What a wild hodgepodge of a movie this is. Forget the plot, which is labored as it trundles along trying to get us from one 'wow' moment to the next. The direction, pace, and editing are all quite clumsy, and the film is a bit of a mess. On the other hand, there are many great moments, you get to see Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers in their first screen pairing, the beautiful Dolores del Rio, and quite a bit of pre-code naughtiness spicing it all up. It makes for quite a bit of entertainment if you just roll with it.Fred Astaire dances and sings well of course, but he also does a great job as the supporting actor, making faces and comments about the leading man's (Gene Raymond) love interests. He's just brilliant. When he and Rogers dance the Carioca after watching the Brazilians doing it, you can feel the magic. It came after a pretty hilarious exchange too. The moves from the Brazilian dancers were steamy, and as their heads touched, the passion in their eyes was evident, leading to this:Fred: "So that's the Carioca." Ginger: "What's this business with the foreheads?" Fred: "Mental Telepathy." Ginger: "I can tell what they're thinking about from here."Earlier Ginger sings with subtle overtones that "music makes me do the things I never should do." How fantastic is it to see not only the first of Fred and Ginger's ten movies together, but the only one made before the dreaded production code. Another clever risqué line in the film was "What have those girls got below the equator that we haven't?", which is slipped in there instead of "What have those girls below the equator got that we haven't?"Dolores del Rio is a bit upstaged here, despite getting the leading credit, but is fantastic as well. The scene where her and Raymond's 'inner thoughts' step outside their bodies as ghosts and advise them to follow their passionate impulses is cute. Later he puts her over his knee and spanks her for an odd reason, adding to the film's oddities. She is elegant and gorgeous in the outfits she wears in the film, including a bathing suit briefly. The film has some nice stock footage of the streets of Rio de Janeiro and surrounding hills, sometimes from the air. The songs performed, including Alice Gentle, Movita Castaneda and Etta Moten singing 'Carioca', are fantastic. The energy and passion in the dance performances are excellent, but many of the visual effects don't live up to their potential, or to better examples. They're nowhere near the quality of Busby Berkeley productions, so it's not clear to me why his name is mentioned as often as it is in reviews of this film. It is wild and a riot though, particularly when numbers are performed on the tops of planes, including many women in see-through tops. Does it make sense that they're up there, far from where anyone can even see them? Or that one falls from one plane, only to miraculously land on another's wing? Or that they're scantily clad to begin with? Of course not. It fits nothing logically and yet somehow seems to fit this over-the-top film. It's really too bad it wasn't in the hands of a better director, but as it is, there is plenty to keep you entertained.

Now part of an inexpensive DVD set of some of the Fred Astaire & Ginger Rogers films. Although Fred was a well established musical and acting talent in theater productions, this was only his second film appearance. Earlier the same year, he had been a featured dance partner for Joan Crawford, in her semi-autobiographical film "Dancing Lady" , which included another up and coming star, Clark Gable, as the leading male dramatic star. In this film, he is again billed as a secondary character, below the much younger, but more film-experienced Ginger, and well below the top-billed romantic triangle-actors of Dolores del Rio, Gene Raymond, and Raul Roulien. Nonetheless, he is given a significant role in the screenplay, as well as several solo or partnered singing or dancing scenes. Already, he seems quite comfortable in his roles. He is loosely paired with Ginger as a dance partner and developing romantic couple, although these are not pursued as definitive. Fred and Ginger have only one dance together, and this is but one segment of the very long and varied dance fest to the catchy Latin-sounding "Carioca". Clearly, this was the take home dance song, among the few offerings composed by Vincent Youmans, Gus Kahn, and Edward Eliscu, and it was exploited for all it's potential. It was hoped that the new dance format accompanying this song, including the touching of foreheads of the couples, would catch on as a dance craze. However, this didn't happen. I thought it looked interesting. As performed by some of the more exuberant dance couples, it would have been censored late the following year, when the Hays commission standards were raised, as too erotic. Some of the dance choreography looked like it was inspired by Busby Berkeley, who was then with Warner....The second most memorable song was "Orchids in the Moonlight", sung by Raul Roulien to his sweetheart: Belinha(Delores), then danced a bit to by Fred and Delores, as a couple.The highly contrived screenplay begins with Fred, as the backup leader of a traveling band fronted by Raymond, taking over the podium when Raymond spies Dolores in the Miami audience, and goes to strike up a conversation. As a result, the band loses its contract: a repetitive occurrence, thanks to the skirt chasing of Raymond's character(Roger). Both Dolores and Raymond have reasons to next move to Rio, Brazil. Raymond secretly arranges to fly Dolores there in his small 2 person plane, initially in disguise. They have a romantic encounter during a forced landing, but Dolores says she's already engaged. Nonetheless, Raymond is hopeful he can change this situation. The band is booked to perform at a hotel owned by Dolores's father. Later, they are told they can no longer perform there, because the hotel lacks a permit for them to perform. Raymond conceives the crazy idea of having the chorus girls do movements on the wings of airplanes flying above Rio, while the band plays in a public area below. This is implied as being a big success(Should have been arrested as a very dangerous stunt, instead!). While flying one of the planes, Raul spies Dolores and Raymond kissing, through his binoculars(Ha!). Upon landing, he rushes to find Dolores, telling her she will soon be on her honeymoon. They rush in his car to the 'flying boat', near ready to take off for the US. One of the passengers is Raymond, who has finally given up trying to convince Dolores to break her engagement with Raul. Once they are in flight, Raul asks the pilot if he can perform a marriage ceremony. He agrees. I won't divulge the 'unexpected' ending to this increasingly daffy story.Dolores was at the early height of her film fame during the late silent era, when she was widely hailed as the female equivalent of Valentino. After a sputtering film career during the early talky period, she quit films for a while, to later reemerge in the 40s as a star of Mexican films, and character actress in some Hollywood films. She still had some Hollywood roles in her early 60s. I remember her presence in "Cheyenne Autumn" and "More than a Miracle", in the mid-'60s, for example. Plenty of background shots of Rio , including flying close to Sugarloaf, give the audience the feel that they are in Rio.Initially, Fred was not keen on the idea of making a series of films costarring Ginger, as he wanted to establish himself as a top solo performer. However, he eventually gave in to popular sentiments.During the portion of the Carioca extravaganza when lyrics were sung, there were supposedly 3 Brazilian women who successively supplied the solo vocals: Alice Gentle initially. Then, the clearly very young and beautiful Latino Movita Castaneda, and lastly the African American Etta Moten. Movita much later became the second Mrs. Marlon Brando, and is currently the last living member of the cast of this film, at age 98. Etta lived to 102, and became prominent in political affairs relating to African Americans, including more dignified roles in films.

Yes, this is the film that introduced the immortal Fred and Ginger, but there's so much more to it. Gene Raymond never became quite the star he should have, but he shines here. Delores Del Rio was never more gorgeous. Still, it's Astaire and Rogers we always remember. I especially love the terrific music by Vincent Youmans, especially the title song, which is probably my favorite song of all time -- it makes me happier every time I hear it. The fourth lead, Raul Rulien, is a capable enough actor, but his singing voice really should have been dubbed. Or perhaps his song "Orchids in the Moonlight" could have been transposed down half an octave so he could handle it. As it is, he sounds like a comic Spanish eunuch. Once I saw this movie in a revival house and when Rulein began to sing, the house erupted in raucous laughter. Still, in every other way the film is a success, thirties kitsch perhaps, but still glorious kitsch.

An overly simple story lacking much real conflict, but still enjoyable to experience. Fred Astaire skillfully imbues the musical numbers with terrific life, and the choreography of the larger dances creates elegant movement within the shots. The last number of the film is creatively conceived, while a little far fetched, but is interestingly and enjoyably different from other musical acts. The love triangle between Belinha, Julio, and Roger is the main focus of the film, and could have strengthened the picture if it was developed further, instead of sharing time with the irrelevant subplot involving a scheme to takeover the Hotel Atlantico. The plot is redeemed in the end by Julio, who gives up Belinha to Roger in a noble and selfless twist, the likes of which leaves a happy and accomplished taste in your mouth.