Rhythm on the range

We’re going back to the beginning of the movie musical by looking at the Bing Crosby film Rhythm on the range. This film stars Bing Crosby who’ll you’ve probably heard at some point in your life unless you’ve decided to never leave your house during the whole month of December.  This film happened fairly early on his career but he was still quite established at this point as a singer and an actor in musicals. Back in the 30’s if you could sing then you could star in any musical you wanted. We have since learned this is not always the case but does it hold up here. Let’s find out.

Well firstly let’s talk about the stars of the film, Bing Crosby and Frances Farmer. Bing Crosby plays the cowboy Jeff Larabee who’s quite a strange hero. He’s not particularly charming, he’s not particularly intelligent and he’s certainly not particularly polite or courteous. Yet he is the romantic lead for some reason well he is straight forward, determined and he sure can sing. He lives an uncomplicated life and he’s happy living the life he leads. Bing Crosby gives this character a great singing voice but he also does portray a genuine sense of being a down to earth guy. Sometimes though his performance can be a little distancing and you never really find yourself rooting for the guy. You didn’t hate him though which I suppose is something. Frances Farmer plays Doris Ryland who starts of self assured of herself and in her role in life but is very dissatisfied with it. Her aunt unknowingly breaks her out of her apathy and before she knows it, she’s standing up for herself, figuring out how to be self sufficient and falling in love all while being a complete idiot. Frances Farmer is admittedly stunning and her close ups look pretty damn good but her performance is a bit low key especially considering what her character goes through, her confession of love sounds almost bored. The chemistry between Crosby and Farmer isn’t god awful but it isn’t exactly mind-blowing,

The supporting cast in this movie are all quite good in particular the beta couple Buck played by Bob Burns and Emma played by Martha Ray. They are actually a lot more interesting than the alpha couple. They have a lot of funny lines and Buck’s dead pan style mixes beautifully with Martha Ray’s gloriously over the top comedic response. These two are also funny on their own, Buck’s attempts to earn 28 dollars for the hotel bill and Emma’s drunken antics at her wedding are all great fun moments. There are three villains in this film who while offering some funny lines are pretty forgettable in their typical ineptness to do anything. My favourite character is the Russian cowboy, it’s probably pretty racist but I don’t care. He is as funny as hell with his little drinking song and his home made vodka. The aunt is quite a lot of fun but is quite a typical guardian figure.

The story is quite simple and it focuses on the progression of Doris that’s not to say that Jeff isn’t important but his character stays the same throughout the film and he’s never really confronted with anything that would make him change his way of life or question it. Anyway Doris is about to get married to John Dobie the third but considering he can’t even be bothered to turn up to his own wedding rehearsal. Her aunt thinks she can do better so takes her to a rodeo where she shows her up for not being a proper woman or something like that. This convinces her that she must run away and go out west without even bothering to tell her dad. Meanwhile Jeff and his fellow cowboy Buck need to raise enough money to buy Cuddles, a bull. I honestly have no idea why this bull is so important and why it’s worth the effort but apparently Jeff can’t live without it. He tries to win as many contests possible but comes short of the money he needs. Buck decides to chip in but unfortunately doesn’t have enough money to pay the hotel bill now so is almost literally forced to sing fir his supper. So Jeff boards the train with Cuddles where he finds an unconscious Doris. He assumes she’s bumming a ride and for no other reason than the plot says so. She lies to him about who she is despite the fact that he wants to turf her out and if she told him, he’d probably let her stay. Anyway she doesn’t and she aggravates Cuddles which ends up with all three of them missing the train. Unfortunately the three villains have figured out Doris is a rich heiress so plan to kidnap her. Luckily she managed to acquire a car, how? I don’t know but she has a car. She gives Jeff and Cuddles a lift. He tells her about his lost love. She tells him ...nothing. Anyway they’re clearly in love but they get stopped by rain and he takes her to his grandparents place to rest up. However Buck and Emma have met up, kissed and fallen in love and are also stopped by the rain so he takes her to Jeff’s place. Emma not aware that this place doesn’t belong to Buck ends up trying to kick out Doris and Jeff but the truth is revealed. After that’s sorted Doris admits she’s in love with Jeff but is too scared to admit she’s lied to him. So Jeff tells her to forget about that and marry him anyway. I’ve seen worse foundations for marriage. Anyway Buck proposes to Emma and proposes to Doris for Jeff. He for some reason accepts this. But he finds out, she’s been lying to him so he runs of. She chases after him getting the bad guys to help but as long as they’re getting paid. She finds him apologises and he forgives her for some reason.

This film is paced quite well and it gets a lot of story out there considering its short running time. Most of the jokes still work although some of them are a bit dated. There are a whole bunch of plot holes though firstly how did Doris get that car? Why did she trust someone who was about to rape her to deliver a telegram? Why does Jeff forgive her in the end despite not having any reason to do? None of these questions are ever answered and it feels like lazy writing. Doris will just do stuff whenever the plot necessitates that she needs to do something insane to put another obstacle in her path. he worst part of this movie is the ending, it's just so abrubt. She's chased after Jeff and is willinbg to do anything to forgive him but remebr he has no funds to support her and she lied to him. No matter what he feels for her. The whole film has been building up to this and he kisses her and that's the end of the film apparently there was a song cut from the end of this film. It was a duet between Bing and Frances which might have given their love story a satisfying conclusion. We'll never know now. However most of the jokes work and the B story between Emma and Buck work really well. It’s a shame it’s not the main plot of the movie because it is a lot more interesting than the main couple.

The most famous song is I’m an old cow hand from the Rio Grande and it’s quite a fun and upbeat song. It gives the whole cast to sing, not just Bing and the combination of voices is quite fun and Martha Ray’s unconventional singing voice works quite well. The musical accompaniment is lively and fun which is a nice contrast to rest of the songs. I can’t escape from you is probably the song that establishes Jeff’s character. It’s quite a nice song and Bing sings it with genuine longing and regret that you really start to feel for him and you understand why he is the way he is. The only problem is the song is interrupted by a sudden exposition dump half way through which slightly ruins the mood but it’s a well performed scene and it doesn’t take too much away. Empty saddles is sung for the singing contest and in fairness he probably deserved to win. The song is a bit subdued and I don’t get why it elicits such an emotional response from his audience. It’s sung well but it’s a bit meh. Round up lullaby might as well be empty saddles, Bing sings it well but the song is just meh. If you can’t sing it and you’ll have to swing it which after three low key Bong Crosby songs. Is a blessing. The song is fun and upbeat and is helped by Martha Ray’s incredibly comedic performance and Bob Burns amazingly appropriate Bazooka playing. Its fun and quite funny, what more could you want. Drink it down is quite a fun little drinking song which anyone who’s ever been out a little too much with their friends can appreciate.

 

To conclude this movie is ok. It’s probably not a film, I’ll ever see again but for what it is. It’s fun and it still has some good laugh out loud moments. The songs are a bit samey with only a few exceptions. The standout performance is Martha Ray who is a comedic goddess in this part and considering this was her first feature, it’s pretty impressive. As I’ve said before I would have preferred if the focus had been on the relationship between Buck and Emma but saying that the main relationship isn’t bad. It’s just a bit too cliché and predictable. The villains don’t convey any threat and they’re not even that funny and the script probably could have worked just as well without them but they’re only there for a few scenes and they don’t ruin anything. Rhythm on the range is a good film and if you want to watch Bing Crosby sing some western songs with a few funny moments then this is the film for you.