Watch Rhythm on the Range For Free

I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

Captivating movie !

Best movie ever!

In other words,this film is a surreal ride.

This film was later remade as "Pardners" with Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis. While I'm an avid Martin fan, I'm no fan of Jerry Lewis, and I very much like Bing Crosby and like Martha Raye. My suggestion is to watch "Pardners" instead; it doesn't drag as this film seems to. And, while aspects of both films are different, there are other parts that are surprisingly similar.The problem with this film is that, as much as I like Crosby in both musicals and dramas, I have a difficult time imagining him as a bronco riding steer wrestler. It just doesn't work.What does work are the songs, particularly an outstanding rendition of "Empty Saddles" (its debut). In terms of plot...pretty light.Aside from not being very believable as a rough and tumble cowboy, Crosby is still his pleasant self on screen, and this film was right at the beginning of what I think were Bing's best early years on film.I was not impressed with Frances Farmer here as the love interest. I know she had an "interesting" and tragic life, but I have yet to be impressed with any of her film roles.Bob Burns is sort of humorous as the side kick, as is Martha Raye as the Easterner who goes after the hick Westerner. Samuel S. Hinds, a great character actor is along for a few scenes, and Lucile Gleason in a rather truncated role that just seems to hang out there with little real connection to the rest of the film.Even as somewhat of a Crosby fan, this film had trouble holding my attention. It's not bad, nor great.

Considering the folks involved making this movie, I expected a much better movie. Maybe it is because it is 1936, this film is a big let down. There are several older Crosby films I want to see, but after seeing this one I understand why late night comedians used to make jokes about it.Martha Raye does a lot of singing in this one, but the songs are very forgettable. Even Crosby's songs are lacking in this one. The story is the predictable romance and this movie looks like a "relic" gotten from the cutting room floor.I am not sure why Roy Rogers pops in on a short cameo and they do not ask him to sing, but considering the songs in this one, maybe he got lucky. Frances Farmer is the main female lead here, and the story really gets little traction and often the music is just put in to break up the songs.Norman Taurog does some much better direction in later films, do not judge him on this one. Der Binger does ride a horse and look like a cowboy, though he sure does not talk like one. I was glad when this ended as even the ending left something to be desired.

Comes across as a musical screwball comedy follow up on the wildly popular "It Happened One Night", of two years earlier. To me, if not everyone, it's as least as interesting. Bing Crosby is the star, posing as a cowhand on an Arizona ranch, whose boss, Penelope, played by the forceful Lucile Gleason, has brought her top cowhands to Madison Square Garden, to compete in a rodeo. Bing(as Jeff) is her best hope(actually, Bing's stunt doubles). Stout rustic comedian Bob Burns(Buck) is Bing's best buddy, but seems totally out of his tree as a rodeo contestant. Serendipitously, Penelope's niece, Doris(Francis Farmer) is participating in the rehearsal for her next day wedding. It's essentially a marriage arranged by her very wealthy father(played by Sam Hinds) to a Wall Street executive, designed to further increase the wealth of the family. The previously married groom didn't bother to show up for the rehearsal, and Penelope discovers that Doris isn't very excited about her perspective husband. Thus, while watching the rodeo, Penelope suggests to her brother that they cancel the wedding and allow Doris to spend some time on her ranch to acquire some earthy character. He doesn't agree, but Doris likes the idea and runs off to the train station to hide in one of the ranch box cars. Bing herds his prize bull Cuddles into this boxcar, then later discovers Doris asleep under some hay. He's not pleased at her presence, and orders her off at the next stop, unaware of who she is. But, it's pouring rain and the station is 10 miles away, so he allows her back in for the next stop. While Bing leaves for a short while, Cuddles chases Doris out of the car into a meadow, and Bing has to rescue her. Meanwhile, the train leaves, and they split ways temporarily. But Doris soon steals a car with wagon attached, and finally convinces an objecting Bing to join her, with Cuddles in the wagon. They camp in a woods that night, and get a little better acquainted. The next night, they try to spend the night in a random barn, but they are locked in by the 3 hobos trailing them, hoping to collect a reward for the safe return of Doris. Cuddles gets mad and knocks the door down, after the 3 conveniently leave for the night They continue on until their car gets stuck during a violent nighttime rainstorm. Bing discovers that they are in front of his ranch house, he shares with Buck! Inside, he finds Buck, with a woman(Martha Raye, as Emma) he met on the train, who is also headed for Penelope's ranch, where her brother works. They travel on to Penelope's ranch, with talk of possible marriages beginning to surface, further developed at the ranch. Meanwhile, the 3 hobos have somehow managed to stay on their trail, not knowing that Doris's father will soon arrive at the ranch with Penelope. During a ranch party, they empty the gas tanks of all vehicles except their chosen get away car. Penelope accuses Bing of being a gold digger, so he rides his horse to his ranch, upset. Doris bribes the 3 hobos to take her in 'their' car after Bing. At his ranch, after a hesitant moment, Cuddles pushes Bing into Doris, and they kiss to end the film(Something you might expect in a John Wayne western!).Currently, there are only 8 IMDb user reviews for this film, vs. more than 200 for "It Happened One Night"! Why? I can't offer a full explanation. Although Frances was well cast as a sheltered NYC debutante, she lacked the charm and cute face of Claudette Colbert, who took her role in the earlier film. Bing lacked the masculine sex appeal of Gable, and his romantic conversion was much more tenuous, even at the end. Their supposed journey from NYC to AZ is way too truncated to be believable, among many unbelievable coincidences in the plot. How did the hobos manage to keep up with them, with no apparent means of transport away from the box car? Long time vaudevillian and sometimes band singer Martha Raye is in her feature film debut, where she demonstrates both talents. We first meet her at a train station, where she runs up and kisses Burns as a supposed lost lover. She would often portray herself as homely and clumsy, thus necessitating aggressiveness in man pursuit. Drunk scenes were another favorite of hers, as all too graphically demonstrated in her embarrassing last scene, when she is falling down drunk, trying to flirt with Doris's gray-haired father! In between these scenes, she livens things up with her frequent hysterical antics, in marked contrast to her laconic costars. She would rise quickly to star billing for a few films, then fade from films during and after WWII.....Bob Burns somewhat reminds us of Will Rogers, with his down home comments and humor. Only in the '30s could he get away with making a name with his very crude, very limited utility, musical instrument, dubbed the bazooka.In the music department, Bing wins the rodeo singing contest with "Empty Saddles", then sings the traditional"Roundup Lullaby" in the box car, to hopefully calm Cuddles and Doris. Around the camp fire, he sings the appropriate "I Can't Escape From You". At the ranch party, all participate in Johnny Mercer's "I'm an Old Cowhand", and Martha does her signature "Mr. Paganini" song and dance with great idiosyncratic gusto. In all, a much better musical program than usually given credit for, with several composed for this film. Ella Fitzgerald also recorded "Mr. Paganini" that year. Clearly, some of the outdoors scenes were shot in the unique Alabama Hills region, with the Sierras in the background, as seen in many a western.

The movie keeps shifting plots every 15 minutes. It seems probable that lots of material was cut out, as very little makes much sense.However, the movie contains so many delightful elements that one hardly cares. Bing Crosby is quite pleasant. He is wonderfully laid back and relaxed, just saying his lines between songs. This allows us to focus mainly on Francis Farmer, who is captivatingly beautiful as a runaway heiress-bride. Bob Burns with an instrument he invented called "the Bazooka" and Leonid Kinskey as the Russian immigrant cowboy "Mischa" provide a few laughs. Cuddles the Bull is also a surprisingly effective animal co-star.This is 20 year old Martha Raye's screen debut and it is quite unusual. She is doing vaudeville without toning it down one iota for the screen. This makes a sharp contrast to Crosby and Farmer's gentle reserved acting styles. She is frenetic, shouting and jumping all other the sets. There is something disturbing about her man-hungry character, Emma. It is a sex-role reversal with the woman as the obsessed predator who can't control herself and offers herself to any stray man. With so many other out-of-synch elements in the film, she just fits right in.It is a little ironic that Raye would get top billing two years later in "Give Me A Sailor" which was Bob Hope's first real starring film. So Raye worked with both Crosby and Hope before they worked together on the road pictures.For about 15 minutes towards the end of the film, there's a nice jamboree which includes the introduction of the classic Johnny Mercer song "I'm an Old Cow Hand". The three or four plot lines are kept in limbo while this is going on. If we had cared about the plot lines, we would have been upset, but since they are so light and flimsy anyway, we can see them as just excuses for this nice vaudeville segment.It is a shame that the duet between Farmer and Crosby was cut. I hope someone finds it somewhere and releases it on Youtube.Ultimately, this is an amusing and reasonably clever concoction of fluff and music. It is too slow-paced for today's ADD generation, but for lovers of Old Hollywood, it is fine.