Emergency Wedding [Jealousy] * (1950 Larry Parks, Barbara Hale, Willard Parker, Una Merkel, Alan Reed, Eduard Franz) – Classic Movie Review 11,546

Director Edward Buzzell 1950 comedy feature film Emergency Wedding (Jealousy in the UK) stars Larry Parks and Barbara Hale. It is a contrived, artificial and mediocre remake of the not specially impressive You Belong to Me, which featured Larry Parks in a bit part. Nice though Larry Parks and Barbara Hale are, they prove little competition for their illustrious predecessors Barbara Stanwyck and Henry Fonda.

Larry Parks plays millionaire Peter Judson Kirk Jr, who is insanely jealous of his doctor-wife Dr Helen Hunt (Barbara Hale) because he thinks she is spending too much time with her male patients. When he tries to show she’s guilty of infidelity, she leaves him. But then…

There are one or two amusing lines in Nat Perrin and Claude Binyon’s screenplay, and the actors carry on valiantly enough, but there is no real comedy spark or sparkle, and nothing stops this being lame material. It is is light-hearted, but not in a good way.

The cast are Larry Parks as Peter Judson Kirk Jr, Barbara Hale as Dr Helen Hunt, Willard Parker as Vandemer, Una Merkel as Emma, Alan Reed as Tony, Eduard Franz as Dr Heimer, Irving Bacon as mechanic Filbert, Don Beddoe as floorwalker Forbish, Jim Backus as Ed Hamley, and Vince Gironda as Gym Guy.

Parks and Hale previously starred together in the very successful The Jolson Story (1946).

Samuel Lawrence ‘Larry’ Klausman Parks (December 13, 1914 – April 13, 1975).

After this, Samuel Lawrence ‘Larry’ Klausman Parks (December 13, 1914 – April 13, 1975) had a spectacular fall. Parks’s career virtually ended when he admitted to having once been a member of a Communist Party cell, which led to his blacklisting by all Hollywood studios. In 1951, he was summoned to appear before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) and eventually gave them the names of his former colleagues.

Parks married actress Betty Garrett in 1944 and, after Parks eventually left the film industry, he occasionally acted on stage and TV, and the couple formed a profitable construction business. Parks was godfather to Jeff Bridges. He made a couple of films in the UK: Tiger by the Tail [Cross-Up] (1954) and Freud: The Secret Passion (1962), his final film role.

Derek Winnert 2021 Classic Movie Review 11,546

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