MamaGravity good back-story, and good acting

Konterr Brilliant and touching

MoPoshy Absolutely brilliant

Senteur As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

weezeralfalfa 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.

TheLittleSongbird Flying Down to Rio has much to like, even if some of the acting is slight and the story is silly and rather hackneyed. The great quality of the sets, production design and cinematography make for a film that is very easy on the eyes. The songs are lively and memorable, as is the catchy and characterful score and Brazilian flavours while the choreography is really imaginative and full to the brim with energy, in particular in the Carioca and climatic airplanes sequences. The way it's danced helps a lot as well. The dialogue is warm and funny, while it is solidly paced- not a dull moment, despite the Carioca sequence being very long- and directed and the performances generally work very well. Gene Raymond is stiff at times but very dashing while Dolores Del Rio is the epitome of glamour. Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers steal the show though, in their first pairing though not in lead roles(that would be The Gay Divorcée) they show great chemistry, personal charm and wonderful energy and elegance in their dancing. Overall, a lot to like and a pleasure to watch, though the story is not as good as the rest. 8/10 Bethany Cox

Claudio Carvalho In Miami, during the presentation of the Yankee Clippers, the wolf band leader and pilot Roger Bond (Gene Raymond) flirts with the guest Belinha de Resende (Dolores Del Rio) and the stringent hotel manager fires them. However, the band is hired for the opening night of the Atlântico Hotel in Rio de Janeiro, and they need to fly to Brazil. When Roger meets Belinha in the hall of the hotel, he learns that she lost her flight to Rio and he offers a ride for her in his plane. Roger is forced to land in an island and he immediately fixes the mechanical problem in the plane; however, he lies to Belinha and tells that he can not fix the problem just to spend the night alone with her. But Belinha, who is the fiancée of the Brazilian Júlio, resists to his harassment and later she finds another plane to fly to Rio. Once in Rio, the infatuated Roger meets his friend Júlio without knowing that he is the fiancé of Belinha, and he tells about his love for the woman. When the Yankee Clippers are ready to open the hotel, powerful bankers that are interested to force the bankruptcy of the Atlântico's owner to take the hotel, send the police since he does not have the permit to anticipate the opening day. However, Roger's friend and musician Fred Ayres (Fred Astaire) proposes an airborne show to the guests. Meanwhile, the brokenhearted Roger decides to return to his country and leave Belinha with Júlio."Flying Down to Rio" is the debut of the pair Fred and Ginger in minor support roles. The sappy and naive romance has the Mexican Dolores Del Rio performing a Brazilian sassy woman and Gene Raymond in the lead roles. The footages from Rio de Janeiro in the 30's and the airborne show are the best moments of this film. The funniest thing in "Flying Down to Rio" is that there is no Brazilian actor or actress in the cast. My vote is six.Title (Brazil): "Voando para o Rio" ("Flying to Rio")

richard-1787 Yes, this is a great movie. Not, of course, in the same way that Citizen Kane, Les règles du jeu, or La Grande illusion are. The plot is a series of obvious clichés.Rather, it is great because of the daring and inventiveness of the choreography, which at its best has an incredible energy and freedom from convention. The most astonishing number is certainly the one near the end of the movie, where the girls do dance numbers on the wings of airplanes. Today, we are struck by the artifice of the backgrounds, but for a 1933 audience, who would not have reacted in the same way, it must truly have been breathtaking.The most daring of all the numbers, however, is the Carioca. As the various asides from the American characters make clear, this dance was seen as the height of public eroticism. That point is emphasized by the fact that the most erotic sequence in the number is that performed by the Black male and female dancers, who show no inhibitions whatsoever about expressing with their bodies their erotic thoughts. (Before anyone tries to pull some tedious p.c. interpretation of racism on this number, take a look at how the Black dancers are presented. It is a completely positive presentation. Expressing desire through dance is shown here to be GOOD.) When Astaire and Rogers do their variation on it, it is very beautiful to watch and very impressive dancing, but nowhere nearly as obviously erotic. The Brazilian dancers are shown, here, to have a freedom that even the best of American dancers cannot accept. The latter must abstract their desire to such an extent that it no longer appears to be sexual desire to a general audience.The Hayes code would put a quick end to such public eroticism, but while it was possible, this movie, through dance, expresses things that American movies would not be allowed to say again for decades.