Rio Rita (1929) User Reviews

The Ranger's Get Their Man

[bkoganbing · 7/10 · 1 October 2008]

When movies began to talk a whole new vista of motion pictures opened up with the musical. Not that musical properties hadn't been done before, most famously Rudolf Friml's Rose Marie was done as a silent film with Joan Crawford in the lead. The Student Prince was also done with Norma Shearer. But singing and dancing was something new and it's no accident that the first talking film, The Jazz Singer was a musical.

The guy who made the best musicals back in those days was Florenz Ziegfeld. One of his best was the operetta Rio Rita which ran for 494 performances in 1927-1928. Since the setting was the west, to be exact the Texas-Mexican border, we essentially get the screen's first musical western.

Rio Rita was the newly formed RKO Studios big budget film for 1929 and it starred John Boles and Bebe Daniels and Rio Rita was her talking picture debut. She surprised the world with a really nice soprano voice doing those Harry Tierney-Joseph McCarthy songs. Boles was one film's earliest singers and he does the famous Ranger song with gusto in the best Nelson Eddy manner. The other big song from the score was the title song that is sung as a duet with Boles and Daniels. Bebe's best solo number is an item that Tierney and McCarthy wrote specifically for the screen, You're Always In My Arms.

Repeating their roles from the stage show are the comedy team of Wheeler and Woolsey who also make their screen debut as well. The team itself was a creation of Florenz Ziegfeld and he used them in one of his Ziegfeld Follies editions. They're involved in a subplot about playboy Wheeler getting a Mexican divorce and getting into the clutches of a shyster attorney in Woolsey.

I could see that both of them were individual performers because Bert Wheeler gets himself a fine song and dance number in Out On The Loose. He was quite the dancer, something we rarely saw in his comedy films with Robert Woolsey. Still it was as a team that they have come down to us.

The main plot involved Texas Ranger captain John Boles going across the border to ferret out and apprehend a bandit called El Kinkajou and finding romance with Bebe Daniels. Like the first version of Rose Marie though his main suspect is her brother and Texas Rangers like Canadian Mounties put duty first.

The film is a photographed stage musical essentially, just like the first two Marx Brothers films, The Cocoanuts and Animal Crackers. But the opulence of a Ziegfeld Show is preserved and that is the main reason to see Rio Rita. The last half hour is in color and we can thank the Deity that was preserved.

So for film historians and those who want a glimpse at the showmanship of Florenz Ziegfeld, don't miss Rio Rita when broadcast.

When Time Isn't Kind

[wes-connors · 5/10 · 27 October 2008]

Most old films noted as "of historical interest only" are actually very entertaining. "Rio Rita" is not. It is one of the better examples of the "historically interesting" film. It's also helpful if you view it as a extravagantly filmed stage production. The 1927-28 stage musical, produced by Florenz Ziegfeld, was a colossal success. And, the too long film version was voted 1927's fourth "Best Picture", in the annual poll conducted by "Film Daily".

The opportunity to see "Rio Rita" on screen, in partial color, with popular Bebe Daniels (as Rita Ferguson) in her first speaking (and singing) role, proved irresistible at the box office. Ms. Daniels did not equal her 1920s silent successes, but extended her popularity into the early "talkie" era. Check out the debuting comedy team of Wheeler and Woolsey (with Dorothy Lee) in "Hips, Hips, Hooray!" for a better representation of their work.

***** Rio Rita (1929) Luther Reed ~ Bebe Daniels, Bert Wheeler, Robert Woolsey

It Takes Imagination to Appreciate

[LeonardKniffel · 7/10 · 28 September 2019]

Hollywood's second all-color, all-talking feature film broke all box office records and remained for 10 years the highest grossing film ever produced. In it, movie goers first heard Bebe Daniels' singing voice on the silver screen and it was a sensation. Teaming her with handsome John Boles was good casting, because he too had a wonderful singing voice. Their duet in counterpoint at the beginning of the film (he sings the title tune while she sings "River of My Dreams") must have made audiences swoon at the time. You really have to project yourself back in time to appreciate this one. ---Musicals on the Silver Screen, American Library Association, 2013

"Rita" as a Talkie Test?

[nknerr · 20 June 2006]

What a lot of movie buffs may not be aware of is the surprise and delight that the movie audiences of 1929 felt when they first heard Bebe Daniels's singing voice on the silver screen. By the time sound pictures began to appear, Daniels had already been a major silent film star for years, most notably headlining in romantic comedies for Paramount. She was quite popular with audiences, and she was considered a real beauty, too. Yet before the advent of sound, screen audiences (for the most part) didn't know what her voice sounded like... They could only imagine. So at a time when the arrival of sound sometimes killed the careers of heretofore popular movie stars, many so-called "hot" personalities found their personas diminished on the talking screen. Not so with Daniels. No matter what people might have been expecting before the lights went down and the sound came on, as it turned out, in "Rio Rita", her singing voice was nothing short of a sensation. Teaming her with the incredibly handsome John Boles was a nice bit of casting, too, because he too was blessed with a wonderful singing voice. Their "duet in counterpoint" at the beginning of the film (he sings the title tune while she sings "River of My Dreams") must have been a revelation, and one can almost imagine the theatre audiences swooning when it was first heard in 1929. So no matter what others may tell you about this "Rita", the thing to keep in mind is that with almost all of these early talkies, the viewers today who will appreciate them the most are those who can project themselves back in time when they watch them.

La Fiesta Grande!

[mark.waltz · 7/10 · 6 January 2016]

The team of Wheeler and Woolsey got their start in film as the comic second leads, and as a result, they are often more remembered for this film than the leads, Bebe Daniels and John Boles. Like Mr. Boles' other big musical of 1929, "The Desert Song", this focuses on the romance between a hero masquerading as a criminal and a respectable lady. Best remembered as the temperamental Dorothy Brock in "52nd Street", Daniels possessed a fine soprano voice and makes a nice pair with the handsome but dull Boles.

Some lavish production numbers help make this one of the best early sound musicals (as opposed to a silent musical). Wheeler and Woolsey are joined by the perky Dorothy Lee who provides a cute secondary romance for squeaky voiced Wheeler. As for Woolsey, he's given the best lines, but the style would improve in later films.

Forgotten for decades, Wheeler and Woolsey have fortunately been re- discovered. While they were long deceased by the time of that, Miss Lee was still around, and commented on both men and how much fun they had making these films. Some Busby Berkley overhead style shots are utilized, making this primitive movie musical a lot better than many of them being released at the time. The two W's had utilized the slap scene before, but got more fans by moving to the screen. People's shout of "Whoah!" is heard here, although quite a bit differently than it would be later on. So while not one of the best W&W films, it was a great way for them to start.

Historically important but that's it

[preppy-3 · 4/10 · 8 October 2008]

Early talkie with musical interludes. In Mexico people are looking for the bandit Kinkajou. Many people believe it is the brother of the lovely and popular Rio Rita (Bebe Daniels). Looking for him is dashing Captain Stewart (John Boles) and evil General Ravanoff (Georges Renavent). The "comedy" team of Bert Wheeler and Robert Woolsey provide some astonishingly unfunny routines.

Historically this is important. It was one of the first talkies and the last half hour is in color. But it's really pretty bad. The plot itself is creaky and the sound recording is terrible (but that can be excused). The songs and dancing themselves aren't bad (for 1929) but the movie is slow-moving and pretty boring. I find it hard to believe this movie was actually 30 minutes longer! Good acting doesn't help much. Also the comedy team of Wheeler and Woolsey pop up. They were pretty big in the 1920s and 30s but they're virtually unknown today. Considering their material in this I can see why! Their comedy is downright painful--I groaned aloud at some of the lines. It reached the point that I was fast forwarding through their "comedy" bits. To make things worse the final half hour is in very washed out color. So, film buffs might want to watch for historical purposes but it's a real long haul. I give it a 4.

A fascinating antique

[marcslope · 7/10 · 14 January 2019]

A very rare chance to see a 1920s stage musical preserved more or less intact on the screen, this RKO entry, along with Warners' "Desert Song," is in pretty good shape for 90, and still entertains. Not the book, by Guy Bolton and Fred Thompson, and not the direction nor clumsy adaptation of Luther Reed. And TCM's print, missing 35 minutes of the original, has some terrible cuts. What you do get is an authentic bad 1920s musical book and a catchy stage score that wanders between operetta and musical comedy, divided more or less equally between lovers John Boles and Bebe Daniels (the former) and Wheeler and Woolsey and the adorable Dorothy Lee (the latter). Top billing, interestingly, goes to Ziegfeld, who produced the stage show and had nothing to do with the movie, and the sets and costumes are indeed Ziegfeld-lavish, and look great in the two-tone Technicolor of the third act. Boles sings very well but looks paunchy (and Paula Laurence, who worked with him on stage in "One Touch of Venus," told me he was the dullest man who ever lived), while Daniels, embodying some unpalatable Mexican cliches in speech, is vivacious, pretty, and convincing. The Wheeler-Woolsey stuff is variable, but Bert Wheeler, a first-rate song and dance man, does get to do some splendid stepping, and you'll probably be humming "Sweetheart, We Need Each Other" for days. He and Lee pair so well together that RKO kept teaming them. Yes, it's a ridiculous story that doesn't make sense, and the political incorrectness is off the charts. But if you want to know what a night out on 44th Street might have been like in 1927, you can't do better than this.

For a select audience only.

[planktonrules · 3/10 · 25 April 2015]

For a 1929 musical, "Rio Rita" is pretty good. However, early talkie musicals stink--so this isn't a glowing endorsement. Like too many of these films, this one is extremely stagy, the singing is god-awful by today's standards and the film is dated beyond the capacity of most viewers to stick with the movie. So I am saying the film is terrible, right? Well, no. It is well worth seeing if you are very familiar with films of the era or if you are a huge fan of early comedies, as it's the first film featuring Wheeler and Woolsey, a duo who achieved a lot of success in the 1930s but who are practically forgotten today.

The film is about some Mexican outlaw named 'The Kinkajou'--an odd name since a kinkajou is a very unassuming looking little creature that kind of cute. The bandit, a federal agent and the Kinkajou's sister all come together in Mexico. However, apart from this main plot are Wheeler & Woolsey who are almost like an entirely different movie within the movie. Wheeler is a guy in love with his usual on- screen love, Dorothy Lee, though this is complicated since he is technically STILL married. Woolsey is his lawyer. When it turns out the wife (who Wheeler THINKS he's legally divorced) has come into a fortune, Woolsey makes a play for her!

The characters sing and sing and sing in this film. There is definitely too much singing and it's made worse since so much of it is dated and dull--and almost operatic in style. Combined with the original Ziegfeld song and dance numbers, it's all very hard to take. Plus, the songs are so omnipresent that they really get in the way of the plot--and often derail the comedy. The film also would have greatly benefited from getting rid of the whole Kinkajou plot!

Overall, this is an odd little curio that is of interest to nuts like me who want to see Wheeler & Woolsey in their first film. Otherwise, you need to have a lot of patience to bother with this dated old musical.

FYI--Some of the film is in color--very nice looking for 1929. It's obvious that RKO was really pulling out the stops in their first film. However, I assume the color prints for some of the reels were lost, so the film goes back and forth between the two.

Wheeler & Woolsey - Together Again For The First Time

[Ron Oliver · 10/10 · 16 June 2001]

Like a river in the parched desert, so the lovely señorita known as RIO RITA brings joy to all who know her. But with her brother being chased as a bandit, unwelcome attentions from a brutal Russian general & a new lover who refuses to divulge his true identity, pretty Rita has plenty of problems to distract her.

Florenz Ziegfeld's smash Broadway hit was brought to the screen in this very early movie musical. At times it wheezes quite badly and shows its age. The transitions into the songs look very stagy & artificial. Many of the lyrics, especially sung by the female cast, are completely indecipherable.

But it should be remembered that movie musicals were still in their cradle and the studios only had stage traditions to draw upon at first. So the few innovations showcased here are welcome. Some of the dance numbers are pleasingly elaborate, even including a primitive overhead shot. Occasional outdoor photography helps open up the screenplay, and the early Technicolor featured in the last half hour is a big bonus.

Bebe Daniels & John Boles play the romantic leads. She is saddled with a thick accent & ludicrous script. He appears somewhat awkward & ill at ease. Much better film roles would await them both in years to come.

The real highlight of RIO RITA is the film debut of the wonderful comedy team of Wheeler & Woolsey, who had appeared in the Broadway version. Here, although somewhat gynandroid, they cement what will be their screen personas through 26 films together. Bert Wheeler (1895-1968) plays a young, naive romantic. Robert Woolsey (1888-1938) portrays a shiftless, cigar-puffing conniver. Together, they would make a hilarious comedy team, their partnership only being sundered by Woolsey's untimely death. Today they are all but forgotten.

It is only fitting that pert little Dorothy Lee (1911-1999), Wheeler's perennial love interest, should make the first of her 14 film appearances with the Boys here. This Kewpie-doll-cute actress would become an integral part of the Boys' cinematic success, as well as a constant delight for viewers.

Moderately Interesting, Historically Significant

[jerrywarriner · 6/10 · 10 August 2020]

The best way to view "Rio Rita" is to put yourself in the place of a 1929 moviegoer. Sound was still new, the camera was static, technicians were learning their craft and actors were finding that their voice was a crucial component of their skill.

The film is propelled along by its novelty and the reputation of the stage version. It was released amid a flood of other film musicals, and the public was about to become inured to them.

Other reviewers have described the innards of "Rio Rita" so there's little point in dissecting it. I can't say I was absorbed by the plot, which is conventional. The acting is competent and the music is somewhat tuneful. My interest was sparked when the black-and-white turned to color. Early Technicolor is a curiosity; some colors are bright while others are either muddy or absent. Nevertheless, it's eyecatching. The costumes are fine but the sets are rather dull and don't take full advantage of the available palette.

The movie is diverting and you may want to view it a second time. Those who appreciate film history will enjoy it more than the average film buff.

This Mudturtle is a Masterclass in Mistakes

[atlasmb · 4/10 · 20 October 2014]

"Rio Rita" should be required viewing for all film studies classes--not as an example of quality, but as an exercise in identifying all the mistakes that were made in its production. In 1929, the nascent talkie industry was on a steep curve to understand and perfect the medium. They used former silent film stars. And they imported vaudeville acts, stage actors and opera stars--anyone with experience using his voice before audiences. And in this case, they imported an entire Broadway musical produced by Flo Ziegfeld. This film says as much about the sad quality of Broadway at the time as it does about Hollywood's first stumbling steps into the sound era. The good news is that the industry learned quickly and in only a few years, genuine classics were being produced in large quantities.

In the meantime, some very uneven films were produced, like this one. It opens in Fremont, a small town along the Rio Grande, where cowboys in full western regalia rub elbows with men in tuxedos and flappers while watching a vaudeville-style act on a stage in the local saloon. Presumably the formally-attired swells in the audience rode their horses into town.

Then the action crosses the river into Mexico, where the women who aren't dressed as flappers wear colorful fiesta wear and sombreros. Later, a scene takes place on a "pirate barge" parked on the southern side of the river. I am not making this up.

I can say a couple of nice things about this pre-Code film. Some of the actors are attractive. After the criminals rob the local bank, they sing love songs in the garden of Senorita Rita's hacienda. And this film would be a rich vein for MST3000.

As the singing Rangers search for the dangerous villain/bank robber known as "The Kinkajou", we can ask ourselves why a vicious bandit is named after a nocturnal arboreal mammal that eats mostly fruit? I guess "The Sloth" was already taken.

We can also occupy our time enumerating the qualities of this film that leave much to be desired, like:

*The sound quality. And I am not just referring to the aged quality of the sound. Dialogue competes with orchestral background music, for example.

*The acting. Actors give speeches while the extras draw focus and otherwise look like planted palms around a stage.

*The songs. There are some real stinkers in this collection. Consider: "Rootin' pals, tootin' pals..."

*Costuming. Some of it looks amateurish. In other instances--as mentioned earlier--there are clashes of styles within the same scene.

*Shaky camera work. They were still learning how to move cameras. Also, people's heads were cut off.

*Bad singing. The voices are okay, but there is something wrong when a love song is delivered with the two vocalists generally ignoring each other.

*Bad dancing, bad choreography. Here, I do not mean to single out this film. This was par for the course in all films of the time.

*A disjointed mixing of genres. This film wants to be a musical, but it is also a western, an opera, a Ziegfeld extravaganza complete with aerial shots, a comedy including entire vaudeville acts dropped into the script. It also includes some tap dancing.

On a positive note, I liked most of Dorothy Lee's performance as Dolly Bean, the woman who mistakenly weds a married man. She tries to rise above the material.

The seldom shown Kinkajou dance.

[yogi-22 · 9/10 · 23 May 2000]

The Kinkajou dance lead by Dorothy Lee is a gem. Dorothy Lee has a white 10 gal. hat on an 8 gal. head, curtesy of a prop man with a strange sense of humor, and looks a bit like a mushroom but it only makes the dance more fun as she tries to keep it on. I wish this part was shown more often with the film.

Decent, considering its age

[brchthethird · 7/10 · 23 April 2023]

One of the few direct adaptations of a Ziegfeld show and is fine as that. I imagine that this was a good rendition of what seeing it live might have been, albeit with some camerawork and angles only possible in the film medium. Besides that, it's a standard early film musical that doesn't have the better pacing and fluidity that came with the genre's maturation in the early-to-mid 1930's. John Boles and Bebe Daniels were fine, even with the cheesy acting and operatic singing style that was currently en vogue. Where it really livens up is when Wheeler and Woolsey do their vaudeville shtick, and this film was their first onscreen appearance (recreating their roles from the show). Thankfully, the main story takes a back seat to them for a while after the halfway point. The other notable thing about this is that the last half hour is in two-strip Technicolor, although it could use some restoration like has been done with Glorifying the American Girl and The King of Jazz. My overall assessment is that the film is ok, not great, but I'm willing to overlook its weaknesses because of its age.

Bebe Daniels in Her Talkie Debut

[drednm · 14 January 2007]

Lovely old musical based on a smash 1927 Broadway show produced by Flo Ziegfeld.

Stale plot but it doesn't matter what with great leads by John Boles and Bebe Daniels. Nonsense about a bunch of vigilantes seeking the notorious "Kinkajou." But the songs are terrific and both Boles and Daniels have great voices. It must have been a big surprise to film fans to see Bebe Daniels in this film. She had been a star for a decade and emerged as the great singer. Their duet on "Rio Rita" is excellent.

Along for the ride (and from the Broadway play) are Bert Wheeler and Robert Woolsey (their film debut) who are very funny here. Contrary to general knowledge, they were NOT a vaudeville team. They had never even met before being hired for the Broadway production. But RIO RITA started a long and very funny teaming of the two in many films.

Dorothy Lee is also good in this film as the "boop-a-doop" voiced girl friend of Wheeler. Their duet on "Sweetheart, We Need Each Other" is a delight and when they break into a tap dance routine, they are just perfect. Lee (in her second film) is especially good, but I don't remember much dancing from her other films.

The existing 104-minute print is from the cut down 1932 re-release of the film. The original 140-minute version is not known to exist, although a complete print once existed at New York's Museum of Modern Art.

The pirate ship finale was filmed in 2-strip Technicolor and exists.

Also in the cast are Helen Kaiser as Mrs. Bean, Don Alvarado as Roberto, Georges Renavent as the general, Eva Rosita as Carmen, and Richard Alexander as Gonzales.

Wheeler & Woolsey, Not Abbott & Costello

[boblipton · 8/10 · 14 January 2019]

Based on the 1927 operetta produced on Broadway by the legendary Florenz Ziegfeld Jr., RIO RITA has a plot that is nonsensical to the modern audience, and songs that will not attract the modern audience, or even the older audience that enjoys Broadway or old movie musicals. It is, to the modern eye an absolute antique. I had a great time.

I enjoyed it because the title role is taken by Bebe Daniels. She had just lost her long-term contract with Paramount because she had no voice. Apparently they hadn't even bothered giving her a test; it was part of a general purging of second-rank stars with expensive contracts that took place at this time. Why pay several thousand dollars a week for Daniels when you could hire her replacement from Broadway for $200? That was good business sense as dictated by the banks which were paying for the wiring of studios and theaters. However, they forgot there's nothing so cheap as a hit, and this was a hit.

The only cast members brought from the Broadway production were the lead comics, Wheeler & Woolsey. Both of them were seasoned performers, put together for the stage production, and their crosstalk routines made them movie stars.

The rest of it involves various unlikely plot devices, with John Boles (borrowed from Universal) as a singing Texas Ranger searching for a bandit called the Kinkajou (who seems to be Miss Daniels' brother) and romancing Bebe; Wheeler as a lawyer robbing Woolsey, who has just gotten married to Dorothy Lee, an an immense set based on the stage production.

Broadway and the movies and acting have changed enormously in the 90 years since this was made, and so this is more of a museum piece than a living, breathing piece of cinema. That's something else I like it for.

One of the best!

[JohnHowardReid · 8/10 · 13 May 2018]

Copyright 15 September 1929 by RKO Distributing Corp., and RKO Productions, Inc. New York opening at the Earl Carroll Theatre: 6 October 1929. U.S. release: 15 September 1929. 15 reels. 11,506 feet. 128 minutes.

SYNOPSIS: Who is the mysterious "Kinkajou", a rascally bandit who robs the Fremont bank? Is it Captain James Stewart of the Texas Rangers. Or is it Roberto Ferguson, the brother of "Rio Rita" Ferguson (the beloved of our "just Jim")?

NOTES: The stage musical, produced by Florenz Ziegfeld, jr, ran 62 weeks on Broadway at the Ziegfeld Theatre, starting 7 February 1927. J. Harold Murray played Captain Stewart and Ethelind Terry the title role. Wheeler and Woolsey recreated their roles for the screen.

With USA/Canadian rentals of $2.4 million, number four at the domestic boxoffice for 1929. Only Sunnyside Up, Broadway Melody and The Cock-Eyed World took more money.

COMMENT: There are two words which absolutely must be used in any review of the original Rio Rita and those words are "creaky" and "spectacular". But even more to the point, I rate Rio Rita as one of the most entertaining movies ever made. There are so many things wrong with the movie that I could practically fill a whole book with its faults, starting with the lousy acting, the stupid script and nondescript direction and going right through to the incompetent chorus work, the incredibly bad sound recording, the often blurry cinematography, the jerky continuity and the amazing usurpation of the director's role by Victor Baravalle.

Now Mr Baravalle is the music director. For some reason or other, perhaps with the encouragement of producer LeBaron or sound supervisor McDowell, he has taken it upon himself to drown out whole sections of the movie with his orchestra. Not just the lyrics of the songs, mind you, some of which-rendered by the female chorus-are completely indecipherable (not one single word, not one, mind you, being sufficiently audible to give the hearer a clue as to what they're actually singing). No, not just the songs, but whole slews of straight dialogue are also attacked by Mr Baravalle's frantic orchestra. Poor Bebe Daniels has little chance, though John Boles gives the musicians a good run for their money. Don Alvarado is the worst victim. He has little enough dialogue as it is, but all but two of his words are completely blacked out by the band's determined cacophony. It's only Georges Renavent, in the biggest role of his career, who really seems to be totally aware of Baravalle's machinations and always manages to shout above the musical din loud enough to be heard.

Fortunately, Baravalle's ploy is often a big success. Who wants to hear the corny dialogue? I'd rather listen to Tierney's compositions any day. And if you're not a particularly rabid fan of Bebe Daniels, you won't mind the fact that she's saddled with a Mexican accent and recorded so poorly. The real star of the Baravalle film is not the McDowell-shaded Miss Daniels, or the too-eagerly pleasant John Boles (who does rather well by Captain Stewart in a stagy sort of way), but Bert Wheeler who has the lion's share of the audible dialogue (which he shares with his usual partners, fast-talking Robert Woolsey and plaintively cute Dorothy Lee) and two absolutely wonderful song-and-dance numbers. The first of these, "On the Loose", is an absolute classic of merry footwork, melodic musical invention and visual delights (including a hop-skip-and-jump overhead shot and the most comic exit ever recorded on film). The other occurs early on in the Pirate Barge scene. Wheeler and Lee share a nice romantic ballad which they top off by an acrobatic stunt in which the pert Lee carries Bert on her back! This is again topped off by another reprise in they are joined by Woolsey and Kaiser.

The last half-hour of the movie is presented in Technicolor. A pity the rest of the movie was not tinted too. The chorus costumes especially cry out for color. And the soundproof-boothed washed-out photography is much improved by the added shading provided by Technicolor's laboratory.

Big crowd scenes (eagle-eyed fans will spot Woolsey, sans make-up but still smoking his big cigar, posing as a crowd extra in the introductory Mesa Francisco tracking shot) add to the film's luster as a faithful transcription of the original lavish Ziegfeld stage production-an impression reinforced by Reed's penchant for long takes and proscenium-style direction.

Rio Rita (1929) is a gem!

[millerman1939 · 26 February 2005]

I think many of us make the mistake of reviewing films of the transition to sound era from the viewpoint of highlighting the inadequacies of the technology of the period as seen from today, I have recently seen an unrestored Video print of Rio Rita, the quality of which was excellent, the sound was excellent, the two strip colour finale as most will agree was stunning. I found Bebe Daniels characterisation to be endearing and entertaining, her accent didn't grate at all far from it, it fitted her role and she was in fine voice in her first talkie musical, John Boles performance was set very much in the stage style of presentation, he had a fine voice very easy on the ear. Rio Rita is a gem from the late 20's and deserves to be restored 100% to it's former glory when released,filmed head on for most of it's duration, rather like watching a stage show, I see it as a wonderful filmed record of what it was like to actually sit in the Ziegfeld Theatre perhaps and be a member of the first night performance of the show on stage, the nearest we will ever get to actually seeing a Ziegfeld show of the period, and partly in stunning two strip colour. The technical restrictions of the period, static camera's, etc work in the films favour for me, we have an opportunity to see a filmed stage show featuring some of the greatest stars of the period. I would like to suggest when watching film musicals of the late 20's, very early 30's, playing the soundtrack through an equaliser, then play it through your amplifier to good quality speakers, the results can be amazing, tinny soundtracks can suddenly take on a sound quality you had no idea was there! I recommend Rio Rita 8 out of 10 only because my copy though excellent isn't restored,a fully restored Rio Rita would be a wonderful to see and hear.

South of the Border

[lugonian · 8/10 · 5 January 2020]

RIO RITA (RKO Radio Production, 1929), adapted and directed by Luther Reed, was one of two early screen musicals personally supervised and produced by Florenz Ziegfeld (the other being Samuel Goldwyn's WHOOPEE (1930) starring Eddie Cantor). A reworking of the 1927 Ziegfeld stage musical starring Ethelind Terry and J. Harold Murray, this RKO adaptation stars screen personalities Bebe Daniels (in her talking movie debut) and John Boles, supported by the comedy team of Bert Wheeler and Robert Woolsey reprising their original stage roles. While there is a Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer 1942 update of RIO RITA starring another comedy team of Bud Abbott and Lou Costello, with Kathryn Grayson and John Carroll in the Daniels and Boles roles, this original is often claimed to be more faithful and much better to the original stage treatment by Guy Bolton and Fred Thompson.

The screen adaptation basically consists of two separate storieson one: Captain Jim Stewart (John Boles)of the Texas Rangers is assigned to border trace Kinkajou, a bandit with a $10,000 price reward for his capture, dead or alive. Suspecting Roberto Ferguson (Don Alvarado) to be the bank robber, tracks him down to to the Freemont Cafe in Mexico. After leaving, a bank robbery takes place by which Kinkajou escapes without capture once more. Jim meets up with Roberto's sister, Rita (Bebe Daniels), residing on a ranch at the Rio Grande. Keeping his identity a secret, Jim falls in love Rita, making it difficult for him to place Roberto under arrest if captured. Rita, however, is loved by Russian General Ravenoff (Georges Renavent), whom she dislikes, unaware that he has abducted and hidden her brother away for reasons of his own. The subplot revolves around Chick Bean (Bert Wheeler) from New York with his personal representative lawyer, Ed Levitt (Robert Woolsey), arranging for his divorce arrangements from Kate (Helen Kaiser) so Chick could marry cafe entertainer, Dolly (Dorothy Lee). Upon his wedding followed by a Mexican honeymoon, Levitt informs Chick that he will be arrested for bigamy, after learning the divorce proceedings is not valid. Others in the cast are Eva Rosita (Carmen); Tiny Sanford (Tiny) and Lita Chevret (Louie's Wife), among others.

While the initial roadshow 141 minute version of RIO RITA, including opening and closing overture with intermission title card, prints currently in circulation are reportedly the strongly edited 103 minute version from its 1932 reissue. minus some song interludes and plot elements pertaining to the story. The song numbers (by Harry Tierney and Joe McCarthy) from the uncut version include are reportedly as follows: "Jumping Bean" and "The Kinkajou" (both sung by Dorothy Lee); "Sweethearts" and "The River Song" (both sung by Bebe Daniels); "Rio Rita" (duet by John Boles and Bebe Daniels); "Siesta Time" (sung by chorus); "Espanola" (sung by Robert Woolsey); "Are You There?" (sung by Dorothy Lee and Bert Wheeler); "The Ranger Song" (sung by John Boles and rangers); "You're Always in My Arms, But Only in my Dreams" (sung by Boles, reprised by Daniels, written by E.Y. Harburg and Harold Arle); "The Spanish Shawl" (sung by Eva Rosita); "If You're in Love, You'll Waltz" (sung by Bebe Daniels); "Out on the Loose" (sung/ tap dance by Bert Wheeler, featuring overhead camera shot of chorus in the Busby Berkeley directorial style); "Poor Fool" (sung by Bebe Daniels); "Over the Boundary Line" (sung by chorus); "Sweetheart, We Need Each Other" (sung by Bert Wheeler and Dorothy Lee, reprised by Dorothy Lee and Helen Kaiser); and "You're Always in My Arms, But Only in My Dreams" (finale). Of its songs, "The Ranger Song" and "Sweetheart, We Need Each Other" are both tuneful highlights. Boles and Daniels are in fine singing voice while the comedy antics of Wheeler and Woolsey, including their drunken scene as they envision a naked woman, was humorous enough to be reworked into the Abbott and Costello 1942 edition. Some scenes are heavily underscored, causing the dialogue to be hard to hear and understand.

Reportedly the studio's biggest and most expensive production of that time, RIO RITA its shorter reissue suffers from missing footage that would have proven more favorable viewing with connected plot and character developments. For several years, I've avoided reviewing this particular title hoping that complete version of RIO RITA would become available for proper critique. According to an article in Variety printed in 1979, New York City's Museum of Modern Art obtained the complete print for its showing for its 50th anniversary tribute to RKO Radio. Sadly, I was unable to attend this screening, hoping for another chance at a latter date. Modern sources now claim the roadshow version is now lost with shorter version, available for viewing on cable television's Turner Classic Movies since September 1996, and DVD later on, to be the only one in existence. Fortunately, the Technicolor sequence taking up the final half hour set on the Pirate Barge remains intact.

RKO reunited Bebe Daniels with Wheeler and Woolsey (with Everett Marshall in for John Boles) again in similar style production with Technicolor finale of DIXIANA (1930), but results weren't the same. Regardless of its age and the film that introduced Wheeler and Woolsey to the screen, RIO RITA is a prime example to how the Florenz Ziegfeld musical must have been presented on stage. (***)

Hilarious Musical (if you can ignore the racism)

[Richard-Nathan · 8/10 · 15 March 2022]

When I was taking drama at the University of Southern California back in the early 1970s, we put on the stage musical upon which this film was based. The show is enormously entertaining, if you can ignore the racism. At one performance, we had to stop the show because there had been a bomb threat, presumably from a Hispanic student. The show was delayed while there was a search for a bomb, and when no bomb was discovered, the show went on. I had a very tiny part in the show. When the villain sang, "Tonight, a letter I write, to Captain Jim, deliver to him, that Rita may see..." I was one of a group of three soldiers who sang, "Si, si, Senior!" in response.

I love this musical, although I admit it is racist, but much, much less racist than Donald Trump and his supporters who insist on building a wall along the U. S. southern border.

Wheeler and Wolsey are hilarious. My favorite song from the show is "Out on the Loose Tonight."

An interesting film for aficionados of film history

[kos-3 · 27 December 1999]

Though Rio Rita has a big reputation among aficionados, I think it's probably due more to its success as a stage vehicle than as a film.

Nevertheless, for those who are interested in historical films, I feel Rio Rita serves as a good example of the kinds of obstacles that faced early film makers and actors. As the sound and music was recorded live, there are a number of mistakes, slips and awkward moments. But rather than detract, I think it's interesting to see how the actors and staff negotiated these difficulties. Particularly in the reprise of "Sweetheart We Need Each Other" you can see Dorothy Lee struggling to follow the conductor while Bert Wheeler keeps on distracting her, while Helen Kaiser is clearly trying to follow Lee but both Woolsey and Wheeler keep on getting in her way.

Then there are moments that, because the recording was done live, are just over the top. The most hysterical moment has got to be when, after 5 minutes of singing and tap-dancing in a single take, and then after a series of double summersaults, Bert Wheeler literally jumps on Dorothy Lee's back and rides piggy-back while she resumes singing. Wow!

And of course, with so few surviving films with two-strip Technicolor, it's always interesting to see how early film makers took advantage of it.

nothing sweeter than Rita

[didi-5 · 23 September 2003]

Bebe Daniels, with a ridiculous accent and a trilling voice to rival Jeanette MacDonald, is Rita, being romanced by mysterious gringo John Boles. Their operetta duets are fairly pretty and Bebe gets to wear some good costumes.

In another storyline interwoved with that of Rita are Bert Wheeler and Robert Woolsey (with little Dorothy Lee) in a comic divorce-based plot. Woolsey is the wise-cracking cigar-chomper with the glasses, Wheeler the little guy with the high voice and a nice line in song 'n dance.

Rio Rita is a fun early musical with primitive Technicolor bits and one Berkeley-esque overhead shot with the frilly girlies doing their thing round Wheeler. Dorothy Lee's voice reminded me of Helen Kane (the lady who introduced I Wanna Be Loved By You before Marilyn got her hands on it).

My favourite bit music-wise is the catchy 'Sweetheart, We Need Each Other'; otherwise the invisible girl only seen by the boys after quaffing some seriously strong plonk is a really funny bit.

And I did like the fact that for 1929 this wasn't as primitive as other early talkies I've seen. Good stuff (and an invaluable record of a Ziegfeld show of course).

A Bit of a Mess But Entertaining

[Michael_Elliott · 19 July 2015]

Rio Rita (1929)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

A Texas Ranger (John Boles) goes to Mexico to try and find a bandit known as The Kinkajou but ends up falling in love with a woman (Bebe Daniels) who might just be her sister.

RIO RITA would be the first major film for RKO who went all out with a very large budget and especially when you consider they were just an upstart company and had everything to lose. Apparently the film was a major hit but then again just about every musical from this period was a hit. When sound came into play it's clear that people wanted to hear singing and see dancing and this film pretty much gives them exactly that.

In fact, RIO RITA appears to have wanted to give its viewers everything they could possibly want because not only is there singing and dancing but there's a Western mood, a love story and comedy bits with Bert Wheeler and Robert Woosley. I think it's fair to say that this film is a complete mess because it tries to do way too much and none of it is very good. While none of it is good, it's at least slightly entertaining and makes the movie worth sitting through.

Both Boles and Daniels are good in their roles so I think the level of entertainment is going to come from how much of Wheeler and Woosley you can put up with. Personally I thought several of their routines here were funny or at least silly enough to make me smile. The musical numbers were decent at best but I think it's fair to say that there were way too many of them. The final act is in 2-strip Technicolor and this here is certainly another plus.

RIO RITA isn't going to appeal to everyone but fans of these early sound pictures should find some entertainment in it.

Maximum History, Minimal Entertainment

[GManfred · 20 October 2011]

"Rio Rita" is a filmed stage play with a couple of outdoor scenes tossed in. Taken just as a movie it would be a near-flop, but as a historical document it is an essential part of Hollywood's rich past of musical motion pictures. It is also a rare look at a production overseen by Broadway showman nonpareil Florenz Ziegfeld, which most of us have never seen but can only read about.

Presumably, the spectacle's the thing with a Ziegfeld show, because Rio Rita's book is just plain goofy and as entertaining as oatmeal. The story is absurd and wanders about for 103 minutes and is saved only by musical interludes and by the comedy team of Wheeler and Woolsey, who are forced to work with some unfunny material but bring much-needed energy to the show. The music is very good, even though my DVD from Warner Archives collection omits the "Kinkajou" song and dance number. I have it on a CD recording and sounds almost like the show's best number - but I can't tell, since it's been left out.

Bebe Daniels was excellent but I found John Boles a lumpen and paunchy Texas Ranger, but with a good singing voice. The overall look of the show was somewhat primitive and static, except for the last 20-30 minutes which was shot in Technicolor. I gave the film a rating of 6, which I think is passable (historically speaking) - if you are a serious film fan you should really check it out and make up your own mind. It's what makes horse racing.

for film historians, otherwise forget it

[vandino1 · 25 January 2006]

This was a huge hit in 1929 and was one of RKO's first film releases. It was based on the successful Ziegfeld 1927 stage show that featured Wheeler & Woolsey, pairing them together for the first time. It also features two-strip Technicolor for the last thirty minutes. There you have it, film history-wise. As for the content of the film? Don't bother, it's terrible. In fact, almost unwatchable. Aside from secondary player Dorothy Lee, an 18 year-old (at the time) ball of personality, the rest of the cast is dull or obnoxious. Dull: leads Bebe Daniels and John Boles. Obnoxious: Wheeler & Woolsey. The story is antique: Rio Grande Mexican gal Rita and her impossible love for Ranger Boles. The music score is almost entirely forgettable and the staginess of the whole thing from dance numbers to solo vocals is quite obvious. Lastly, the comedy team of Wheeler & Woolsey are abominably bad, making one understand quickly how they've become forgotten. Their antics are painful to watch, especially since they're having such a good time being so unfunny. Obviously they're replicating their stage performance at a time when their material might have been considered enjoyable, thus they react as if what they're doing is just killing the audience. 75-plus years later and we're in a different comedy world, admittedly, but I see little in W & W's work in this film to invoke anything more than head scratching or annoyance. And most of their following films are no better. As I said, this film is only of interest for historians, unless you are very easily entertained.