The Groom Wore Spurs (1951)

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.

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.

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.

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