Musicals traditionally represent the most escapist of all genres. For the impoverished masses during Great Depression escapism was exactly what the doctor ordered. That may explain success of Flying Down to Rio, 1933 film directed by Thorton Freeland, nowadays known for the first pairing of Fred Astaire with Ginger Rogers.
The plot begins in Miami hotel where nominal protagonist Roger Bond (played by Gene Raymond), composer and band leader, comes to play with his band. Roger, apart from being accomplished pilot and plane owner, is also a womaniser whose adventures with female guests often result in him and his band losing their gigs. Things don’t seem to be different when he falls madly with Brazilian beauty Belinha De Rezende (played by Dolores del Rio) which prompts Dona Elena (played by Blanche Friderici), her aunt and chaperone, to get him fired. Bond, however, arranges his band to play during the grand opening of Hotel Atlantico in Rio De Janeiro, unaware that its owner (played by Walter Walker) is Belinha’s father. Belinha misses her plane to Rio De Janeiro, so Roger volunteers to fly her with his plane. They are forced to land on tropical beach where they spend night together before Belinha continues her journey alone. When he arrives in Rio De Janeiro, Roger tries to find her with the help of his friend and fellow aviator Julio Ribeiro (played by Raul Roulien), unaware that Julio is actually Belinha’s fiance. Further complications arise when Greek business syndicate interested in buying hotel conspires to sabotage the grand opening.
Astaire and Rogers, despite this being first of their celebrated pairings, aren’t the actual stars of the film. They are supporting cast, both playing members of Bond’s band. Rogers plays the band’s vocalist Honey Hales that opens the film with delightful song “Music Makes Me”. Astaire plays Fred Ayres, Bond’s friend and something of a comic relief. Yet, when two of them perform together during long and spectacular “Carioca” music and dance number during the middle of the film, this performance easily outshines everything else in the film. That includes Gene Raymond, more than decent actor who does his best with relatively one-dimensional womanising character, as well as Dolores del Rio, popular Mexican actress who is, for the most part, reduced to eye candy. The plot is relatively weak, with some elements, like the subplot involving business conspiracies, looking like an afterthought and love triangle involving Bond, Julio and Belinha is cliched. Thankfully, film is relatively short and most of running time is taken by music and dance numbers, which are simply spectacular. The last scene, which features dozens of showgirls performing on planes in flight, is impressive despite relative primitive special effects and absurdity of the whole idea. There is even some inventive scenes like on deserted island where both Roger and Belinha talk with “naughty” subconscious versions of themselves before succumbing to passion.
Flying Down to Rio benefited a lot from being one of the last Hollywood films produced before enforcement of the infamous MPAA Production Code. As such, it provides additional fun to audience by featuring content that couldn’t have passed the Hays Office censors. Those include some saucy double entendres, implied male nudity, Dolores Del Rio becoming first major actress to appear in double-piece swimsuit and showgirls having wardrobe malfunction that leaves them in their underwear. As such, it was a great success and paved the way for Astaire and Rogers to appear together again in number of popular films. Even from today’s perspective, it is very entertaining film that could be recommended even to those viewers not that interested seeing Hollywood legend in the making,
RATING: 7/10 (+++)
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