{"id":28768,"date":"2012-11-26T22:00:56","date_gmt":"2012-11-27T05:00:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=28768"},"modified":"2020-12-17T21:01:40","modified_gmt":"2020-12-18T04:01:40","slug":"flying-down-to-rio-1933","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=28768","title":{"rendered":"Flying Down to Rio (1933)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>&#8220;What have these South Americans got below the equator that we haven&#8217;t?&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<table>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/Flying-Down-to-Rio-Poster.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/Flying-Down-to-Rio-Poster-200x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"200\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-28774\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/Flying-Down-to-Rio-Poster-200x300.jpg 200w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/Flying-Down-to-Rio-Poster-85x128.jpg 85w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/Flying-Down-to-Rio-Poster.jpg 580w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Synopsis:<\/strong><br \/>\nFlirtatious bandleader Roger Bond (Gene Raymond) falls in love with a beautiful Brazilian socialite named Belinha (Dolores Del Rio), unaware that she&#8217;s already engaged to his friend Julio (Raul Roulien). Meanwhile, when Bond brings his band &#8212; including dancers Fred (Fred Astaire) and Honey (Ginger Rogers) &#8212; to Rio for a gig at Belinha&#8217;s father&#8217;s hotel, he discovers that members of a powerful bank eager to take over the hotel are determined to stop the show from taking place.\n<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p>\n<strong>Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Dolores Del Rio Films<\/li>\n<li>Fred Astaire Films<\/li>\n<li>Ginger Rogers Films<\/li>\n<li>Love Triangle<\/li>\n<li>Musicals<\/li>\n<li>Romantic Comedy<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Response to Peary\u2019s Review: <\/strong><br \/>\nPeary argues that despite being fourth- and fifth-billed in their first onscreen pairing (behind top-billed romantic leads Dolores Del Rio and Gene Raymond), Rogers and Astaire &#8220;steal [this] film&#8221; as they &#8220;do their one duet&#8221; together, dancing &#8220;The Carioca&#8221; and &#8220;giving off electricity that Raymond and&#8230; Del Rio are unable to equal&#8221;. He notes that &#8220;despite some dull spots and a flimsy plot&#8221;, the picture remains &#8220;romantic, sexy, and delightfully and inventively kitschy&#8221;, with &#8220;some tricky camera work, unusual art design by Van Nest Polglase and Carroll Clark, and some creative production numbers&#8221; &#8212; most notably the &#8220;unforgettable&#8221; aerial ballet finale featuring &#8220;scantily clad chorus girls strik[ing] provocative pre-Hollywood poses on the wings of airplanes in flight&#8221;. <\/p>\n<p>Indeed, while &#8220;Rogers and Astaire are the main reason this film&#8221; has remained in film lovers&#8217; consciousness (most know of it simply as the movie that sparked Astaire and Rogers&#8217; lengthy onscreen partnership), it&#8217;s ultimately more &#8220;bizarre&#8221; than &#8220;innocuous&#8221;, and offers some unexpected pleasures here and there &#8212; such as the use of shadowy silhouettes (accompanied by an unforgettably wonky musical theme) to represent the three &#8220;evil&#8221; bank members, or the surreal outcome of Del Rio and Raymond&#8217;s overnight island stay. Meanwhile, the culminating aerial sequence (complete with one chorine nearly falling to her death!) is certainly worth a look for curiosity-value alone &#8212; though it&#8217;s not quite enough to raise the film as a whole to the level of &#8220;must see&#8221; viewing. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Redeeming Qualities and Moments: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Astaire and Rogers dancing the Carioca<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/Flying-Down-to-Rio-Carioca.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/Flying-Down-to-Rio-Carioca.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"720\" height=\"540\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-28773\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/Flying-Down-to-Rio-Carioca.png 720w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/Flying-Down-to-Rio-Carioca-128x96.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/Flying-Down-to-Rio-Carioca-300x225.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 720px) 100vw, 720px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<li>Astaire finding himself unable NOT to dance when he hears band music starting up<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/Flying-Down-to-Rio-Astaire.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/Flying-Down-to-Rio-Astaire.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"720\" height=\"540\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-28772\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/Flying-Down-to-Rio-Astaire.png 720w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/Flying-Down-to-Rio-Astaire-128x96.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/Flying-Down-to-Rio-Astaire-300x225.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 720px) 100vw, 720px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<li>The justifiably infamous &#8220;aerial ballet&#8221; scene<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/Flying-Down-to-Rio-Aerial-Ballet1.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/Flying-Down-to-Rio-Aerial-Ballet1.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"720\" height=\"540\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-28775\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/Flying-Down-to-Rio-Aerial-Ballet1.png 720w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/Flying-Down-to-Rio-Aerial-Ballet1-128x96.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/Flying-Down-to-Rio-Aerial-Ballet1-300x225.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 720px) 100vw, 720px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<li>Some fun pre-code zingers (see quote at beginning of review)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Must See? <\/strong><br \/>\nNo, though of course anyone interested in the evolution of the Astaire-Rogers films will want to check it out. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Links: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0024025\/\">IMDb entry<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thespinningimage.co.uk\/cultfilms\/displaycultfilm.asp?reviewid=4449&#038;aff=13\">Spinning Image Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.dvdtalk.com\/dvdsavant\/s2157asta.html\">DVD Savant Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.classicfilmguide.com\/indexab52.html\">Classic Film Guide Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tcm.com\/tcmdb\/title\/75236\/flying-down-to-rio#articles-reviews?articleId=17868\">TCM Article<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.timeout.com\/movies\/flying-down-to-rio\">Time Out Capsule Review<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;What have these South Americans got below the equator that we haven&#8217;t?&#8221; Synopsis: Flirtatious bandleader Roger Bond (Gene Raymond) falls in love with a beautiful Brazilian socialite named Belinha (Dolores Del Rio), unaware that she&#8217;s already engaged to his friend Julio (Raul Roulien). Meanwhile, when Bond brings his band &#8212; including dancers Fred (Fred Astaire) and Honey (Ginger Rogers) &#8212; to Rio for a gig at Belinha&#8217;s father&#8217;s hotel, he discovers that members of a powerful bank eager to take&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"btn btn-default\" href=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=28768\"> Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28768","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-responses-to-peary"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28768","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=28768"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28768\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":58332,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28768\/revisions\/58332"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=28768"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=28768"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=28768"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}