the audience applauded

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

This is the first movie paring of Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire. Although they only had third and fourth billings in the movie, and they only do one dance number together (a portion of "The Carioca"); the chemistry was enough to start the tradition that would lead to nine more movies with them as dancing co-stars. That, alone, would make this movie interesting from an historical perspective. But, this movie is loaded with fun, and there are two fantastic production pieces that must have made Busby Berkeley jealous. With songs by Vincent Youmans and choreography by Astaire and Hermes Pan, this is pure fantasy and one shouldn't expect anything less, for that's what 'makes the movie'!!The movie starts in a Miami hotel and ends in Rio. The story involves a love triangle among a bandleader/aviator (Gene Raymond), the heiress of a rich Brazilian hotel owner (Dolores Del Rio), and the rich Brazilian aviator that she is expected to marry (Raul Roulien). However, I am sure that I will watch this movie over and over JUST for the two elaborate— and I mean VERY elaborate--production pieces: "The Carioca," and "Flying Down to Rio." The song, "Orchids in the Moonlight," is also impressively sung by Roulinen to Del Rio, even though it was written by Raymond's character for Del Rio's character. Now, for the real fun: dozens of chorines dance, swing, and sway on airplane wings as their planes fly over an outdoor audience while the band (on the ground below) plays "Flying Down to Rio." Everything about this 'musical extravaganza stage in the clouds' is beyond the laws of physics and way beyond belief, but that just makes it all the more fun to watch."Flying down to Rio" is just a lot of fun.

Now part of an inexpensive DVD set of some of the Fred Astaire & Ginger Rogers films. Although Fred was a well established musical and acting talent in theater productions, this was only his second film appearance. Earlier the same year, he had been a featured dance partner for Joan Crawford, in her semi-autobiographical film "Dancing Lady" , which included another up and coming star, Clark Gable, as the leading male dramatic star. In this film, he is again billed as a secondary character, below the much younger, but more film-experienced Ginger, and well below the top-billed romantic triangle-actors of Dolores del Rio, Gene Raymond, and Raul Roulien. Nonetheless, he is given a significant role in the screenplay, as well as several solo or partnered singing or dancing scenes. Already, he seems quite comfortable in his roles. He is loosely paired with Ginger as a dance partner and developing romantic couple, although these are not pursued as definitive. Fred and Ginger have only one dance together, and this is but one segment of the very long and varied dance fest to the catchy Latin-sounding "Carioca". Clearly, this was the take home dance song, among the few offerings composed by Vincent Youmans, Gus Kahn, and Edward Eliscu, and it was exploited for all it's potential. It was hoped that the new dance format accompanying this song, including the touching of foreheads of the couples, would catch on as a dance craze. However, this didn't happen. I thought it looked interesting. As performed by some of the more exuberant dance couples, it would have been censored late the following year, when the Hays commission standards were raised, as too erotic. Some of the dance choreography looked like it was inspired by Busby Berkeley, who was then with Warner....The second most memorable song was "Orchids in the Moonlight", sung by Raul Roulien to his sweetheart: Belinha(Delores), then danced a bit to by Fred and Delores, as a couple.The highly contrived screenplay begins with Fred, as the backup leader of a traveling band fronted by Raymond, taking over the podium when Raymond spies Dolores in the Miami audience, and goes to strike up a conversation. As a result, the band loses its contract: a repetitive occurrence, thanks to the skirt chasing of Raymond's character(Roger). Both Dolores and Raymond have reasons to next move to Rio, Brazil. Raymond secretly arranges to fly Dolores there in his small 2 person plane, initially in disguise. They have a romantic encounter during a forced landing, but Dolores says she's already engaged. Nonetheless, Raymond is hopeful he can change this situation. The band is booked to perform at a hotel owned by Dolores's father. Later, they are told they can no longer perform there, because the hotel lacks a permit for them to perform. Raymond conceives the crazy idea of having the chorus girls do movements on the wings of airplanes flying above Rio, while the band plays in a public area below. This is implied as being a big success(Should have been arrested as a very dangerous stunt, instead!). While flying one of the planes, Raul spies Dolores and Raymond kissing, through his binoculars(Ha!). Upon landing, he rushes to find Dolores, telling her she will soon be on her honeymoon. They rush in his car to the 'flying boat', near ready to take off for the US. One of the passengers is Raymond, who has finally given up trying to convince Dolores to break her engagement with Raul. Once they are in flight, Raul asks the pilot if he can perform a marriage ceremony. He agrees. I won't divulge the 'unexpected' ending to this increasingly daffy story.Dolores was at the early height of her film fame during the late silent era, when she was widely hailed as the female equivalent of Valentino. After a sputtering film career during the early talky period, she quit films for a while, to later reemerge in the 40s as a star of Mexican films, and character actress in some Hollywood films. She still had some Hollywood roles in her early 60s. I remember her presence in "Cheyenne Autumn" and "More than a Miracle", in the mid-'60s, for example. Plenty of background shots of Rio , including flying close to Sugarloaf, give the audience the feel that they are in Rio.Initially, Fred was not keen on the idea of making a series of films costarring Ginger, as he wanted to establish himself as a top solo performer. However, he eventually gave in to popular sentiments.During the portion of the Carioca extravaganza when lyrics were sung, there were supposedly 3 Brazilian women who successively supplied the solo vocals: Alice Gentle initially. Then, the clearly very young and beautiful Latino Movita Castaneda, and lastly the African American Etta Moten. Movita much later became the second Mrs. Marlon Brando, and is currently the last living member of the cast of this film, at age 98. Etta lived to 102, and became prominent in political affairs relating to African Americans, including more dignified roles in films.

The 1933 film, Flying Down to Rio, was just the beginning of the musical era. The musicals that we know today are very different from the first few. The older musicals had a problem fitting the song and dance into the plot and they went on for long periods of time. The dancing in the movie was amazing for me to see. I participated in many forms of dance throughout my adolescent years. Although tap wasn't my favorite type of dance, it made me really appreciate how talented Fred Astaire and his partner were. The only critic of the dance scenes would be the ending when the women were strapped to the planes. I found it hard to believe that this movie, being very realistic, would throw in this scene. I could never imagine this happening in real life and the spectators on the ground would not have been able to see the girls on top of the wings. There was cool camera work in the scene when the pilot and rich women were stranded on the island. To display their consciences, there was a translucent image talking to themselves and I thought that was very creative.

Today, the 1933 Radio Pictures musical "Flying Down to Rio" is perhaps best remembered for two things: It is the film featuring the classic, eye-bugging sequence of chorus girls dancing on the wings of airplanes in flight, and it marked the first, epochal teaming of what was to become cinema's most elegant, enduring and beloved song-and-dance team, Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. But a recent rescreening of the film has served to remind me that although F&G play second-banana roles in their initial outing, "Rio" still has lots of other enticements to offer. In it, F&G play accordionist Fred Ayres and lead singer Honey Hale in playboy/bandleader Roger Bond's group, the Yankee Clippers. Roger (played by Gene Raymond) soon falls hard for the charms of a Brazilian lady with the memorable handle Belinha de Rezende, not knowing that she's the fiancée of his pal (Raul Roulien), who's just hired the band to play in Rio. Mexican beauty Dolores del Rio does well in her exotic role of Belinha, and before long, the whole gang is dancing and romancing down in the tropics. "Rio" has been imaginatively directed by Thornton Freeland (I know...who?), and features the most creative transitional scene swipes you've ever witnessed, a very bright and amusing script (my favorite line: "What have these South Americans got below the equator that we haven't?"), incredible sets and excellent special FX. Highlights of this film include Ginger singing the infectiously bouncy "Music Makes Me," Raul singing "Orchids in the Moonlight" to Dolores, Fred's high-speed specialty tap number, and the sight of those chorus girls doing their Rockette-like thing on the wings of those airplanes (some truly special FX here). But it is the epic, 12-minute, central dance number, "The Carioca" (still five minutes shorter than the monumental "Continental" in F&G's follow-up film, "The Gay Divorcée"), featuring Fred and Ginger's first dance together, that really makes this a film for the ages. "The new fast-stepping dancing pair," the trailer proclaimed, but who could have foreseen that this was just the initial salvo in a 10-picture run for the beloved team? "Flying Down to Rio" was a wildly popular escape for Depression-wearied audiences, and serves the exact same fantasy escape function during our modern-day Depression. It may not be the best of the Fred and Gingers, but it sure does start the series off with a bang! Anyone out there know how to say "a hoot and a half" in Portuguese?