“Rhythm On the Range” A Crosby Vehicle

Manawatu Times, Volume 62, Issue 4, 6 January 1937, Page 5

“Rhythm On the Range” A Crosby Vehicle

(Kosy: Screening Soon.) Six song hits, all of them currently popular both on the air waves and in dance bans everywhere, are heard in the rollicking tale of romance and melody in Paramount’s “Rhythm on the Range.” The picture features two radio headliners, Bing Crosby and Bob Burns, and has Prances Parmer in the leading feminine role. Martha Raye, new comedienne screen “find,” plays the comedy romantic role opposite Burns. “ Rhythm on the Range” casts Crosby and Burns as cowboys. Crosby wins money to buy a prize bull, during the course of a New York rodeo, and starts for Arizona in a box car with the animal. He has company in the person of Miss Farmer, a society miss fleeing from an unwanted marriage. “I Can’t Escape From You,” by Richard Whiting and Leo Robin; “The House That Jack Built for Jill,” by Leo Robin and Frederick Hollander; “If You Can’t Sing It You’ll Have to Swing It,” by Sam Coslow; “Empty Saddles,” by Billy Hill, and “I’m an Old Cow Hand From the Rio Grande,” by Johnny Mercer, all are introduced in the picture. “Rhythm on the Range,” by Whiting and Walter Bullock, was inspired by it, and “Roundup Lullaby,” by Gertrude Ross, is heard throughout.

Merle Oberon, the London Films contract star who has been for some months in Hollywood, loaned to Sam Goldwyn, is returning to be again directed by Alexander Korda opposite Charles Laughton in “I, Claudius” in England. She will play the part of Messalina, the vestal vergin who becomes the Empress. In this picture she will wear some amazing clothes specially designed by John Armstrong. <s> <s> «$> Vivien Leigh, the lovely young West End actress who leapt to stardom in her first stage production and w T ho was given a £50,000 contract by London Films, will be seen as Cynthia in “Fire Over England.”