Rhythm on the River *** (1940, Bing Crosby, Mary Martin, Basil Rathbone, Oscar Levant) – Classic Movie Review 7188

Director Victor Schertzinger’s bright and breezy 1940 romantic musical comedy melodrama Rhythm on the River is a welcome follow-up to Bing Crosby’s Rhythm on the Range (1936) and features good music and a pleasing plot, offering individual roles that seem tailor-made for the talents of its players.

Basil Rathbone stars as a snotty composer called Oliver Courtney who has run out of ideas and secretly employs sprightly ghostwriters Bob Sommers (Bing Crosby) and Cherry Lane (Mary Martin) to write his songs for him, one penning the music the other the words.

Then the couple meet up at a hotel and it is instant attraction, but, now a team, they find it impossible to gain recognition as composers in their own right, since everyone thinks they are writing fake Oliver Courtney songs. The film’s fourth star is Oscar Levant as Billy Starbuck, Bob’s original lyric writer.

All four stars are great, and even the grossest cynics could not prevent themselves from smiling with pleasure at such numbers as ‘Only Forever’, ‘Ain’t It a Shame About Mame?’, ‘Rhythm on the River’ and ‘That’s For Me’. The strength of Dwight Taylor’s script is almost certainly mainly due to the wit of Billy Wilder, the story’s co-author, with Jacques Théry.

Rhythm on the River was Oscar nominated for the song ‘Only Forever’ by James V Monaco (music) and Johnny Burke (lyrics), sung by Crosby and Martin.

Also in the cast are Oscar Shaw, Charles Grapewin, Lillian Cornell, William Frawley, Jeanne Cagney, Helen Bertram, John Scott Trotter, Ken Carpenter, Brandon Hurts, Harry Barris, Charles Lane, George Walcott, Don Brodie, Mary Cecil, James Flavin, Pauline Haddon, Robert Homans, Charles McAvoy, Jack Pepper, Christian Rub, Max Wagner, Janet Waldo, Pierre Watkin, Evalyn West, Richard Keane, Phyllis Kennedy and Wingy Manone.

It is on a Region 1 double bill DVD with its predecessor, Rhythm on the Range (1936).

A fictional song Goodbye to Love is mentioned and Richard Carpenter used it for a 1972 Carpenters number.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 7188

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