon to flee into TV; or maybe the trail's traceable to both camps. But whatever the case, the promising parody of a kids' cowboy hero who can't ride a horse, shoot a gun, or throw a punch, goes down the drain amidst a mish-mash of contrasting styles and themes. And pity poor Ginger Rogers looking lost in a role that defies description anywhere on planet Earth. Too bad Astaire's not in the wings. Nonetheless, the movie's potential is there with comedic actor Carson in the lead, along with stand-out Joan Davis adding her feisty bits. Unfortunately, their occasional bursts of nutty humor are lost among the off-putting mix of blackmail, jealousy, and murder. Too bad, since the flick's a real lost opportunity for its cowboy time, and even for today's space age.

(In passing - watch for soon-to-be, big-time producer Ross Hunter in minor role of Austin Tisdale. Check out his list of box-office biggies from late 50's through 1960's. So I guess the movie wasn't a complete failure.)

An incredibly unlikely marriage!

[planktonrules · 5/10 · 10 June 2017]

Ben Castle (Jack Carson) is a big-time cowboy...much like Roy Rogers or Gene Autry. But he's also a complete phony. He hates horses, doesn't do his own singing and relies on stuntmen to do most of his tricks. And, he also seems really, really dumb...so dumb he's gotten himself into a deep hole due to his gambling. So he contacts a lawyer for help and A.J. Furnival happens to be a lady (Ginger Rogers). Soon, she's doing a great job with Castle...and Castle, out of no where, proposes to her. And, in a whirlwind romance, they marry. But soon it becomes obvious that Castle just isn't good husband material and A.J. regrets her decision. In the midst of this, out of the blue, comes a murder...and Castle is set up to take the fall! Can A.J. once again help her stupid hubby? And, can they actually make a go of their crazy marriage?

Often this film straddles the line between dopey and clever....and it doesn't always do this well (such as the pregnancy scene late in the film). While it's very watchable, it's also not exactly subtle or sophisticated....and the ending sequence with the plane was just terrible.