Flying Down to Rio (1933)

Flying Down to Rio (1933)

In director Thornton Freeland's extravagant, pre-Code RKO Radio Pictures' musical romance - it became known for the first teaming (of nine pairings) of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, but at first in only secondary roles. The high-grossing RKO film was also known for saving the studio from bankruptcy (along with King Kong (1933)).

Due to the box-office success of Warner Bros.' 42nd Street (1933), many other studios revived the dance-musical with numerous productions, including this one. It cleverly and convincingly combined exotic background and travelogue footage of South America's romantic city of Rio with studio sets.

The real stars of the film were NOT the debonair and charming Fred Astaire (who was cast in a secondary role as assistant band-leader and smart-alec sidekick Fred Ayres) and Ginger Rogers (who played the part of band vocalist singer Honey Hale).

Instead, the headliners were Dolores Del Rio (as beautiful Brazilian Belinha De Rezende) and aviator-pilot and Yankee Clipper's bandleader Gene Raymond (as playboy Roger Bond). The featured stars were involved in romantic entanglements and misadventures en route to the Hotel Atlantico in Rio, revealing eventually that Belinha was actually engaged to Roger's wealthy Brazilian friend Julio.

The film was also historically notable -- Dolores Del Rio appeared in a two-piece women's bathing suit, and became the first major star to do so on-screen. A year earlier, a brief scene showed a two-piece bathing "sun-suit" being modeled by a group of females on a beach in Three on a Match (1932).

The musical dance film was filmed with a budget of 462,000,ドル and was highly successful at the box-office, earning 923,000ドル (domestic), and 1ドル.545 million (worldwide). It was nominated for one Academy Award: Best Original Song (a new award category) for the dance-song: "Carioca," but it lost to Astaire's and Rogers' next romantic musical comedy entry: "The Continental" from The Gay Divorcee (1934).

• the title card was prefaced by a propellor airplane flying directly at the camera; the main characters were introduced with individual images, showing their real and character names; the plot concerned the complications of a romantic love triangle between:
  • Roger Bond (Gene Raymond), a blonde, buffed American aviator-pilot and the Yankee Clipper's band-leader
  • Belinha De Rezende (Dolores Del Rio), a fiery, upper-class Brazilian heiress, initially a Miami hotel guest
  • Julio Rubeiro (Raul Roulien), Belinha's wealthy fiancee in Rio

• in the opening sequence, set at the Hotel Hibiscus in Miami, Roger - an inveterate and flirtatious ladies' man and bandleader of The Yankee Clippers, was presently performing with his band in the hotel's outdoor Date Grove
• the effeminate Hammerstein (Franklin Pangborn), the Swiss manager of the hotel who had been brought in to "enforce discipline", was calling his staff together; after inspecting the hotel's chefs and waiters, he continued on to inspect the female staff outfits of the hotel maids, he discovered that one of the voluptuous, flirtatious waitresses had an indecent neckline, and another had a worn shoe-heel; Hammerstein then proceeded to check out the band members, where he warned:
  • "I will dismiss, discharge, and disqualify any employee who gets familiar with a guest"
• band singer-vocalist Honey Hale (Ginger Rogers) responded by asking impertinently as she slightly raised her dress above the knees: "But, what happens if the guests get familiar with us!"
• late to the scene were the band leader/song-writer Roger Bond and his assistant band-leader, accordion player, and wise-cracking sidekick Fred Ayres (Fred Astaire); the two arrived in a single-engine plane at a nearby airport; Bond was piloting his own plane, and had outfitted it with a piano; they rushed over to the hotel's Date Grove, to broadcast on the radio one of the band's earliest numbers; it was performed by the bubbly and fun-loving Honey; she wore a low-cut, fairly-transparent skirt while singing "Music Makes Me" - with these lyrics:
  • "My self control was something to brag about / Now it's a gag about town / The things I do are never forgiven and just when I'm livin' 'em down / I hear music / Then I'm through 'cause music makes me do the things I never should do"
• after Honey's song, in a memorable scene, several pretty women in the hotel attempted to get band conductor Roger's attention; one American blonde woman, credited as Belinha's Friend (Mary Kornman), observed how her Brazilian beauty friend Belinha De Rezende had sent Roger a note, and was able to entice band-leader Roger to leave his conducting post and dance with her; the jealous blonde female muttered and complained about Belinha's tremendous sex appeal:
  • "What do these South Americans got below the Equator that we haven't?"
• it often happened that Roger's flirtatious urges with hotel guests led to his being fired; Hammerstein noticed Roger's infraction, and informed Belinha's strict and vigilant chaperone Dona Elena (Blanche Friderici); the stringent Hammerstein promptly fired Roger for his contact with Belinha
• the next morning, Fred announced to everyone that Roger had fortuitously contacted an old friend in Rio de Janiero Brazil, Júlio Rubeiro (Raul Roulien); he had arranged to have the band fly to Brazil to perform for the opening night of the Atlântico Hotel in Rio; Roger was unaware that the hotel was owned by Belinha's financially-strapped father, Senor Carlos De Rezende (Walter Walker)
• soon after, Roger and the pretty Brazilian Belinha met in the hotel's hallway; as she apologized for getting him into trouble, she mentioned that she had missed her flight to Rio; the pilot/aviator offered her a ride to Brazil in his friend's - actually his own - two-seater private plane that could not accommodate Belinha's chaperone
• during a moonlit interlude on a tropical island after their plane had developed mechanical problems and was forced to land, Roger discovered a clogged fuel line, but hid the fact from Belinha; she suspected that it was a ruse and that nothing was really wrong; but she was also hopefully expectant that Roger would begin to woo her again; the two of them had out-of-body 'double-exposures' from their subconscious, as their alter-ego selves contemplated having sex together; Roger's alter-ego said:
  • "When was there ever a better opportunity for dirty-work at the crossroads?"
• during their short overnight on the island on a romantic, moonlit night, the two kissed, but then Belinha informed Roger that she was engaged to a young Brazilian in Rio (and obligated to marry him due to an arranged marriage) and couldn't continue their affair; after Roger boasted that it wouldn't be a problem, she slapped him; retaliating, he put her over his knee and spanked her!; the two spent the night sleeping apart (Roger on the beach, and Belinha inside the plane)
• the next morning, the two discovered that they were near the Port-au-Prince Golf Club in Haiti, located near the airport; Belinha arranged to take the departing Rio flight (joining Dona Elena on the regular flight), but before deserting him and leaving for Brazil, she admitted to Roger that she knew of his deception about the plane's fuel line
• the film then shifted to Rio, where the band was setting up to play at the imminent gala opening of the Hotel Atlantico; Roger was single-mindedly determined to locate his tropical Brazilian acquaintance; he didn't know her name, but confessed his love for her to Julio, describing her as a Brazilian beauty; Julio immediately sensed and recognized that Roger was speaking about his fiancee, and realized that he was being placed in an awkward situation to help find her
• in an outdoor night club known as the Carioca Casino, the casino owner explained why the dance, known as "The Carioca" was preferable to any other dances:
  • "The American foxtrot is considered tame. Too dull...Our people prefer the Carioca"
• during the brief star-making dance, the dance couple: band accordion player Fred Ayres (Fred Astaire) and singer Honey Hale stepped onto a small stage to dance the routine (including bumping foreheads and hips, while clasping hands) while surrounded by seven white pianos; they also had to execute a turn without losing forehead contact, as Fred commented: "I'd like to try this thing just once, Come on, Honey" and Honey added: "We'll show 'em a thing or three"; part of the dance found them dancing ON the white pianos
• in a great example of a pre-Code film sequence, Roger undressed (became naked - he was seen only from the waist up but with implied nudity) and tossed aside his Rio hotel room towel; he realized he was being checked out (below-the-waist) by Julio - whose eyes dipped downward

• it was inevitable for Roger to soon learn, from Julio himself, that he was engaged to Senorita De Rezende (Belinha!); it strengthened Roger's resolve to win Belinha's love
• challenges and problems developed -- during rehearsals of chorus girls, the police informed Fred that the Hotel Atlântico had not be issued a valid entertainment license or permit; a competing gangster syndicate group in Monte Carlo, known as the Three Greeks, had been plotting with local banker Alfredo Vianna (Reginald Barlow) to thwart Senor Carlos De Rezende's ownership of the hotel and cause it to fail so that they could take possession; rehearsals for the opening show were deliberately delayed, making it impossible to get a replacement license with such short notice (since Rio's Mayor (Paul Porcasi) was out of town)
• Roger spotted a plane flying overhead, and had the brilliant idea of strapping the hotel's 22 dancing chorus girls to single-winged planes and bi-planes, to perform the hotel's opening floor show while airborne; Fred would be leading the band, while Julio acted as the lead pilot in a plane with Honey strapped to its wings; she would be helping to direct and instruct the other chorus girls on how to perform their aerial choreography
• just before the aerial show, Roger received a thank-you letter from Senor Carlos De Rezende; it prompted him to tell Julio that he would be leaving on a flight to Buenos Aires; before departing, Roger had a tearful goodbye scene with Belinha
• in the film's most memorable scene, an aerial ballet was held as part of the opening of the Hotel Atlantico; in the sequence, sexy, high-kicking, high-heeled, scantily-clad chorus girls danced to the title song "Flying Down to Rio" while on top of airborne airplane wings
  [Note: The sequence was filmed in an airplane hangar with wind machines and a few planes hanging from the ceiling - enhanced with backdrops of Rio and Malibu Beach).]
• below the action taking place in the skies, Fred danced and sang the title song: "Flying Down to Rio"
  • (lyrics: "Flying down to Rio, come with me! Where the lovely Brazilian ladies will catch your eye, By the light of the million stars in the evening sky, My Rio, Rio by the Sea-o, Flying down to Rio where there's rhythm and rhyme...")

• the exhibition was a great success due to its highly-entertaining and unusual opening performance; as the film concluded, the Three Greeks were eliminated by three unseen assailants in the shadows, guaranteeing and assuring the hotel's success
• by this time, Julio had decided to give up his marital arrangement with Belinha; he tricked her into thinking that he was taking her on a honeymoon; he transported her to a loading dock where they both boarded a passenger seaplane (the China Clipper) bound for Buenos Aires; he ushered Belinha into a seat next to Roger, and then after taking off, he bailed out of the plane with a parachute (over Rio) after convincing the seaplane pilot to marry them