mike48128 Review of Here Comes the Groom

Here Comes the Groom (1951)

I'm a Sucker for Old Capra Movies-Good but not Great

[7/10 · 20 January 2017]

Within the first 15 minutes the viewer already knows that Bing is going to get his girl, which takes the movie down a notch. Not exactly a musical, but Bing manages to sing a few. Most annoying opus is Cole Porter's "In the Cool, Cool, Cool of the Evening" which gets sung-to-death. Bing plays Peter Garvey, an American newspaper corespondent stationed in France while his fiancé is back home. She finally loses her patience and sends him a "Dear John" homemade phonograph record while he visually imagines her every word. It's very cute. When the record skips, she skips! He is delayed from his original flight home in order to get the paperwork to adopt two adorably cute war orphans from France. By the time he finally flies home, she is engaged and to be wed to her millionaire boss Wilbur Stanley that Saturday. The girl-in-question is wasp-waisted Jane Wyman, (as Emmadel Jones) who looks like a confection in her beautiful white satin wedding gown. Her fiancé gives her a wedding present in the form of a check for half a million dollars! Garvey actually strikes up a friendly-rivalry with Wilbur. So, in 5 days, Bing (Garvey) must marry Miss Jones or the kids might have to return to France. Enter 4th-cousin Winifred Stanley (Alexis Smith) who, once dressed for the part, is a beautiful and statuesque gal who has been carrying a torch for her distant cousin Wilbur since her childhood. All ends as it should with a few minor Capra-corn plot twists. Several colorful characters played by familiar actors. Not quite the Capra-classic, but most enjoyable.