Catherine Townsend Johnson (1904-75) studied at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and starred in many Broadway productions, predominantly serious dramas, throughout the 1920s.
Following her marriage to director John Cromwell, Johnson moved to Los Angeles in 1928. She was brought to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer by Cecil B DeMille, who had himself only just moved to the studio, to star in Dynamite (1929), his first sound picture.
Johnson went on to make regular film appearances, including as the title character in DeMille’s Madam Satan, but only made 23 in total, most of them in the pre-code era. She also continued to appear on the stage, returning to Broadway in 1947 in the original production of State of the Union.
Johnson worked less in the 40s and 50s, devoting time to raising her sons, one of whom was the actor James Cromwell.
The 1925 play Spring Fever was made into a silent film comedy in 1927. Three years later it became the first film musical about golf, just beating Paramount’s Follow Thru (1930) into cinemas.
Perhaps a more significant first for Charles F Reisner’s film is the fact that it contains a production number, admittedly quite a small-scale one, shot out of doors on a real location. MGM had made musicals with location sequences before. Hallelujah, for example, opens with characters singing in a genuine cotton field. And in Montana Moon, Joan Crawford sings to some real trees while on horseback. But in Love in the Rough, Dorothy Jordan and the Biltmore Trio deliver a full song-and-dance number filmed on location at California’s Lake Norconian Club.
Earl ‘Snakehips’ Tucker, doing his thing
Dorothy Jordan had made three period musicals with Ramon Novarro in the previous twelve months, becoming increasingly virginal and irritating in each one. She is clearly much happier in a modern setting, and gives a much more engaging performance. The dance skills she had honed in Broadway shows come to the fore in the aforementioned ‘I’m Doing that Thing (Falling in Love)’ routine, before giving way to a brief display by Earl ‘Snakehip’ Turner.
‘I’m Learning a Lot from You’ is an interesting number. Performed by two romantic couples–one serious, one comic–it represents an early example of the courtship-through-dance trope that musicals would use so effectively later on; think, for example, of Gene Kelly and Vera-Ellen singing and dancing ‘Main Street in On the Town.
Benny (Benny Rubin) and Virgie (Penny Singleton) parody the courtship dance of the two leads
Love in the Rough, despite being about golf, remains an enjoyable eighty-four minutes. Benny Rubin’s ethnic schtick (Russian-Jewish this time) is pretty good, aided by a pairing with bit-part player Jack Raymond as another caddy from the Old Country and some sparkling Yiddish patter. It is also fascinating to watch veteran J C Nugent as Mr Waters, the protagonist’s boss. In the early scenes in particular, he genuinely seems to be making up his dialogue as he goes along. Either that, or no one had thought to show him the script until just before saying Action.
Benny and C Wesley Rappaport (Jack Raymond), discuss the finer points of golf in Yiddish
But Love in the Rough also points towards one of the problems that contributed to the public tiring of musicals. Robert Montgomery and Dorothy Jordan are pleasant enough singing ‘Go Home and Tell Your Mother’, but they are still giving the performances of amateur singers. MGM had not yet learnt that the musical was a form that required professionals who could really dance and sing (or be dubbed to make it appear they could sing).
Socialite Angela Brooks asks her maid, Martha, if it is worthwhile for a wife to try and please her husband. They both agree it is impossible to please a husband.
Bob Brooks arrives home drunk after a night on the town with his friend Jimmy Wade. Angela reads in the paper that she, Bob and Jimmy were arrested during the night for drunk driving, but she was not out with Bob. Angela finds a card from Trixie in Bob’s pocket, but he tells a disbelieving Angela that Trixie is Jimmy’s new wife. Angela leaves, and Jimmy asks Bob why he runs around with Trixie when he has a wife like Angela.
Jimmy Wade (Roland Young), Bob Brooks (Reginald Denny) and, under the blanket, Angela Brooks (Kay Johnson)
That evening, Bob sleeps when he and Angela were supposed to be going to a concert. Angela tells Martha she is beaten. Martha’s advice is to make herself so attractive to Bob that he will not want to leave her [Live and Love Today]. But that does not meet Angela’s ideal of true love.
Bob complains that when Angela became his wife, she stopped being his pal and became cold:”Love can’t be kept in cold storage; it’s a battery that has to be recharged every day”. Bob walks out.
Angela asks Jimmy if she can spend the night with him and his ‘wife’. Jimmy tries to decline, suggesting instead that Angela come and make whoopee at a masked ball he is holding next week on the zeppelin. Angela remembers Martha’s advice [Live and Love Today] and follows Jimmy so she can fight for her happiness.
Trixie, a vaudeville performer, is rehearsing a new number in her apartment [Low Down]. Jimmy rushes in but, before he can explain, Angela arrives. Jimmy maintains the pretence that Trixie is his wife. Trixie goes along with it and Angela pretends to. Inviting herself into the guest room, Angela reveals that she has a gun. Jimmy locks Angela in the room and tries to sneak out, but is caught by the arriving Bob. Jimmy then barricades himself in Trixie’s room and Angela hears Bob trying to get in.
Trixie hides on the balcony. Angela finds a connecting door to the other bedroom and Jimmy hides her under a blanket. Bob believes it is Trixie under there, and only accepts it is not when the real Trixie shows herself.
Bob tells Jimmy and Trixie that he has left Angela, and he and Jimmy leave. Trixie mocks Angela for getting caught in her own trap. Trixie says she will keep Bob by giving him what he wants. Angela accepts that as a challenge, and says she will make Bob sick of vice.
On the night of Jimmy’s masked ball, guests arrive at the zeppelin moored over the city [The Cat Walk; Ballet Mécanique].Bob and Trixie arrive together in costume. At midnight everyone unmasks, and there is an auction of the most beautiful women in the room. The one who attracts the highest bid will be queen of the ball [song]. Just as men are wildly competing to buy Trixie, Angela enters in the guise of Madam Satan and draws them all away [Meet Madam].
Trixie (Lillian Roth) and Madam Satan eyeball each other
The newcomer joins the auction and Bob bids a huge amount to win her. Angela warns him that he will get burned [All I Know Is You’re in My Arms/Live and Love Today]. Trixie is furious that Bob is being taken away from her, but can do nothing to prevent it.
Angel-as-Madam Satan declares she wants the wickedest man there, and Bob replies that he could never think anything he did was a sin. Angela and Bob go to the chart room and engage in an extended flirtation. Finally, Angela admits that she is not the devil she seems, just a woman attempting to keep her self respect. Bob says he finds that even more attractive. A well-intentioned Jimmy separates them by telling Bob that Madam Satan is the woman who was under his blanket.
A storm begins, alarming the zeppelin’s captain. He suggests that Jimmy send his guests back to the ground. Angela and Trixie compete for Bob’s attention [Low Down]. Bob is angry at Angela, but still obsessed with her and ignores Trixie. Bob chases Angela and she unmasks: “You said I was below zero, so I raised my temperature”. Bob is angry at the deception.
Lightning strikes the zeppelin, which breaks its mooring. The captain orders everyone into parachutes. Bob gets a parachute for Angela, but she gives it to Trixie, on the understanding that she never sees Bob again. Bob finds another parachute, but she will not leave without him. Bob forces her to jump.
Bob forces the unmasked Angela to take the last parachute
The zeppelin breaks up and crashes to earth. Bob manages to jump into the reservoir at the last minute.
The next day, Angela and Bob are at home. He is still annoyed about her performance as Madam Satan, but she is winning him round [Meet Madam] when a bandaged Jimmy arrives (he landed in the lions’ enclosure at the zoo). Jimmy says he will marry Angela if Bob divorces her. Bob says there is no question of divorce and admits he has been a fool.
James Francis McHugh (1894-1969), like many other contributors to the Great American Songbook, had worked as a song plugger before producing his own hits.
He worked in partnership with many lyricists, but perhaps most fruitfully with Dorothy Fields. Amongst the many standards they produced were ‘I’m in the Mood for Love’ and ‘I Can’t Give You Anything But Love’.
Fields and McHugh numbers were used by MGM in Love in the Rough, and later contributed to Flying High, The Cuban Love Song, Dancing Lady, Till the Clouds Roll By, Big City, The Strip and Lovely to Look At. Songs written with other lyricists are featured in Two Girls and a Sailor, A Date With Judy (notably ‘It’s a Most Unusual Day’) and Looking for Love.
Born into a showbiz family, Dorothy Fields (1904-74) worked on the stage for a few years before finding her true vocation as a songwriter. She was one of the few women to find success on Tin Pan Alley, and undoubtedly the greatest of them. She wrote the songs for Roberta in 1933 and for Sweet Charity in 1966, and it is astonishing to consider that ‘Smoke Gets in Your Eyes’ and ‘The Rhythm of Life’ came from the pen of the same writer. Few songwriters had the same ability to adapt to changing musical styles.
Fields’s early work found little success, but she came into her own after partnering with composer Jimmy McHugh. Together, they wrote a string of popular hits, including ‘I Can’t Give You Anything But Love’ and ‘On the Sunny Side of the Street’.
Fields and McHugh wrote the songs used by MGM in Love in the Rough, and later contributed to Flying High, The Cuban Love Song, Dancing Lady, Till the Clouds Roll By, Big City, The Strip and Lovely to Look At, the studio’s updated version of Roberta, on which she worked with Jerome Kern.
Numbers by Fields working in collaboration with other composers also featured in Mr Imperium, Excuse My Dust and Texas Carnival.
Fields co-wrote the book for the stage show adapted into Annie Get Your Gun.
Earl Tucker (1906-37) was a popular dancer who took his name from the eccentric style of dancing he performed at, among other top venues, the Cotton Club.
Tucker did not invent the dance style, as is often claimed, but he was certainly its leading practitioner in the early 20th century. It involved the ability to sway from the hips rhythmically, creating the impression of a snake’s movements. A Black folk dance style, it was one of many aspects of Black culture purloined by Elvis Presley.
Tucker died very young and only appeared in a couple of musical shorts and, most significantly, performing the first solo dance in an MGM musical, uncredited as a bellboy in Love in the Rough. He is also believed to have filmed a routine for the uncompleted The March of Time.
