Singin' and Dancing Back in Time.: FLYING DOWN TO RIO (1933)

Saturday, February 6, 2010

FLYING DOWN TO RIO (1933)

Flying Down to Rio (1933). Musical. Director: Thornton Freeland. Producer: Merian C. Cooper and Lou Brock. Music was composed by Max Steiner. Cast: Dolores del Río, Gene Raymond, Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. The song "Carioca" was written for the film by composer Vincent Youmans and lyricists Edward Eliscu and Gus Kahn. The tango-song "Orchids in the Moonlight" sung by Raul Roulien.

Composer and womanizer Roger Bond and his orchestra are performing in Miami, with singer Honey Hales. Even though the assistant band leader Fred Ayres, has warned Roger, he leaves the stage to dance with the beautiful Belinha, sitting in the audience. Angry, Dona Elena, Belinha's chaperon, arranges for Roger and the band to be fired. Roger, who will not be stopped, takes the band and chases after Belinha all the way to Brazil, where they are hired to play at the Hotel Atlantico in Rio de Janeiro, owned by Belinha's father. Roger flies Belinha in his private plane, which he fakes engine trouble, forcing them to land on an island. While there, she tells him that she is already engaged to be married.

Back in Rio, during rehearsal, Fred is told by police that the hotel does not have an entertainment license. Roger sees a plane flying overhead, and comes up with the idea of strapping dancing girls to planes, with Fred leading the band.

Will the show be a great success for the hotel ?

Will Rodger celebrate with Belinha?

This film is known for the first pairing of dance partners Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. Two unknowns who really smoked up the screen in a dance number called "The Carioca," which received such a wonderful reviews from critics and fans that they performed in nine other films.

Soundtracks:

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"Music Makes Me"
(uncredited)
Music by Vincent Youmans
Lyrics by Gus Kahn and Edward Eliscu
Performed by Ginger Rogers

"Carioca"
(uncredited)
Music by Vincent Youmans
Lyrics by Gus Kahn and Edward Eliscu
Song performed by Alice Gentle, Movita and Etta Moten
Dance performed by Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, chorus

"Orchids in the Moonlight"
(uncredited)
Music by Vincent Youmans
Lyrics by Gus Kahn and Edward Eliscu
Performed by Raul Roulien
Danced by Fred Astaire and Dolores del Rio with Ensemble

"Music Makes Me"
(uncredited)
Instrumental reprise
Music by Vincent Youmans
Lyrics by Gus Kahn and Edward Eliscu
Sung by Ginger Rogers
Dance performed by Fred Astaire

"Flying Down to Rio"
(uncredited)
Music by Vincent Youmans
Lyrics by Gus Kahn and Edward Eliscu
Song performed by Fred Astaire
Dance performed by chorus

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Bob Fosse

Was a musical theater choreographer and director, screenwriter and film director. He won an eight Tony Awards for choreography, as well as one for direction. He was nominated for an Academy Award four times, winning for his direction of Cabaret. He was identified with his third wife, Gwen Verdon. She was both the dancer/collaborator who he choreographed much of his work and, together with dancer/choreographer Ann Reinking, a guardian of the Fosse legacy after his death. Fosse is considered to be one the most influential coreographers of the 20th Century.

Esther Williams.

JANE POWELL

After rising to fame as a singer in her home state of Oregon, Powell was signed to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer while still in her teens. Once there, the studio utilized her vocal, dancing and acting talents, casting her in such musicals as Royal Wedding, with Fred Astaire, A Date with Judy, with friend Elizabeth Taylor and Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, with Howard Keel. In the late 1950s, her film career slowed, only to be replaced with a busy theater and television career.Click picture to enter websight.

Jeanette MacDonald

Singer and actress best remembered for her musical films of the 1930s with Maurice Chevalier (Love Me Tonight, The Merry Widow) and Nelson Eddy (Naughty Marietta, Rose-Marie, and Maytime). During the 1930s and 1940s she starred in 29 feature films, four nominated for Best Picture Oscars (The Love Parade, One Hour With You, Naughty Marietta and San Francisco), and recorded extensively, earning three gold records. She later appeared in grand opera, concerts, radio, and television. MacDonald was one of most influential sopranos of the 20th century. Click picture to view fan website.

Joan Crawford.

Click picture to view website. Joan Crawford, born Lucille Fay LeSueur, was an American actress in film, television and theatre. Starting as a dancer in traveling theatrical companies before debuting on Broadway, Crawford was signed to a motion picture contract by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1925. Initially frustrated by the size and quality of her parts, Crawford began a campaign of self-publicity and became nationally known as a flapper by the end of the 1920s. In the 1930s, Crawford's fame rivaled MGM colleagues Norma Shearer and Greta Garbo. Crawford often played hardworking young women who find romance and financial success. These "rags-to-riches" stories were well-received by Depression-era audiences and were popular with women. Crawford became one of Hollywood's most prominent movie stars and one of the highest paid women in the United States, but her films began losing money and by the end of the 1930s

Rodgers and Hammerstein.

Richard Rodgers (1902 – 1979) and Oscar Hammerstein II (1895 – 1960) the songwriting duo, on our musical page. They created many popular Broadway musicals in the 1940s and 1950s during what is considered the golden age. With Rodgers composing the music and Hammerstein writing the lyrics, five of their shows, Oklahoma!, Carousel, South Pacific, The King and I and The Sound of Music. They won thirty-four Tony Awards, fifteen Academy Awards, the Pulitzer Prize, and two Grammys. Click picture to read movie reviews.

Cab Calloway

Calloway was a master of energetic scat singing and led one of the United States' most popular African American big bands from the start of the 1930s through the late 1940s. Calloway's band featured performers including trumpeters Dizzy Gillespie and Adolphus "Doc" Cheatham, saxophonists Ben Webster and Leon "Chu" Berry, New Orleans guitar ace Danny Barker, and bassist Milt Hinton. Calloway continued to perform until his death in 1994 at the age of 86 .Click picture to view official website.

Saturday, February 6, 2010

FLYING DOWN TO RIO (1933)

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