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13 reviews in total

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13 out of 14 people found the following review useful:
Only a notch down from "Road to Utopia", 20 November 2000
Author: rgshanks (rgshanks@supanet.com) from Warrington, England

Although Hope, Crosby and Lamour were teaming together for the fifth time in a Road movie, the format and style remain fresh, with a greater emphasis on song and a more rigid plot-line than in its four predecessors. The interplay between the three stars continues to be a delight, and Gale Sondergaard makes for a wonderful villain, whilst the Wiere Brothers almost steal the show as a trio of Rio street entertainers whom Bing and Bob persuade to impersonate the last three members of the five-piece all-American band that they have promised to deliver into Nestor Paiva's nightclub. There are a number of hilarious set-pieces, particularly with Hope cycling on a tightrope, and a rousing and manic climax. As a result of all these fine features, "Road to Rio" is only a notch down from my favourite Road picture, "Road to Utopia".

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13 out of 15 people found the following review useful:
The Papers, the world must never know., 2 May 2004

Author: bkoganbing from Buffalo, New York

Another journey with Bob, Bing, and Dotty, this time the boys are escaping the law and a couple of shotgun wielding fathers in Bing's case. They stowaway on a boat bound for Rio De Janeiro and they meet damsel in distress Dotty with her "aunt" Gale Sondergaard and her two henchmen Frank Faylen and Joseph Vitale. Dragon lady Gale has been hypnotizing Dottie to force her into a marriage so that her inheritance can be swindled.

The Road pictures always had a usual pattern of songs. A ballad for Crosby, a ballad for Lamour, and some patter songs for Crosby and Hope. Crosby sings one of his nicest ballads with But Beautiful. Hope and Crosby do Appalachicola, Fla and Dottie does an unforgettable version of Experience accompanied by Hope playing a bubble blowing trumpet.

Bing Crosby's most frequent singing partners were the Andrews Sisters on record. They did enough material to fill more than three of those old fashioned vinyl LPs. But their only appearance in a movie with Bing is here and they sing You Don't Have To Know The Language with him as an extra treat.

See it and figure out for yourself what was in those "papers" that the world was better off in blissful ignorance of.

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6 out of 6 people found the following review useful:
Hope and Crosby are great, and romantic moments are designed for Lamour...but let's not forget the wonderful Wiere Brothers, 2 February 2008

Author: Terrell-4 from San Antonio, Texas

Considering that The Road to Rio was the fifth in the series, that the formula was down pat, that the plot, as usual, was merely an excuse for spontaneous and not-so-spontaneous bantering by the two stars, that the money-to-effort ratio was by now very satisfying to nearly all concerned, and that Bing Crosby and Bob Hope, both at 44, were quickly reaching the point where their age was working against their image of happy-go-lucky, sex-on-their- minds, slightly dumb but well-intentioned good guys...well, this is one of the best in the series. There's no single thing that sets it apart. If we've watched even one other in the series, we know what's going to happen, like having a funny, loved uncle come to visit. I think that in The Road to Rio, the formula had reached a high gloss. The "spontaneity" of the back and forth between Hope and Crosby is quick, funny and friendly. The professionalism may be there, but it looks like they're still having fun making these movies. The jokes are corny and expected, as they were back in 1947, but Hope and Crosby give them a level of snap and comfort that make us smile. Their roles, Bing Crosby as Scat Sweeney, singer and slightly moth-eaten bon vivant, and Bob Hope as Hot Lips Barton, slow-witted but wise- cracking boy-man, are as comfortable to them and us as a pair of old slippers. They work their images both in the plot and in real life for every laugh they can squeeze. Says Scat Sweeney (Crosby) to Hot Lips Barton (Hope), "Swine!" Barton: "Pig!" Scat Crosby: "That's the same as swine." Hot Lips Hope: "All right. Ham!" Or this: Scat Crosby, "Are you admitting you're a dirty coward?" Hot Lips Hope, "No, a clean one!" These groaners were well aged at the turn of the century, but Hope and Crosby knew their stuff. Dorothy Lamour as the always exotic love interest is here, of course, providing a rationale for the two boys' raging hormones and the subsequent competition that provides much of the plot's backbone and laughs. Says Hot Lips Hope as he stares at Lamour's tight gown, "How'd you put that on...with a spray-gun?" And there are the many asides to the audience that was one of the trademarks of the series. When Hot Lips Hope finds himself hanging off a high wire, he starts screaming, "Help! Help!" Then he turns to the camera and confides in us, "You know, this picture could end right here."

But let's not just praise this highly polished piece of pleasurable, profitable professionalism. Buried in the movie is a uniquely eccentric and expert trio of brothers, Harry, Herbert and Sylvester. They were the Wiere Brothers, and a single description fails to do them justice. They were comics, dancers, gymnasts, singers, jugglers, players of all sorts of musical instruments and very funny men. They came to the States from Germany in the mid-Thirties after a successful European career in clubs and circuses. They were born to entertainers who moved around. Harry showed up in Berlin in 1906, Herbert appeared in Vienna in 1908 and Sylvester arrived in Prague in 1909. They soon were a part of their parent's act. In their early teens they organized their own routines.

I think Hollywood and America simply didn't know what to make of them. They made a handful of movies, only one of which really showcased their skills and appeal. They eventually settled down to a successful career in nightclubs and special appearances on television. In The Road to Rio they play three Brazilian street musicians. Scat Crosby and Hot Lips Hope encounter them while the two boys are trying to rescue Dorothy Lamour from a nefarious plot. We get a chance to see the brothers bandy schtick with Hope and Crosby. Unfortunately, they get only one chance to show us what they can do in performance, and that scene is chopped up and was severely edited. Still, it's better than nothing.

Their showcase spot was in the first movie they made when they came to America. That's Vogues of 1938, which starred Warner Baxter and a blonde Joan Bennett. We get a full routine from the Wiere Brothers, dressed in white tuxes, dancing eccentrically, bouncing and rolling, doing wonders with hats, playing violins and singing. They are funny, endearing and terrific.

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5 out of 6 people found the following review useful:
Your telling me, Your in the Groove Jackson, This is murder!, 21 January 2000
Author: yenlo from Auburn, Me

Another Road picture with Bob, Bing and Dorothy. As always there are moments of hilarity. This one is with the Wiere Brothers as non-English speaking street musicians who hook up with the gang. We first see the Wiere's putting on their music and dance routine in front of a small crowd. Then Bing gets them to join he and Bobs little combo. Bing teaches them a few words of English to get by. They encounter nightclub manager Nestor Paiva (Best known as Lucas from Creature from the Black Lagoon) and use their newfound language on him. Comedy is comedy now matter how old it is and this scene with the Wiere Brothers is still hilarious.

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3 out of 3 people found the following review useful:
South American Paradise, 12 February 2011
Author: lugonian from Kissimmee, Florida

ROAD TO RIO (Paramount, 1947), directed by Norman Z. McLeod, marks the fifth installment to the popular "in name only" comedy series featuring that famous trio of Bing Crosby, Bob Hope and Dorothy Lamour. Unlike its preceding adventures of ROAD TO ZANZIBAR (1941), MOROCCO (1942) and UTOPIA (1946), ROAD TO RIO is no doubt funnier than its initial entry, ROAD TO SINGAPORE (1940), yet coming across on its own merits presenting itself almost like a straight-forward musical-comedy than its predecessors consisting of offbeat situations, talking animals and formalistic Hollywood in-jokes. Certain aspects, however, ranging from opening titles bearing animated names of its principal players dancing across the screen; to the wide-eyed/ bushy-mustached Jerry Colonna coming from nowhere leading his calvary on horseback belting out a long wide yell; Hope and Crosby's "patty-cake" routine and witty comedy lines are true reminders of this being very much a part of the "Road" adventures the public then has grown to love so well.

The plot gets off to a really good start in a carnival where the smooth talking "Scat" Sweeney (Bing Crosby) has his pal "Hot-Lips" Barton (Bob Hope) doing a high wire bicycle act leading to disastrous results before the carnival catches fire, burning to the ground. To avoid capture by an angry boss and mob, the boys make a run for it, ending up as stowaways taking refuge in a lifeboat of the S.S. Queen bound for Rio. During their voyage, they encounter the beautiful Lucia Maria De Andrade (Dorothy Lamour) traveling with her aunt, Catherine Vail (Gale Sondergaard). As Scat and Hot Lips each vie for Lucia's affections, they become confused by her sudden mood changes (from "I love you," to "I hate you," I loathe you," "I despise you" ...) reactions, unaware she's actually under a hypnotic trance by her aunt, whose intentions are for her to forget about these men and concentrate on her forthcoming marriage. Upon their arrival in Rio, Scat and Hot Lips obtain jobs working for Mr. Cardoso (Nestor Paiva) in his nightclub with three odd-ball musicians (The Wiere Brothers) who don't speak any English, before braving Mrs. Vail's henchmen (Frank Faylen and Joseph Vitale) disguised as a pirate and Caribbean dancer, to entertain at Lucia's wedding, to extremely funny results.

In between Hope and Crosby antics and Lamour's hypnotic trance, song interludes by Johnny Burke and James Van Heusen enter the scene, including: "We're on Our Way" (sung by Bing Crosby and Bob Hope); American standards of "Swanee River" (by Stephen Foster), and "Carry Me Back to Old Virginny" (by James A. Bland); "But Beautiful" (sung by Crosby); "You Have to Know the Language" (sung and performed by Crosby and the Andrews Sisters); "Experience" (sung by Dorothy Lamour); and "Brasilia (I Yi Yi)." Crosby's performing on board ship with the Andrews Sisters (Laverne, Patti and Maxene), a popular singing trio during the World War II years, ranks one of the film's several highlights. For being the longest (100 minutes) in the "Road" series, Crosby's vocalizing of "But Beautiful" to Lamour was usually one that got deleted from most television prints during the 1970s and 80s to fill in enough commercial breaks during its standard two hour time slot.

This highly entertaining and worthwhile "Road" entry, formerly presented on American Movie Classics (1997-2001), is often hailed as the last great "Road" comedy, though certainly not its finish. ROAD TO BALI (1952) and THE ROAD TO HONG KONG (1962) came after-wards, indicating its popularity was best suited for the 1940s rather than the forthcoming decades. With all "Road" comedies placed on home video and DVD over the years, ROAD TO RIO not only has had limited TV revivals in recent years, but labeled as one being "out of print" by DVD distributors. With the overplayed ROAD TO MOROCCO listed among one of the greatest comedies by the American Film Institute, ROAD TO RIO, with Crosby, Hope and Lamour at their finest, is certainly entertaining enough to merit attention and availability for future generations to endure. (***1/2)

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1 out of 1 people found the following review useful:
A more down to Earth Road Picture, 2 April 2008

Author: Scaramouche2004 from Coventry, England

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

Since the very first Road To.. Picture back in 1940, each subsequent entry in the series seemed to build on its wacky and manic content, with each becoming slightly more off the wall and crazy as the last.

However when the fifth entry was released in 1947, for some reason things were toned down a tad, making the Road to Rio, although still funny and enjoyable appear to lack the quirkiness and zany antics of what had gone before.

The banter and wise cracks between our two heroes is as good as ever, and the musical numbers up to par as well, but in spite of this, I always have a problem associating this film with any other in the series. It seems out on it's own; out on a limb.

Maybe it's because unlike its predecessors, the gang are not lost in the untamed wild of somewhere or other, perhaps its the lack of talking animals, or perhaps it has more to do with the fact that this story actually has a plot; a real story you can follow instead of the more customary and formulaic half-hearted story onto which a few gags and songs had been pinned.

Still the film is enjoyable and very funny, with The Andrew Sisters, Bing's other frequent stalwarts from radio and record, joining in on the fun for 'You Don't Have to Know the Language' and a delightful comic turn from The Weire Brothers as three local boys trying to pass themselves off as red blooded Americans, despite only knowing three slang terms in English which had been taught to them by Hope and Crosby just minutes before.

As I said you will enjoy this entry very much but you will probably find this movie more akin to a Bob Hope 'My Favorite Blonde/Brunette' kind of comedy than anything so far seen in the 'Road To...' franchise

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Love the Interludes, 26 March 2013
Author: campbell-russell-a from Australia

"Road to Rio" is perhaps not the best of the "Road" films but I think it has the most entertaining interludes. Bing and the Andrews Sisters' rendition of "You Don't Have to Know the Language" is my favourite "Road" musical interlude. I love Bing's seemingly effortless movements and singing. Bing apparently rehearsed for many hours in order to make his dance movements look as though he had made them up on the spot. Of his singing he once said that he tried to make it seem to any man that he could sound as good whilst in the shower.His casual style masks his dedication to his craft. The Andrews Sisters performance is a match for Bing's class and style. Has any singing group sounded so right?

The second interlude is performed by the Wiere Brothers. I have never seen anything as charmingly eccentric and clever. Their routine has you guessing what they will come up with next and what comes next is unexpected and delightfully witty. I am so glad to have seen the brothers in "Road to Rio" because apparently there is very little of their routines on film.

It is also good to see Gale Sondergaard in a type of role she made her own - mysterious evil with a beautiful face and body. Disney used her as the model for the evil Queen in Sleeping Beauty. Sondergaard was to play the Wicked Witch of the West in "The Wizard of Oz" until it was decided that the witch should be ugly. Sondergaard rejected the role and she was right. Her portrayals of evil were not the ugly kind; they were sensual, sophisticated, dark and hypnotic.

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Hot Lips, Scat and the hypnotic shenanigan., 31 December 2012

Author: JohnRouseMerriottChard from United Kingdom

Road to Rio is directed by Norman McLeod and written by Edmund Beloin and Jack Rose. It stars Bob Hope, Bing Crosby, Dorothy Lamour, Gale Sondergaard and Frank Faylen. Music is by Robert Emmett and cinematography by Ernest Laszlo.

Hope and Crosby star as two vaudevillians, who after setting a circus on fire, stow away on a liner bound for Brazil. Once there they encounter a distressed woman (Lamour) who is being coerced into an unwanted marriage by her scheming guardian.

The fifth in the hugely popular "Road To" series of films, Rio follows the same trajectory as before. For fans such as myself this is OK, other film fans venturing in for a first time look may be a bit bemused by it all. In fairness this one does have a solid story at its core, with hypnotism the dastardly weapon of choice, while McLeod neatly blends the comedy and musical numbers and keeps the pace brisk. Hope gets some well written topical gags to deliver and Crosby croons whilst also getting to do a number with The Andrews Sisters. In support the wonderful Sondergaard turns in another one of her memorable villainess performances, and The Wiere Brothers form part of the narrative to produce great comedic results.

With a blazing first quarter, a jovial middle section and a genuinely hilarious finale, Road to Rio achieves everything a "Road To" fan could wish for. 7.5/10

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"Yeah, go back to your cabin and shoot yourself, that way nobody'll get hurt.", 18 September 2008

Author: classicsoncall from United States

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

I just picked up the neatest 'Legends of Hollywood' DVD set featuring a cool catalog of pictures from the legendary Bob Hope. It's got two 'Road' pictures (Rio and Bali), and a nice assortment of additional films spanning Hope's career. Watching one, it's hard not to watch another immediately after, especially when he teams with iconic sidekick Bing Crosby, or in this case, with Dorothy Lamour along for the ride with both stars. I got a kick out of the name of Hope's character, 'Hot Lips' Barton, while the Bingster goes by Scat Sweeney. They're both on the run from a posse of jilted females left behind by Crosby's character, who tries to throw their angry fathers off the trail by dropping names like Bogart and Autry. I feel bad for younger viewers watching the film today who might not be able to make the connection, but for movie goers of the era, it had to be a blast to be 'in' on the joke.

The film offers a neat bit with a comedy trio I'd never seen before - they're the Wiere Brothers, although Weird might have been more appropriate. In the picture, they don't speak English, so Scat teaches them each a single line that he hopes will get them by. It's done pretty effectively, and even though you can see the payoff coming from a mile away, it's still a lot of fun. Too bad they didn't show up in a few more Road shows.

As usual, Dorothy Lamour turns up as a character unknown to the boys when the film begins; here she's an heiress who's villainous 'aunt', played by Gale Sondergaard, attempts to steal her fortune via an arranged marriage. Aunt Catherine employs a couple of toughs to bodyguard Lucia (Lamour); Frank Faylen and Joseph Vitale both get to mix it up with the boys along the way, usually getting the short end of the stick.

Best line of the picture - "Well if she looks like Lamour, she can sing like Lamour, can't she?" Sing she can, in a tuneful little single titled "Experience". What I couldn't figure out though, was why nobody on board the SS Queen of Brazil complained when Crosby and Lamour sat right in front of the shipboard movie!

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Entertaining buddy comedy., 24 January 2008

Author: Robert J. Maxwell (rmax304823@yahoo.com) from Deming, New Mexico, USA

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

It's the kind of relaxed, enjoyable, self-referential episode we expect in the "road" series of Bob Hope and Bing Crosby. It fills the usual template. Two greedy, cowardly, libidinous show-business guys get thrown out of a circus and find themselves stowing away on a ship bound for Rio de Janeiro. (Brazil, like all their other destinations, will be constructed entirely on the studio back lot and on sound stages.) They meet Dorothy Lamour. Dorothy is in trouble again. Her sinister aunt, Gale Sondergaard, is hypnotizing her and forcing her to marry a rich suitor. Depending on her trance, or its absence, Lamour is either a distressed woman in need or a blank automaton who tells Hope and Crosby, "I hate you. I loathe you. I despise you," and then slaps them. Two hoodlums are working for Lamour's aunt and the rest of the movie is basically a pursuit through the streets, night clubs, and hotel rooms of a touristy Rio.

There are some pretty funny scenes. Hope and Crosby trying to celebrate a evanescent victory by toasting it with champagne, while one of the hoods keeps shattering the glasses with a silenced rifle fired from across the street. Three comic monolingual Brazilians are taught slang phrases in order to pass as genuine American jazz musicians. Each learns one phrase -- "You're in the groove, Jackson", "This is murder," and "You're telling me." The boss catches them in the hall and, not knowing of the masquerade, admonishes them for smoking. "You're in the groove, Jackson." "You're telling me." Boss: "No, I'm telling HIM." It's really amusing.

But there are signs that the writers' imaginations are flagging as well. The musicians, who take up quite a bit of screen time, are too cute by half. The narrative seems padded out with more musical numbers than usual, though they're not bad and at least two songs (by Burns and van Heusen) became popular hits -- "You don't have to know the language," and "But beautiful." The gags don't seem to come quite as fast as they have in the past. Some are borrowed openly from Laurel and Hardy routines (even the L&H theme is used) and some are reminiscent of The Three Stooges.

Still, it's fun to watch the kids romping around once more. Hope, Crosby, and Lamour -- all look fine, not having seemed to age much since their initial outing some years earlier. Relax and enjoy it.

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