Everything Is Rhythm

This is the first of the 2 films starring Harry Roy and his then wife Princess Pearl of Sarawak's,who is billed as Mrs Harry Roy.The acting and the plot are quite irrelevant to consideration of this films merits.It is of course the musical numbers.This features no less than 8 in its 75 minutes running time.They are all very engaging numbers with some very reasonable production values.Whilst not up to Berkley standard nevertheless they are well above what you would get in a Hollywood B musical of the time.Although not an actor in the strict sense Harry Roy does have an engaging personality.On a personal note his real name was Roylanski and my mum knew his family when they lived in Stamford Hill.

Harry Roy (nee Lipman) and his band go from zero to wildly successful in the first ten minutes, and then he has to court his real-life wife, who's a Monrovian Princess who's supposed to marry a plump royal. When word of their romance reaches the court, she's ordered home.

Musically I found it pleasant, although not particularly original, between tunes that started off like "Doing the New Low Down", and orchestrations that might sound like Cab Calloway efforts or Kay Kaiser. Clearly the intent was to provide a variety of styles of then-current band music. Director Alf Goulding, who arose in silent comedy, offers some nice, imaginative staging, including one nice special effects piece in which Roy appears in miniature on the keys as his piano player runs through a number, and another in which he bribes a waiter to let him serve the Princess.

Although there's no sign of great acting, the low-key efforts are pleasant enough and it's a nice mid-decade British musical. Mabel Mercer sings a song as a happy bonus.