Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers' first film together, they are secondary characters outside a love triangle where a band director (Gene Raymond) falls for a woman (Delores del Rio) on her way to Rio (de Janeiro) to marry her fiance (Raul Roulien). Fred Astaire was a big star on Broadway by 1933, becoming famous dancing with his sister, Adele Astaire, who split up the act to marry into British nobility. I was surprised to find Fred Astaire a secondary character in this film (new to Hollywood, not yet a film star). Ginger Rogers was known better known in film, but is also secondary here. There is a sexy production number with dancers supposedly on acrobatic planes late in the film. Astaire and crew can't get a permit to put on a show at their Rio hotel, as some shady Greeks are trying to move in to force purchase of the venue. The acrobatic plane sequence features chorus girls in very nipply sheer outfits--pretty scandalous, the likes of which would soon disappear with enforcement of the Hays Code. This chorus line dance number is weird and wacky, and for me was the highlight of the movie, almost rivaling the lurid exuberance of a Busby Berkely number. (The dance director here was Dave Gould.) Flying Down to Rio is predictable yet entertaining, and my wife found it amusing (high praise, as she's often bored by pre-code musicals). For Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers fans this is a must see. In the middle dance number, they dance the Carioca, which became a craze and swept The States. And then there are chorus lines on stunt planes.
Review of Flying Down to Rio
