No Room For The Groom (1952)

On their honeymoon night, after a quickie Las Vegas wedding, the groom (Tony Curtis) catches chicken pox and is hospitalized and then sent immediately overseas thus never consummating his marriage to his bride (Piper Laurie). When he returns home ten months later, he finds his home filled with his wife's freeloading, shiftless relatives and a deceitful, manipulative mother in law (Spring Byington). Based on the novel MY TRUE LOVE by Darwin Teilhet and directed by Douglas Sirk. This amiable comedy may be lightweight but Sirk invests it with the tartness of reality. The film's most fascinating character is the destructive mother in law played by Byington, who feigns her concern for her daughter's best interests when, in fact, looking out for herself and feeding off the mindless relatives who make her feel important. Curtis is very good here, already displaying the beginning of the comedic chops that would later bloom in films like SOME LIKE IT HOT. A perfect companion piece to Sirk's other small town comedy HAS ANYBODY SEEN MY GAL? which would follow, this time with Rock Hudson replacing Curtis opposite Piper Laurie. Co-starring Don DeFore, Jack Kelly, Fess Parker and Lillian Bronson.