Memorable, crazy movie

Beautiful, moving film.

As Good As It Gets

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

As America headed towards the traumas of World War II, Hollywood entertainment (as well as Broadway) became obsessed with all things Spanish. Here, there's only a little bit of Carmen Miranda (basically a specialty act playing herself), and a lot of Don Ameche and Betty Grable as the lovers who meet and fall in love as a result of a sale of a racehorse. Grable rose to "A" status to eclipse Alice Faye as 20th Century Fox's leading musical star, and her likability is exceeded only by her enormous talents as a singer and dancer. In the 1940's, only Rita Hayworth would surpass her as looking so good in Technicolor. Charlotte Greenwood is around to give her traditional high kicks (which she would continue to do into the mid 1950's as "Oklahoma's" Aunt Eller) and J. Carrol Naish provides some memorable comic relief.The color photography is sumptuous and every detail of this film is exquisite, from the sets and costumes, to the choreography and pacing. Miranda repeats the song "South America Way" which she had introduced earlier on Broadway, and later gets to perform "Mamãe Yo Quero" which has been burlesqued by many, from Mickey Rooney in "Babes on Broadway" to Jerry Lewis in "Scared Stiff" (Miranda's last film). Even Woody Allen got into the spoofing of this song, utilizing Miranda's popular recording to add some period detail to the wonderful "Radio Days". Grable is a definite dream in the wonderful title song and gets a sweet duet with Ameche. When Greenwood finally gets to show what she's made of with "Sing to Your Senorita", the price of admission has been paid, and the pleasure is doubled. Director Irving Cummings takes great detail in taking a typical romantic story to higher levels and the obvious box- office appeal is truly apparent.

Nobody should expect to see Hamlet when watching Down Argentine Way. In fact the plot here is thinner and sillier than most of these fluff musical pieces. Still it's kind a fun.Don Ameche is up from Argentina in the USA looking to sell some horses and Betty Grable is looking to buy, the horse and Ameche. But once Don hears that Betty's character has the last name of Crawford, no sale, no way, no how. With mixed motives both looking to get even and an unspoken attraction for Don, Betty and Aunt Charlotte Greenwood take a trip to Buenos Aires for business and all different kinds of pleasure. We also meet Henry Stephenson, Ameche's father, and it does take the whole film to find just what he has against people named Crawford. The prize jumping horse of the Quintana family which is the character names of Ameche and Stephenson who gets turned into a racehorse by the old family trainer, J. Carrol Naish in another of his multitude of ethnic characterizations.Of course this film never got out of the Hollywood back lot at 20th Century Fox Studios and there are even fewer establishing shots of Buenos Aires than usual. The two best things about Down Argentine Way are the musical score written by Harry Warren and Mack Gordon and the specialties of Carmen Miranda and the Nicholas Brothers.This was Carmen's American debut and she opens the film with a song that was forever indelibly identified with her, South American Way. The other hit song in the film is the title song of the picture to which everyone in the cast sings and dances at some point. The notes here say that Don Ameche's voice was dubbed. If so the guy must have been a great soundalike. Probably could fool a voice print identification. Sure sounded like Don Ameche singing from other films I've seen.Look for a nice performance by Leonid Kinskey a rather inept gigolo with a few other sidelines.Down Argentine Way was done before Juan Peron took power so the place was viewed favorably. The Roosevelt administration actively encouraged films to be made showing South America in a favorable light like this one with an idea towards making sure they were allies in the World War we were heading for. It's a nice piece of fluff with good songs Betty Grable's famous legs and the one and only Carmen Miranda.

One of the best Betty Grable musicals. As always the plot is unbelievably vacuous but who cares really? When you have the tippy-tappy Grable (doing what she does best), Carmen Miranda (in her American debut), Don Ameche (speaking in a nice Spanish accent), and the Nicholas Brothers (with their usual dance specialties) all in one movie, the implausible plot and meet-cutes are beside the point. The slick lively tunes and dances are more than enough to like this fluffy musical fiesta set in Argentina.If you liked "Down Argentine Way", see also "Springtime in the Rockies"(1942)

Of its genre, one of the greatest musicals ever. Betty makes male hearts swoon (and that's not all)! Any questions as to why she was number one with our boys overseas? Carmen is a firecracker and the Nicholas Brothers have never been duplicated. This film was much more about the players than the meat of the film. Meat-wise just a bunch of fluff, but performance-wise and production-wise, excellent!