Daily Archives: May 18, 2014

Rhythm on the River
Directed by Victor Schertzinger
Written by Billy Wilder, Jacques Therý and Dwight Taylor
USA/1940
Paramount Pictures
First viewing/Bing Crosby Collection DVD

[box] Bob Sommers: Oh, I don’t know. She’s gone into some kind of wing-ding…

Uncle Caleb: Wing-ding? Gosh, I thought it was a cyclone. [reference to actor Charlie Grapewin’s role in “The Wizard of Oz”][/box]

What a cast!  I’m glad I discovered this unsung musical.

Broadway composer Oliver Courtney (Basil Rathbone) has run out of inspiration and has taken to employing ghost writers for his songs.  He’s been working with laid-back composer Bob Sommers (Bing Crosby) for some time.  But Bob is not interested in a permanent job; he would rather save his pennies to buy a catamaran and bum his way around the world.  When Courtney’s usual lyricist dies, he hires Cherry Lane (Mary Martin) to write the words.  Bob and Cherry are at first unaware of each other, assuming that Courtney is supplying the other half of their song.  They accidentally meet at the inn Bob’s uncle (Charlie Grapewin) owns and misunderstandings and romance follow.  With Oscar Levant as Courtney’s long-suffering assistant.

I was thrilled to see Mary Martin in an early role.  For me she will always be the definitive Peter Pan.  It was also fun to see Rathbone playing comedy and Oscar Levant minus some of his usual shtick.  Something entertaining and different for musical lovers.

James V. Monaco and Johnny Burke were nominated for an Oscar for their Original Song “Only Forever”.

Clip – Mary Martin singing “Ain’t It a Shame About Mame”

Beyond Tomorrow (AKA “Beyond Christmas”)
Directed by A. Edward Sutherland
Written by Adele Comandini and Mildred Cram
1940/USA
Academy Productions
First viewing/Streaming on Amazon Instant Video

[box] Tagline: Is there a better time to fall in love?[/box]

Here’s a Christmas movie I never heard of.  It’s on the sentimental side but overall entertaining with some good performances by veteran character actors.

Kindly old industrialists (Harry Carey, C. Aubrey Smith, and Charles Winniger) live with faithful housekeeper Madam Tanya (Maria Ouspenskaya).  They had been planning to have Christmas Eve dinner with some people that cancelled at the last moment.  So the three men toss wallets containing $10 and their cards out in the street and wait and see what happens.  Sure enough, James (Richard Carlson) and Jean (Jean Parker) separately come up to return the wallets they have found and stay for dinner.  Naturally, they immediately fall in love.  It turns out James has a beautiful singing voice.

The three friends are later killed in a plane crash (toward the beginning of the movie). They leave the couple a lot of money to get married on.  But the bequest leads the newspapers to get interested in James and Jean and that leads James to a singing gig on the radio.  It looks like stardom is going to James’ head so the ghosts of the friends intervene to try to save the romance.

It was fun to watch the three older character actors do their stuff.  I think my favorite was Charles Winninger with his Irish brogue.  There’s a little bit too much philosophy for my taste and the ending is quite sappy, but overall it is an enjoyable film and one that people might want to seek out at Christmastime for something different than the usual movies.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vj-I-SYBzMQ

Trailer