Here Comes the Groom **½ (1951, Bing Crosby, Jane Wyman, Alexis Smith, Franchot Tone, James Barton) – Classic Movie Review 10,360

Director Frank Capra’s 1951 musical romantic comedy Here Comes the Groom stars Bing Crosby as singing newspaper reporter Pete Garvey, a foreign correspondent who works in a Paris orphanage. He decides to adopt two of the Paris war orphans, so, returning back to Boston, he needs his old fiancée Emmadel Jones (Jane Wyman) back as a wife or the adoption will be void, even though she is now on the point of marrying rich Boston dude Wilbur Stanley (Franchot Tone).

It was 1951 and Capra’s touch had faltered by now. But, with Bing Crosby on fine form, this nice musical comedy gets by on the cast, its guest stars (Dorothy Lamour, Louis Armstrong, Phil Harris and Cass Daley as themselves) and the numbers, including Hoagy Carmichael (music) and Johnny Mercer (lyrics)’s Best Original Song Oscar-winner ‘In the Cool, Cool, Cool of the Evening’, sung by Crosby and Wyman.

Also ‘Your Own Little House’ (Jay Livingston / Ray Evans) is sung by Bing Crosby, ‘Misto Cristofo Columbo’ (Jay Livingston / Ray Evans) is sung by Bing Crosby, Louis Armstrong, Cass Daley, Dorothy Lamour and Phil Harris, and ‘Bonne Nuit (Goodnight)’ (Jay Livingston / Ray Evans) is sung by Bing Crosby.

It is written by Virginia Van Upp, Liam O’Brien and Myles Connolly, from a story by Liam O’Brien (story) and Robert Riskin (story and treatment ‘You Belong to Me’).

James Finlayson’s uncredited cameo as a drunk is his final film role.

Also in the cast are James Barton as Emmadel’s father William Jones, Connie Gilchrist as Emmadel’s mother Ma Jones, Walter Catlett as Mr McGonigle, Ellen Corby as Mrs McGonigle, Robert Keith as newspaper man George Degnan, Alan Reed as Walter Godfrey, Minna Gombell as Mrs Godfrey, Alexis Smith as Wilbur’s cousin Winifred Stanley, H B Warner as Uncle Elihu, Ian Wolfe as Uncle Adam, Nicholas Joy as Uncle Prentiss, Maidel Turner as Aunt Abby, Adeline De Walt Reynolds as Aunt Amy, Jacques Gencel as Bobby, Beverly Washburn as Suzi, Anna Maria Alberghetti as Theresa, Frank Hagney as Passenger on Airplane, and J Farrell MacDonald as Husband on Airplane.

Crosby arranged for the film’s world premiere to be held in Elko, Nevada, on 30 July 1951, raising $10,000 for the Hospital Building Fund.

It is a Paramount Pictures film, shot at Paramount Studios, 5555 Melrose Avenue, Hollywood, in black and white.

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 10,360

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