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      Flying Down to Rio

      Released Dec 29, 1933 1 hr. 29 min. Musical List
      83% 12 Reviews Tomatometer 50% 1,000+ Ratings Audience Score In this 1933 musical romance, choreographer and musician Fred Ayers (Fred Astaire) labors to help his friend and band leader Roger Bond (Gene Raymond) romance gorgeous Brazilian Belinha De Rezende (Dolores del Río), who is the fiancée of Julio (Raul Roulien). Along the way, Ayers and singer Honey Hale (Ginger Rogers) stage marvelous dance numbers and conspire to make sure the shows go on, including a breathtaking dance number on the exterior of a formation of airplanes flying over the audience. Read More Read Less Watch on Fandango at Home Premiered Nov 21 Buy Now

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      Audience Reviews

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      Steve D Paper thin even for this kind of thing. Rated 2 out of 5 stars 05/07/23 Full Review Audience Member I struggled to stay with this. One and a half hours felt more like 3. Fred and Ginger were alright, but oof. Dont feel the need to see it again. Rated 1 out of 5 stars 01/14/23 Full Review deke p Wonderful movie! Dolores Del Rio! Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. 1933! I can't believe the low audience scores on RT for this classic. I've seen parts of it many times before but 12.31.2020 was the first time I watched it all. AMAZING music & long huge mass dance scenes like Busby Berkeley that go on forever. And the chorus line of showgirls 'dancing' on the wings of an old bi-plane, supposedly for the entertainent of the customers below, campy but unforgetable. SPOILER ALERT: Don't miss the ending. Rated 5 out of 5 stars 03/30/23 Full Review Audience Member The best musical movie ever made! With the best movie song ever sung: The Carioca! Rated 5 out of 5 stars 02/26/23 Full Review Audience Member 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. Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 01/13/23 Full Review ashley h Flying Down to Rio is an amazing film. It is about an aviator and a band leader who is always getting his group fired for his flirtatious behavior with the female guests. Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers give excellent performances. The screenplay is good but a little slow in places. Thomas Freeland did a great job directing this movie. I enjoyed watching this motion picture because of the music and romance. Flying Down to Rio is a must see. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 03/31/23 Full Review Read all reviews Post a rating

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      Critics Reviews

      View All (12) Critics Reviews
      David Parkinson Empire Magazine The first Fred and Ginger feature is a little clunky and short on plot and character but a beautiful and atmospheric treat for all that. Rated: 3/4 Aug 9, 2020 Full Review Mordaunt Hall New York Times Miss Del Rio is alluring and efficient, and Mr. Raymond does well as the handsome hero. Aug 9, 2020 Full Review Variety Staff Variety From the time of the opening melody ('Music Makes Me' - and hot) to the next number, 'Carioca', almost three reels elapse and anybody can take a walk, come back and be that much ahead. Jun 16, 2008 Full Review Ann Ross Maclean's Magazine The interest here isn't in the ensemble work-naturally a dancer hasn't much to contribute when she is fastened by both feet to the floor- but in seeing several dozen Hollywood extra girls hanging upside down over the bay of Rio. Jul 23, 2019 Full Review Helen Brown Norden Vanity Fair Chiefly noteworthy for the presence of the excessively nimble and limp-jointed Fred Astaire, Flying Down to Rio is, by and large, a laborious musical film, in which the one funny line is lifted bodily from a current dirty joke. Jun 11, 2019 Full Review Fernando F. Croce CinePassion A quintessential piece of Thirties musical kookiness right out of Man Ray Dec 3, 2009 Full Review Read all reviews

      Movie Info

      Synopsis In this 1933 musical romance, choreographer and musician Fred Ayers (Fred Astaire) labors to help his friend and band leader Roger Bond (Gene Raymond) romance gorgeous Brazilian Belinha De Rezende (Dolores del Río), who is the fiancée of Julio (Raul Roulien). Along the way, Ayers and singer Honey Hale (Ginger Rogers) stage marvelous dance numbers and conspire to make sure the shows go on, including a breathtaking dance number on the exterior of a formation of airplanes flying over the audience.
      Director
      Thornton Freeland
      Executive Producer
      Merian C. Cooper
      Screenwriter
      Lou Brock, Anne Caldwell, Erwin S. Gelsey, H. W. Hanemann, Cyril Hume
      Distributor
      RKO Radio Pictures
      Production Co
      RKO Radio Pictures Inc.
      Genre
      Musical
      Original Language
      English
      Release Date (Theaters)
      Dec 29, 1933, Wide
      Release Date (Streaming)
      Aug 18, 2008
      Sound Mix
      Mono
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