- Bob Crosby feels inferior to brother Bing, but needs to land a big band job before he can marry sweetheart Toby. Auditioning for Anson Weeks' band, he fantasizes about Toby and some barely clad showgirls.
- RHYTHM ON THE ROOF is a pale showcase for Anson Weeks, whose San Francisco dance orchestra played at the Mark Hopkins Hotel for a record seven years. The plot (by Mack Gordon, who co-wrote every song in the film) features Anson's real-life newest singer, Bob Crosby and his fictitious romance with starlet Toby Wing (known as Busby Berkeley's favorite chorus girl). The film is more like a promo for "We're Not Dressing" whence all the songs came. Anson's guitarist, Frankie Saputo, is also featured. The film opens with Bob and Frankie rehearsing "May I?" in a hotel room, while Bob gazes at a signed photo of Toby Wing and laments that he'll never be as good as his brother, Bing. Saputo answers the phone and says it's Bing (unseen) on the other end. Bing allegedly tells Frankie that Anson Weeks is looking for a singer. The two of them find Anson conducting the orchestra at rehearsal. Some dialogue takes place with Walter Bunker, Jr., who was the band's manager at the time. Then Bob steps in and sings "Love Thy Neighbor" while a rag tag bevy of chorus girls with dirty shoes does a sloppy line dance on the edge of the hotel's roof. Mercifully, they leap to their deaths on what appears to be Market Street. Ironically, Anson never played the "roof" at the Mark Hopkins. The famous "Top of The Mark" wasn't even opened until the Golden Gate International Exposition of 1939. "Good-Night, Lovely Little Lady" is the last tune heard, and the orchestra is wearing nightshirts and nightcaps while they play, yawn, snore and fall asleep. With the pluck of one guitar string, Saputo is the last to drop, and Anson (who had the good taste to not wear pajamas) sits on the bandstand, shaking his head in mock disgust. It was considered an honor to appear in film shorts, and some Paramount band shorts are superb. This one, however, doesn't really do justice to Weeks' infectious orchestra.—Anonymous
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