Tonight's Movie: Rhythm on the River (1940) - A Universal Blu-ray Review

An engaging musical from Paramount Pictures, RHYTHM ON THE RIVER (1940), was just released on Blu-ray by Universal.

The movie has a sparkling cast, including Bing Crosby, Mary Martin, Basil Rathbone, and Oscar Levant, plus a slew of familiar supporting faces.

Rathbone plays Broadway composer Oliver Courtney, who actually isn't a composer at all; Bob Sommers (Crosby) writes the music for Oliver's songs, and Cherry Lane (Martin) writes the lyrics.

The catch is, both Bob and Cherry think they're collaborating with Oliver, only to eventually learn they've actually been composing songs with each other! Oliver has merely been the go-between, letting each of them think he's been writing the other half of the songs.

The clever premise came from a story by Billy Wilder and Jacques Thiery, turned into a screenplay by Dwight Taylor. The strong script is part of the reason RHYTHM ON THE RIVER is a better film than Crosby and Martin's BIRTH OF THE BLUES (1941), reviewed here earlier this year.

(As a side note, RHYTHM ON THE RIVER and BIRTH OF THE BLUES are just two of a number of Crosby Blu-ray releases in recent months.)

I commented in my review of BIRTH OF THE BLUES that Crosby and Martin were "a rather bland team," but that wasn't the case at all here; they work well together dramatically and as a singing team. When their characters fall for each other, both as composers and romantically, it's very believable.

I'll add that famed Broadway performer Martin doesn't always come across particularly strongly on film, but she does quite well in this movie, and she also has nice hairstyles and is photographed to good effect by Ted Tetzlaff.

As was the case with BIRTH OF THE BLUES, RHYTHM ON THE RIVER was directed by Victor Schertzinger.

The movie runs 92 minutes and features a nice blend of humor and music, with Rathbone and Levant heading up the comedy department. Familiar faces who pop up in the movie include Jeanne Cagney (billed as Jean), William Frawley, Charley Grapewin, James Flavin, and Charles Lane.

Lane has a particularly fun bit as a preoccupied song buyer who, appearances to the contrary, has heard every word of a song demo by Crosby and Martin's characters.

John Scott Trotter and Ken Carpenter turn up in entertaining roles late in the film, playing a band leader and radio announcer, which is fun given that both men actually worked with Crosby on the radio.

RHYTHM ON THE RIVER was previously released on multiple DVDs, including a 2017 Universal Vault Series DVD. It also came out on a VHS tape back in 1994.

The Blu-ray print is for the most part quite good, if just a bit too grainy at a couple points, with some mild damage also occasionally apparent. That said, overall this is a nice-looking disc with adequate sound; more work could have been done on both aspects, but it's an entirely enjoyable watch and I'm glad to have this film available on Blu-ray.

Like many other Universal Blu-ray releases, there are no extras on the disc, but optional English captions are provided.

Thanks to Allied Vaughn and Universal for providing a review copy of this Blu-ray. It may be ordered from Movie Zyng, Amazon, and other online retailers.

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