I've been gradually working my way through a Boxed Set of eight of the nine movies that Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers made at RKO between 1933 and 1939 - saving the studio from bankruptcy in the process - and I saved the first til last (Roberta is the missing title) on the grounds that it wasn't technically a Rogers/Astaire movie at all - top billing went to Gene Raymond (who he?) and Dolores Del Rio with Fred and Ginger billed below them. Seeing it today it's crystal clear why the powers that be at RKO (still known as Radio Pictures at the time of this release) took one look and immediately lined up a vehicle to showcase the team. The dance they do to The Carioca is literally light years ahead of any terpsichore to be seen on Stage or Screen and in addition they were both experienced troupers, Fred had been in vaudeville and then Musical theatre from childhood and Ginger had already made a modest mark in a handful of movies and handled the occasional wisecracks allotted to her character with aplomb. The plot is neither here nor there and typical Depression escapist fare but Vincent Youmans turned in a fine score including the badly neglected ballad Orchids In The Moonlight, the title song and, of course, The Carioca. I'm guessing that at the time the film was built around the title number which may well have been subtitled Eat Your Heart Out, Busby Berkley, which featured a bra-less chorus line strapped on to the wings of a half dozen planes as they fly over Rio de Janeiro but probably even then this spectacle was forced to share top honors with the sensational dancing of Fred and Ginger. It's badly dated, of course, but even after 70 odd years it entertains.
Review of Flying Down to Rio
