REGENT THEATRE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 5 February 1941, Page 2

REGENT THEATRE

-RHYTHM ON THE RIVER." I A new starring team appears for the i first time in -Rhythm on the River." | which will be shown tonight at the Regent Theatre. Bing Crosby j and Mary Martin sing seven new song , hits in this story which deals with a ; popular song writer. Oliver Courtney ' ’Basil Rathbone) who has gone “stale” . and has to employ Bob Summers (Bing : Crosby) to "ghost write" his numbers. i Shaw, a musical comedy producer, i wants songs for his new show and Bing has to provide them. Then Courtney’s lyric writer drops dead, and 1 Mary Martin steps into his shoes, and comes into contact with Bing in such ' suspicious circumstances that she , thinks he is following her and has him I i arrested. She leaves her lodgings to j go to “Nobody’s Inn” in retreat up the; Hudson River, and finds that Bing is| a nephew of the owner. Between the ) two of them they write a song andl agree that they will not publish it. i Bing plays one of Courtney’s songs to) which Mary has written the lyrics, and ) she concludes that he is a thief of other I composers’ music. Finally, she realises) that they are collaborators and they ■ try to sell their songs with little sue-; cess until they enlist the help of a band.! Then Bing tries to get his job back ’ and leaves the "sacred" song as a bond. [ Courtney in desperation uses the song I to smooth down Shaw and complications ensue which provide a fitting finale to a gay, tuneful comedy in the best Bing Crosby style. It is a splendid picture which has every quality to recommend it to particular patrons. j The featurettes are up to the usual ) high Regent Theatre standard, and in-1 elude America’s new mosquito fleet,! the crisis in Thailand and the speed-up i in army planes.