Riverboat Rhythm

This movie got me about ten seconds in when Frankie Carle began playing a nice version of "Twelfth Street Rag", one of my favorite rags. Then we get old comedy pros Leon Errol and Walter Catlett playing off each other in a pre-Tennessee Williams Riverboat story that would have made a good vehicle for W.C. Fields -- their spin on the matter is also very funny. Throw in a couple of feuds, mistaken identity and a couple of solid comics like Jonathan Hale and Mantan Moreland, and it's a very entertaining comedy. Director Leslie Goodwins, who got his start in the RKO shorts department, knows how to direct farce, and the timing never lets up, save for the excellent musical interludes.

A modern viewer might find some of the stereotypes offensive, but I don't.

Even with the death of Lupe Velez and the Mexican Spitfire series, RKO wasn't going to let Leon Errol's character Uncle Matt Lindsey perish with the series. In Riverboat Rhythm, Uncle Matt is now the proprietor of a show boat, but he's been up against it with a series of bad business decisions.

Trying to avoid the sheriff Errol uses a bit of stage makeup and costume and he becomes Colonel Witherspoon who is played by Walter Catlett. But Errol doesn't know that Catlett is the target of another southern family the Beelers who have vowed to shoot him on sight for trifling with the affections of their sister. The Colonel actually married the sisters, but the Beeler clan practiced its own brand of annulment.

With Errol switching identities back and forth the whole thing becomes a Mexican Spitfire film without Lupe Velez. With same frantic pace except when Frankie Carle is playing the piano.

If you liked the Mexican Spitfire movies, you'll like this.