OVP: Flying Down to Rio (1933)

Film: Flying Down to Rio (1933)

Stars: Delores Del Rio, Gene Raymond, Raul Roulien, Ginger Rogers, Fred Astaire

Director: Thornton Freeland

Oscar History: 1 nomination (Best Original Song-"Carioca)...I listed 1933 for this because it came out in 1933, but it's worth remembering that since it came out on December 29th it was eligible at the 1934 Oscars, and that's what the label below is indicating since those are based on Oscar ceremonies more than the actual calendar years.

Snap Judgment Ranking: 3/5 stars

Few cinematic pairings are linked together in the same way as Fred Astaire & Ginger Rogers.  Like Abbott & Costello or Bogart & Bacall, the two are synonymous, and their films are the stuff of legend at this point.  I have seen a chunk (though not a majority of their films), but what I didn't realize when I started watching Flying Down to Rio the other day was that their first film didn't have them in the leads.  Flying Down to Rio is the premiere movie of their ten-picture pairings, and it's also a movie that does feature the two dancing, but they aren't the stars, and their love story (if you can call it that) is ancillary to the plot.

(Spoilers Ahead) While they aren't the leads, this film follows the path of most Astaire/Rogers pictures in that the plot is unneeded at best & mostly a vehicle for singing & dancing, but we'll still give it its paragraph.  Roger Bond (Raymond) is a composer who tours with a band that includes vocalist Honey (Rogers) & assistant band leader Fred (Astaire).  Roger is in love with one of the women in the audience at a show, Belinha (del Rio), who is heavily chaperoned & he's unable to make a play for her.  He finally finds a way by flying her to Rio, and getting to a deserted island when they have to make an emergency landing.  It's clear the two love each other, but Belinha confesses she's engaged.  When they make it to Rio, it turns out that Belinha is engaged to Roger's buddy Julio (Roulien), and a love triangle emerges between the three, which Julio concedes after realizing that Belinha is in love with Fred and not him.

The main plot is blasé, and not worth our time.  Del Rio would be a big star in her era, but neither she nor Raymond have the same level of ubiquity that Rogers & Astaire do because they aren't that good-the chemistry between the two is middling, while the latter's is dynamic (there's a reason that they were given movies together after this...it's like watching lightning-in-a-bottle when they're onscreen together for the first time).  If you're someone who is solely interested in scripts or plot, this is not a good fit for you.

That being said, Flying Down to Rio is fun.  The repartee between Astaire & Rogers is delicious (and sometimes a bit salacious...this is pre-Code, after all), and their dancing is dynamite.  It's easy to see why "Carioca," an otherwise bland & ineffectual song, got nominated for an Oscar, and it's because they were basically just nominating the Astaire/Rogers dance routine.  Del Rio's famous bikini scene is played without too much notice (she was the first actress to appear in a bikini in a major studio film)-no wolf whistles or bug eyes, but the movie's other major calling card, the incredible trick photography that made it seem like a bunch of chorus girls are dancing on the wings of a plane is awe-inspiring.  Linwood Dunn (the genius behind the visual trickery of King Kong, Citizen Kane, and the original Star Trek TV series) was behind this, and it's amazing.  Obviously a modern audience can see the way he did this, but compared to other films of its era it's extraordinary, and clearly influential.  Astaire/Rogers and Dunn's "aerial ballet" are worth the price of admission even if you might not be vested in del Rio & Raymond's listless affair.