"Here Comes the Groom" is a delightful comedy romance with some very good music and performers. Johnny Mercer and Hoagy Carmichael won the 1951 Oscar for best original song with "In the Cool, Cool, Cool of the Evening." This film had a very good cast all around, and some special cameo appearances in the music department. The film stars Bing Crosby as Pete Garvey and Jane Wyman as Emmadel Jones. The movie had a sizable supporting cast of top Hollywood talent of the time. Franchot Tone and Alexis Smith head the list that included H.B. Warner, Ian Wolfe, Robert Keith, and others. But, some young actors, headed by Jacques Gencel as young Bobby and Beverly Washburn as Suzi, steal the scenes they are in as war orphans of World War II. This was the first view most movie fans had of Anna Maria Alberghetti. The 15-year-old Italian-born soprano just one year before had made her Carnegie Hall debut. Here, she plays a blind young teen who is a war orphan, Theresa. In her one scene, she gives a captivating rendition of the beautiful song, "Caro Nome" from Verdi's opera, "Rigoletto." On a plane trip, Bing is joined in a song with a troupe of USO entertainers returning from Europe. They include no less than Louis "Satchmo" Armstrong on trumpet, comedian Phil Harris, Dorothy Lamour and Frank Fontaine. Besides the song and dance numbers, this film had a good plot, and excellent acting all around. The comedy was excellent as well. It may be Crosby's best comedic role in movies. His humor and trademark asides that he ad-libbed seemed natural here, where they often seem contrived in other films. Indeed, in the Road Show series with Bob Hope, they were part and parcel of the plots, even though one couldn't script an ad-lib as such."Here Comes the Groom" is a nice film with two tales. One is about one of the many operations to help children who became war orphans after WW II. The other is a love story about a guy who keeps backing off his planned trip to the altar with a childhood sweetheart. The two mixed together make for a little mayhem and some good laughs at times. The title is a little wacky, but it will make sense when one watches the film. Although the plight of hundreds of thousands of homeless and lost children at the end of World War II was a serious matter, this film manages to give a light-hearted touch of hope for the future of the war orphans. It's a movie fit for all ages and one that should delight the whole family. A couple of reviews mentioned some obvious faults in the production of the film. I noticed them, but the story was interesting enough that it didn't linger with me. It's hard to imagine how Director Frank Capra could let those things slip through in the filming and editing processes. But for those production slips, this movie would rate 10 stars in my book.

"Here Comes the Groom" is the sort of schmaltzy fluff that Bing Crosby did best. While I am quick to admit that this is a very slight film, it is also a very, very enjoyable film. Deep? Nah--but fun.The film begins with Bing hanging out with a bunch of cute orphans in post-war France. He's supposed to be coming back to the USA to marry his fiancée (Jane Wyman) but he cannot leave the kids in a lurch--particularly two cute kids who he plans to adopt. The only trouble is that after he's done all the paperwork to bring them to America, he's returned so late that his girlfriend has called off the wedding and is now planning to marry her boss (Franchot Tone). You really can't blame her too much--Bing never told her he'd be late or why he'd be late. In other words, she wasn't feeling very appreciated.There is a problem with Bing not getting married, however. In order to adopt the kids and keep them he MUST get married...and quick. Bing isn't about to try to find another girl and he really does care about Jane, so he's determined to break up the engagement and marry her himself. Here is where it gets interesting--Bing tells Franchot and Franchot actually allows him a chance to win her back. After all, if she isn't 100% ready to marry him, why not let her marry Bing? Where all this ends is very predictable--but a film like this always is. Along the way, you have some nice comedy (particularly the portions with Alexis Smith) and really nice songs--and it's quite enjoyable and cute. Perhaps it's too cute and saccharine for some--I could understand that. But, if you don't mind and are looking for an old fashioned family film, it's well worth your time.

If Frank Capra had a message in this film, it might have been that the in America, the wealthy, though as personable as anyone, do not always "get the girl." But they, as everyone, get something, and there is happiness to be had.Bing Crosby was Bing Crosby, an incredible talent who could light up a motion picture with his facial expressions; when he sings, wow.This is not a movie for those uptight with notions of a "Patriarchy"; it was 1951, and the general relationship between men and women had changed somewhat between then and now. You do the film a disservice by trying to do that, so put yourself in their shoes for an hour, thirteen, and let yourself feel good.Hollywood doesn't make reporters like Pete Garvey anymore.

One has to wonder why Frank Capara is so renowned with books written about him till this day. His hey day was the thirties where more than a couple of gems were made but even then his direction was that notch. It was the sharp story with good performances that sinewed and chugged along these movies disguising his directorial flaws. After Mr. John Doe, I think the scripts were not up to snuff, the movies too long and the dialog draggy and haltingly haughty. This movie has all the recipe to be a sharp portrait on the perennial battle of the sexes roles as perceived in society but regurgitation and elemental whimsical and cloying make a peg round as a square. Pardon my regurgitatant riff and whimsical drift. Fair is fair, this was a contract movie and he did it to fulfill his contract, so maybe it's not all his fault. Crosby is a reporter in France, who lives his poor girlfriend waiting on him without ever getting down on his knees and pulling the doodad out of his inner pockets. Her clock ticking, she jumps for the wealthy Franchot Tone. Crosby returns to hear the news, two annoying French orphans in tow and of course tries to win her back. The musical numbers are perfunctory apart from the Oscar winner and chart topper "In the cool, cool, cool of the evening" which is slyly done, introduced and well choreographed to make me smile. Crosby and Wyman have a good chemistry but Tone and Crosby just sparkle especially in a scene in the back of Tone's car which is so well-written and is what the whole movie needed. Alexis Smith, an actress who had never left an impression on me in her previous works, sparkles as a comic ingénue. And then cloying starts again. It began if I have not mentioned in the scenes in Paris which really serve no purpose but to show the kind of guy Bing is. It is way two heavy-handed. And anytime, there is hope, the distracting cloying comes in again. The ending made me want to puke. This movie bares a similarity to a Crosby movie "Waikiki Wedding" which has a similar ending to this movie but is better handled in that movie. In fact Crosby does this role and part better in 1956 in the smarter and delightful remake High Society. So watch this movie if you are fans of the stars in the cool of the evening. It might go down best that way.