Spring Fever (1927) Online

Joan Crawford and William Haines star as flaming youths circling

each other on a country club golf course. I wouldn't recommend

this film as highly as Haines' "Show People", but if you like 20s

films, this one certainly has its moments. Haines and Crawford

have nice chemistry together. I'm not much of a golfer, so I can't

comment on that aspect of the film, but fashion buffs will certainly

find things of interest here. Especially charming is the scene

where a newly married couple confronts the sudden reality of a

wedding night! All their previous bravado melts away (and the

viewer is reminded of how much some things have changed, for

better or worse).

Off the top of my head, "Caddyshack" is the funniest movie where so much of the movie is about golf. "Caddyshack" it ain't, but it's a pretty good movie, although William Haines' movies of the time were pretty much formulaic. Haines' character, Jack Kelly, is a naturally talented golfer. His boss, Mr. Waters (George Fawcett - I wonder if Fawcett's last name was the reason for his character's name) is a golf nut - the movie opens with him making a hole-in-one. In reality, he's not a good golfer - at least it appears that way when he can't come close to the hole on the putting green in his study.

When Jack finally gets to work (after playing golf), his father (Bert Woodruff) tells Jack that Mr. Waters is looking for him and is very angry. Jack find Waters - as Waters stomps through the building, Jack is following him (Jack's making faces, imitating Waters, etc.). Pop Kelly accidentally knocks over a vase and Waters fires him on the spot. Jack hits something (it looked almost like a baseball) with a cane and knocks out a window. Waters is impressed with Jack's golfing ability (at least his ability to hit something with a cane and get it through a window) and asks Jack to help him with his swing. For helping Mr. Waters, Jack is given a 2-week membership at the exclusive Oakmont Country Club.

It's a Oakmont where Jack first sees Allie Monte (Joan Crawford). Jack reads Allie's signature when he checks in right after her and tries to act like they've met before. Possibly at Mary Brown's party? Jack says yes - Allie says she doesn't know a Mary Brown.

Out on the golf course, Jack tries to get as close as he can to Allie, which irritates some of the men at the club. By the time the 2 weeks are up, Jack beats the course record, and, true to the formula of Haines' movies, he becomes even more arrogant than before. His father came to get him - Jack seems mad that Pop ever showed up. Jack decides that he's going to quit his job, stay at Oakmont, and marry for money.

As per the Haines' formula, he gets knocked down a bit, and still comes out on top. There are a few twists and turns before ending on a happy note. Unfortunately, this film is somewhat damaged and that damage can be a bit distracting at points. It appears that this film might have been saved in the nick of time. This version has a 2008 copyright by Turner Entertainment Co. and a new score by Darrell Raby.

Spring Fever (1927)

*** (out of 4)

William Haines plays a poor shipping clerk who just happens to be a master at the golf game. His boss (George Fawcett) eventually gets him into a rich country club so that the golf wizz can teach him a few things but Haines quickly becomes the talk of the club. No one knows his secret, that he's poor, and this might cause trouble when he falls in love with a rich girl (Joan Crawford). Earlier in the year I watched the Haines/Crawford film West Point, which was a decent movie but this one is a lot better. The film has all the trappings of your typical romantic comedy with a mix of melodrama but the film works overall due to the two stars. Haines is certainly an interesting actor with his strange performances but they grow on me the more I see them. Crawford is the real standout here as she delivers a fine performance and is quite funny and charming. Fawcett, who appeared in many Griffith pictures starting with Intolerance, adds nice support as well. I've seen countless silent films in my life but the highlight in this film is something I haven't seen before. There's a scene when the two are on their honeymoon where they close the curtain and this turns the room totally dark. We then see them talking, via the title cards, which are arranged on the opposite sides of the screen in the direction that the characters are speaking. This is a minor effect but it works wonderfully well.

William Haines (as Jack Kelly) is a shipping clerk, and an avid golfer; he is much more interested in the hobby than the livelihood. Mr. Haines' golfing prowess earns him a two week membership in the ritzy "Oakmont Country Club", where he meets fetching young Joan Crawford (as Allie Monte). Of course, Ms. Crawford assumes the dashing Haines is a well-heeled member of the "golf set". Will she still love him if she finds out he is poor?

Haines' wardrobe is remarkably ill fitting in the opening scenes; and, as a result, he rather badly tears the right sleeve of his jacket. It's quite noticeable after he enters the workplace, following the initial golfing scene. Also, watch for Haines to tap another man's derrière, very quickly, as he passes the man, after entering the shipping company.

Haines and Crawford are a great screen team; especially, their rapport is evident when he shows her how to improve her golf game - which develops into a courtship. But, overall, "Spring Fever" is fairly routine. There are a few witty title cards, and scenes. George K. Arthur (as Eustace Tewksbury) stands out among the fine supporting cast. Considering the situation and cast, the film is a letdown. It might have been improved by more directly involving Haines and Mr. Arthur in some more comic interplay (on the golf course).

**** Spring Fever (10/18/27) Edward Sedgwick ~ William Haines, Joan Crawford, George K. Arthur

In nearly all of William Haines' movies, he plays a very accomplished person (often an athlete) who, unfortunately, has a very large head! Sure, he's very talented...but he knows it and needs to learn humility...which always occurs by the end of the film. While "Spring Fever" is a tad different because many of his films involve him learning to be a team player and golf is NOT a team sport, it does fit this general pattern...especially with him being extremely talented. This time, however, there's less emphasis on him getting his comeuppance and more on romance.

Jack is a clerk who loves to play golf...and he plays extremely well. On his vacation he decides to go to a swanky golf resort and wants to blend in with the rich folks. Because he does wow them all with his skills, he's soon a very popular guy...and all the women love him. Of these women, he's most interested in Allie (Joan Crawford)...and she soon falls under his spell. But what will happen when she learns he's NOT the rich pro golfer he pretends to be?

I liked how this plot differed some from Haines' formula. Instead of getting his comeuppance in a very public way, Jack manages to learn an even harder lesson when he disappoints his father and eventually Allie. I really appreciated this as the scene where his father comes to the resort to watch him play is very sad...and quite difficult to watch as Jack is ashamed of his father and their humble roots. These scenes are among the best in any Haines film (and I've seen a bunch)...and makes this one well worth your time. What he does next to try to continue the lie...well that IS unusual!

Be aware that portions of the print are in only fair shape..something not too unusual for a film over 90 years old. However, towards the end, it's a mess...with no video at all...just about one minute of dialog to replace the missing scene in the bedroom...one of the most important parts of the movie.

Making this film must have been fun for the leads, as Haines and Crawford were soon lifelong friends. Even when Haines was no longer the handsome leading man*, she remained close to him and did a lot to help Haines start up his interior decorating business.

*As far as why Haines' career ended in the mid-1930s, I've heard a couple reasons and think it might be a combination of both. The prevailing theory is that he was forced out of the industry because he was openly gay...and the new, tougher Production Code meant he had to go back into the closet or leave his job as a top actor. The other theory is that after years of making essentially the same sorts of pictures, time and middle age caught up to him and the public's tastes changed. Who can say for sure.

SYNOPSIS: Kelly's employer, Waters (played by George FAWCETT), is such a keen golfer that he asks Kelly to help him improve his game at an exclusive country club. Before you can say Allie (pronounced "Ollie") Lewin, Kelly is wooing rich girl, Allie (pronounced ???) Monte at said club and even marrying the girl.

NOTES: The play, starring James Rennie and Marion Coakley, directed by Bertram Harrison, opened at Maxine Elliott's on 3 August 1925 and ran 56 performances.

COMMENT: Brash William Haines is in his element here in this mildly amusing little comedy in which screenwriter Albert Lewin does something quite extraordinary that I always assumed would be impossible to do in a silent movie. True, it's a quite common routine in sound movies for the characters to continue talking during a total blackout. And no doubt this happened in the original 1925 stage play too. But in a silent film? Nonetheless, Lewin, Davis and Spence manage this seemingly impossible device rather well.

In other respects, the film is rather routine and looks more like the product of a minor studio than a classy outfit like Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

Director Sedgwick is obviously more at home with the comedy sequences and the exaggerated interplay between Haines and Fawcett, as well as Fawcett and Woodruff. There are a few sparks in the Haines-Crawford footage too. Alas, the movie makes less impact in its more serious moments. And in the Warner Archive print under review, an extremely nondescript music score certainly doesn't help Sedgwick's somewhat laborious pacing at all.

This was my first crawford film. it was also the first time i watched a silent picture. mayb it was the golf, mayb the title. in any case, i loved it.

A hot shot golfer (William Haines) gets invited to play at a country club by his boss, and is drawn to a young lady he meets there (Joan Crawford) in this romantic comedy from 1927. The golf bits in the film are pretty predictable, but it's interesting to see their outfits, and to hear him refer to his favorite club as a spoon (which upon googling I find was a common term in this era). More interesting is the relationship between these two, because Haines wants to continue a life of leisure and golfing by marrying a rich lady, making him a male gold-digger, which I haven't seen much of in old films. The way it plays out with Crawford is interesting and a little unexpected as well, but I won't spoil it.

There are some cute intertitles, and they add to the charm of the film. In one subtle double entendre, after he accidentally hits her backside with the backswing of a practice motion, he says "I'm sorry - honest - that's the first time I ever hit anybody on the links." In another scene, after she's upset and run off to her room, he tries to peek through the keyhole, and then says in baby talk "Won't oo let oo ittle boy friend make upsie wiv oo?" In still another, as he ponders his fate, he laments "I thought I was the whole maple forest, but I'm only the sap." I also liked when the lights are turned out so that the screen goes dark for a minute or so, and the two talk back and forth via intertitles on the left and right halves of the screen, which was also novel for the period.

Crawford and Haines have nice chemistry together as well. I wouldn't necessarily say they're steamy here, but in one nice scene, he embraces her from behind to help her with her golf stroke, and in another, she holds him close and runs her fingers around his lips. How fantastic it was to find out that they were lifelong friends, and that she supported his homosexuality, saying of his relationship with his lifelong partner that it was "the happiest marriage in Hollywood," when of course, they weren't legally permitted to be married. This film isn't a classic or anything, but it's cute and has heart.

This 1927 romantic comedy was never going to win any awards or be considered a great classic, but when taken on its own terms, Spring Fever is a mildly amusing little movie. The title cards sparkle with wit and Haines and Crawford have great chemistry. There are even some inventive moments, like when the lights are shut off and we have a conversation in the darkness replicated by having Haines and Crawford's dialogue cards appear one at a time on opposing sides of the screen. It shows how slick and sophisticated Hollywood filmmaking had become by the late 1920s; these films were in no way the overacted and primitively cut monstrosities the naysayers would have you believe them to have been.

One reviewer claimed this film was hardly worth saving due to its routine nature and obviously saved-at-last-minute condition print, an opinion to which I cannot agree. The majority of the silent era is gone, crumbled into dust. We are lucky to have what we've got in watchable condition, even little routine pictures like Spring Fever.

SPRING FEVER is a silent comedy that plods along with too many dull scenes on a golf course, occasionally enlightened by some good comic glances from WILLIAM HAINES and some nice reaction shots from the wealthy golf set, including a very young JOAN CRAWFORD (without the thick eyebrows and overpainted mouth).

But the story is formula stuff, much like other Haines comedies that I've seen, whereby he struggles to prove himself (all for the sake of winning the girl) and goes through a series of Harold Lloyd-like situations before the clinch in the final reel.

TCM's print shows quite a bit of film damage, so apparently they saved this one for restoration just in time. Some of the title cards are quite amusing but the background score imposed on the film is pretty tiresome before it's over.

The best that can be said for this vehicle is that it shows Haines had the makings of a very good romantic leading man (in the Cary Grant vein when it comes to comedy), and his chemistry with Joan Crawford is evident from their first scene. In real life, they were great friends--and she helped him when the studios had to drop him because he refused to silence his homosexual lifestyle--whereby Crawford remained friends and gave him permission to design her new home which led to a new career for Haines in Hollywood.

As for the film itself, it was hardly worth saving--very thin on plot and not a comfortable viewing experience due to the often poor quality of the print.

Poor Jack Kelly (William Haines) is a lowly stock clerk--but a wonderful golfer. Through circumstances to inane to get into he gets into a posh country club, becomes a top golfer and acts like a rich man. He meets beautiful rich Allie Monte (Joan Crawford) and falls in love. However he can't marry her and will have to eventually return to his poor life. What to do?

To be truthful this picture is a yawner. The situations and characters are boringly predictable and the 2008 "restored" version is in utterly dreadful shape. Lousy music score too. But this is one of the few chances to see Haines and Crawford together. Haines was the top box office draw of the late 1920s. He was tall, VERY handsome and a good actor. Crawford was very young, beautiful and also a good actor. Her and Haines were best friends. Haines career was destroyed due to homophobia--he refused to dump his male lover and was fired. But Crawford and him remained life long friends and you can see here how they really clicked together and worked well. They both play opposite each other easily and their good looks and acting carry them through. The film is seriously one big snooze--but worth catching for Haines and Crawford. I give it a 6.