OVP: Down Argentine Way (1940)

Film: Down Argentine Way (1940)
Stars: Don Ameche, Betty Grable, Carmen Miranda, Charlotte Greenwood, J. Carrol Naish
Director: Irving Cummings
Oscar History: 3 nominations (Best Cinematography, Art Direction, Original Song-"Down Argentine Way")
Snap Judgment Ranking: 2/5 stars

Each month, as part of our 2020 Saturdays with the Stars series, we highlight a different actress known as an iconic "film sex symbol."  This month, our focus is on Betty Grable-click here to learn more about Ms. Grable (and why I picked her), and click here for other Saturdays with the Stars articles.

Betty Grable was no one's idea of an overnight success in Hollywood if you were willing to do the research.  During the earliest parts of her career, she hopped from studio to studio in hopes of establishing herself as a dancer and an actress.  However, she couldn't make it at Paramount or RKO, and by 1939 (at the age of only 23-her mother lied about her age to get her more mature parts early in her career), Grable would have been forgiven for assuming that mainstream success wasn't coming her way.  However, a well-reviewed supporting part in the Broadway production of DuBarry was a Lady led her to get a contract with Fox, and fate took a hand when Alice Faye, then Fox's most important leading woman, had to drop out of her next picture Down Argentine Way, with Grable coming in to substitute for Faye.  The film was a smash hit, becoming one of Fox's biggest pictures of the year, and not only cemented Grable as the new star on the Fox lot, but also sealed the fate of Alice Faye's career (you can read more about this here, as Faye was one of our stars last year) and launched the unusual career of Grable's costar Carmen Miranda as well.

(Spoilers Ahead) Like so many of the Fox musicals of this era, the plot here is a bit of a hodgepodge.  We have Ricardo Quintano (Ameche), a handsome horse salesman, who goes to Argentina to sell some of his father's prize steeds, but only if he promises not to sell to any member of his arch-nemesis's family the Crawfords.  Naturally when he gets there, not only does Ricardo accidentally sell one of the horses to a Crawford, he falls in love with his father's rival's daughter Glenda (Grable), before choosing his father over Glenda.  However, their love can't be denied and so the two start to see each other secretly, and then eventually prove to Ricardo's father that their love is more important than an old feud, and that he should stop just selling horses and get back into racing them as well.

And also, Carmen Miranda is randomly there.

The film is about the best encapsulation of Fox musicals of the era, in both the good and the bad.  Fox, unlike MGM's perfection machine, was more likely to just throw together a series of musical numbers and hope that they stick.  Down Argentine Way, therefore, is technically a love story but there's not much stakes in it-you don't really get to know Glenda or Ricardo, and we're just supposed to assume that since they're beautiful and young that love is the only course of action for the two.  Ameche & Grable are both fun in these parts, but it's hard to imagine how Grable became a star off of such a vehicle other than her technicolor blonde-ness and enviable gams; this series is focused on finding what's below the surface of some of Hollywood's most iconic beauties, but Grable doesn't give us much to root for in Glenda, and quite frankly she doesn't have the instant depth and charm of Alice Faye (but it's early in her film career so I'll hope for the best in coming weeks).

The musical numbers are still fun though.  While Miranda is literally playing herself (like she'd pretty much do her entire film career), man does she come in and steal this whole film with her trio of musical numbers, particularly the first onscreen use of her signature song "Mamae Eu Quero."  By the end of the decade, Miranda & Grable (both in their breakout roles here) would become two of the highest-paid entertainers in the world, so Down Argentine Way certainly had a major place in film history even if it's pretty slight (if harmless).

The film won three Oscar nominations.  The Cinematography is glorious Technicolor (Grable looks ravishing, as does Ameche for that matter), but it's not technically interesting, particularly compared to some of the color work that was happening in films like The Wizard of Oz and Gone with the Wind just the previous year.  The same goes for the Art Direction-the interior shots all feel like vacant lots, and one wonders if this simply got the nomination based on how much money Fox spent filming in both Argentina and New York (to accommodate Miranda's Broadway engagements).  The best of the three nominations is Song, the title track which is sung in the picture by Grable & Ameche, and features Grable doing a saucy dance number (though with her legs covered-the bare legs come later in the picture).  The song recurs throughout the film, and is a bit of an unofficial theme to all of the musical numbers, but while it was cute, it doesn't really jump-off-the-screen the way that Miranda's numbers will halfway through the movie.

Overall, I left the first Grable outing a bit underwhelmed, but since she's the rare Saturday Star to get five films in one month (only in a Leap Year!), we have plenty of time to get better acquainted with the actress. Next week we'll take a rare detour for Grable (who specialized in romance and musicals) into the universe of film noir, and one of Grable's only dramatic roles.