There Goes the Groom (1937) review: Burgess Meredith is a caffeinated squirrel

If you have seventy minutes to spare and want to see a very young, surprisingly energetic Burgess Meredith run around like a caffeinated squirrel, then yes, There Goes the Groom is worth your time. It is a loud, silly 1937 comedy that will delight anyone who loves fast-talking black-and-white movies where people get fake amnesia.

But if you cannot stand screaming mothers-in-law or plots that make absolutely zero sense if you think about them for more than two seconds, you will probably hate this one. 🎬

I stumbled on this late last night. Honestly, I only clicked it because I could not believe the guy who played Mickey in Rocky used to be a youthful, goofy romantic lead.

Meredith plays Dick Williams, a guy who went off to Alaska to find gold and actually succeeded. He comes back rich, wearing this incredibly fluffy fur coat that makes him look like a very wealthy grizzly bear.

He is totally set on marrying his college sweetheart, Janet. But Janet has turned into a massive snob who is only interested in his money, and her family is basically a pack of vultures. Except for the younger sister, Jeanette, played by Ann Sothern.

Ann Sothern is easily the best part of this whole mess. She has this great, dry way of delivering her lines that makes everyone else in the scene look like they are trying way too hard.

The plot gets incredibly messy once Dick realizes Janet is awful. Instead of just leaving like a normal person, he pretends to have lost his mind and memory. It is the classic "fake crazy" routine that 1930s movies loved so much.

There is a scene where Dick is in a sanatorium, and the doctors are trying to test his reflexes. He keeps kicking the doctor in the shins, and it goes on for so long that I actually started laughing out loud in my quiet apartment. It is incredibly dumb, but Meredith sells it with this completely blank, innocent face.

Sometimes the chaotic energy feels less like a structured romance and more like a minor disaster. It is not quite as destructive as the classic storm in Deluge, but the family home certainly feels like a wreckage zone by the end.

Mary Boland plays the mother, and she is constantly screeching. I mean, her voice reaches frequencies that probably made every dog in my neighborhood bark last night. Its a bit much after a while.

Also, the transition between Dick loving the older sister to suddenly realizing the younger sister is "the one" happens in about three seconds. One minute he is sighing over Janet, and the next, he looks at Jeanette and you can almost hear the screenwriters clicking their pens and saying, "Okay, that is sorted."

Some random things I wrote down:

• The fur coat in the beginning deserves its own billing in the credits. It is majestic.
• Why does everyone in 1937 drink out of those tiny, tiny glasses? How does anyone get hydrated?
• There is a dog in this movie that looks deeply confused by the human actors. I felt a spiritual connection with that dog.
• The doctor character has some of the worst medical advice I have ever heard, even for 1937.

It is not a masterpiece like some of the big-name screwballs from that era. It feels a bit rushed, like they had the set for a week and just decided to film whatever came to mind.

But there is a cozy, chaotic charm to it. It is the kind of film you watch when you are sick in bed with a mild fever and just want to see people slip on metaphorical banana peels. 🤒

If you are looking for something heavy or artsy, go find a copy of Dawn. But if you want to see Burgess Meredith act like a lunatic while Ann Sothern rolls her eyes at him, give this one a spin.