Rio Rita (1942)

Doc and Wishey run into some Nazi-agents, who want to smuggle bombs into the USA from a Mexican border hotel.

Director:

S. Sylvan Simon

Writers:

Richard Connell (screenplay), Gladys Lehman (screenplay),

Stars:

Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Kathryn Grayson

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Bud Abbott	...	'Doc'
Lou Costello	...	'Wishy'
Kathryn Grayson	...	Rita Winslow
John Carroll	...	Ricardo Montera
Patricia Dane	...	Lucette Brunswick
Tom Conway	...	Maurice Craindall
Peter Whitney	...	Jake
Barry Nelson	...	Harry Gantley
Arthur Space	...	Trask
Dick Rich	...	Gus
Eva Puig	...	Marianna
Joan Valerie	...	Dotty
Mitchell Lewis	...	Julio
Eros Volusia	...	Herself
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Eros Volusia Brazilian Dancers	...	Themselves

Storyline

After being fired from their jobs as clerks in a pet store, Doc and Wishey, a couple of bumpkins, hide in the trunk of a car that they think will take them to New York, but instead they end up in Texas where they help to facilitate the romance of a popular Latin singer and the owner of a vacation hotel while exposing a gang of Fifth-Columnists.

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Plot Keywords:

hotel | singer | texas | fifth columnist | apple | 

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Taglines:

THERE'S Monkey Business GOING ON!

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Genres:

Comedy | Music | Musical | Romance

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Certificate:

Approved

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English Spanish German

Release Date:

April 1942 (USA)

Filming Locations:

Hemet, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Loew's, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

91 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Some modern credits erroneously list the song "Long Before You Came Along" as appearing in the 1929 version. It was written for the 1942 version.

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Goofs

In the scene where Lou is on top of the car garage roof, a seam in the sky cyclorama can clearly be seen, even in long shot, and shadows of trees are also reflected on the "sky."

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Quotes

'Wishy': If I'm the one that gets killed, get twenty-five beautiful girls to walk around me.
'Doc': Why?
'Wishy': If I don't get up, then you know i'm dead.

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Connections

Version of Rio Rita (1929)

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Soundtracks

"Ombres Légères"
("Shadow Song") (1859) (uncredited)
from opera "Dinorah, ou le pardon de Ploëmel"
Music by Giacomo Meyerbeer
Libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré
Sung by Kathryn Grayson at the hotel

User Reviews

Bud and Lou's MGM debut

With the money that Abbott and Costello made in their films at Universal to save that studio from going bankrupt, L.B. Mayer decided he wanted some of that himself. So Universal was probably paid a lot of cash to loan them out for the first of three films.

MGM dusted off the old show Rio Rita which was a smash Broadway success for Florenz Ziegfeld in 1927-1928. Universal had filmed it in 1929 with John Boles, Bebe Daniels and Wheeler and Woolsey. Come to think of it, they probably tossed in the rights for Rio Rita in the loan out deal for Abbott and Costello.

All that was retained were the two big songs of the show, the title song and the Ranger song. Harold Arlen and E.Y. Harburg wrote You Came Along sung very nicely by John Carroll and Kathryn Grayson.

The plot is pretty silly involving some Nazi spies sending coded messages during a broadcast featuring Latino crooner John Carroll. He's got a cheap Mexican accent that really doesn't fool anyone. Why didn't MGM use a real Latino performer like Tito Guizar? I guess we'll never know.

And Abbott and Costello don't get to use any of their patented routines here although they do have some funny moments. MGM did much better by them in Lost In a Harem which is more like the stuff they were doing at Universal.