This 1952 comedy of newly-wed frustration is as tedious as it is predictable and it is tediously predictable. Tony Curtis is Alvah Morrell, a young GI who elopes to Las Vegas with his sweetheart, Lee (Piper Laurie) only to be rushed to hospital with chickenpox on his wedding night. The moment he recovers he's shipped overseas for 10 months so by the time he returns home to his Californian vineyard he's understandable keen to consummate the union. But while he's been away his wife's overbearing and disapproving mother (Spring Byington) has moved an army of annoying relatives into Alvah's home so there's nowhere private for the couple to become reacquainted. And just to add an extra wrinkle Mama doesn't know the pair have tied the knot.
Not only is all this not funny but the plot's advancement relies almost entirely on characters not saying simple things to clear the air or resolve misunderstandings. This device was hackneyed half a century ago and remains one of the most implausible ever employed in any form of storytelling. Asking the audience to believe that a young man who goes off to war and risks his life for his country doesn't have the guts to tell his mother-in-law he's married her daughter defies credulity.
Neither Curtis nor Laurie are skilled enough to breath any life into the stolid script, and Curtis' lack of comic timing is almost shocking given how skilled a comic performance he was to give in 'Some Like it Hot' later in the decade. His desperately misguided attempt to play drunk is particularly excruciating in its awfulness.
The total absence of humour, the cloying coyness of the young couple and the general lack of even a small spark of interest in the plot make NO ROOM FOR THE GROOM one of the longest 82 minutes I've ever sat through. An embarrassment to everyone involved
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