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IMDbPro

Flying Down to Rio

  • 1933
  • Passed
  • 1h 29m
IMDb RATING
6.6/10
3.9K
YOUR RATING
Flying Down to Rio (1933)
Trailer for Flying Down to Rio
Play trailer1:29
1 Video
64 Photos
ComedyMusicalRomance

A bandleader woos a Latin flame who is already engaged to his employer.A bandleader woos a Latin flame who is already engaged to his employer.A bandleader woos a Latin flame who is already engaged to his employer.

  • Director
    • Thornton Freeland
  • Writers
    • Cyril Hume
    • H.W. Hanemann
    • Erwin Gelsey
  • Stars
    • Dolores del Rio
    • Gene Raymond
    • Raul Roulien
  • See production, box office & company info
  • IMDb RATING
    6.6/10
    3.9K
    YOUR RATING
    • Director
      • Thornton Freeland
    • Writers
      • Cyril Hume
      • H.W. Hanemann
      • Erwin Gelsey
    • Stars
      • Dolores del Rio
      • Gene Raymond
      • Raul Roulien
    • 76User reviews
    • 28Critic reviews
    • 72Metascore
  • See more at IMDbPro
    • Nominated for 1 Oscar
      • 2 nominations total

    Videos1

    Flying Down to Rio
    Trailer 1:29
    Watch Flying Down to Rio

    Photos64

    Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers in Flying Down to Rio (1933)
    Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, and Paul Karlesky in Flying Down to Rio (1933)
    Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, and Paul Karlesky in Flying Down to Rio (1933)
    Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Gene Raymond, and Raul Roulien in Flying Down to Rio (1933)
    Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, and Gene Raymond in Flying Down to Rio (1933)
    Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers in Flying Down to Rio (1933)
    Fred Astaire & Ginger Rogers
    Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers in Flying Down to Rio (1933)
    Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers in Flying Down to Rio (1933)
    Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers in Flying Down to Rio (1933)
    Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers in Flying Down to Rio (1933)
    Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, and Gene Raymond in Flying Down to Rio (1933)

    Top cast

    Edit
    Dolores del Rio
    Dolores del Rio
    • Belinha De Rezende
    • (as Dolores Del Rio)
    Gene Raymond
    Gene Raymond
    • Roger Bond
    Raul Roulien
    Raul Roulien
    • Julio Rubeiro
    Ginger Rogers
    Ginger Rogers
    • Honey Hale
    Fred Astaire
    Fred Astaire
    • Fred Ayres
    Blanche Friderici
    Blanche Friderici
    • Dona Elena De Rezende
    Walter Walker
    • Senor De Rezende
    Etta Moten
    • The Colored Singer
    Roy D'Arcy
    Roy D'Arcy
    • One of the Three Greeks
    Maurice Black
    Maurice Black
    • One of the Three Greeks
    Armand Kaliz
    Armand Kaliz
    • One of the Three Greeks
    Paul Porcasi
    Paul Porcasi
    • The Mayor
    Reginald Barlow
    Reginald Barlow
    • The Banker
    Eric Blore
    Eric Blore
    • The Head Waiter
    Luis Alberni
    Luis Alberni
    • Rio Casino Manager
    • (uncredited)
    Bernice Alstock
    • Singer
    • (uncredited)
    Rafael Alvir
      Chita Andrews
      • Check Girl
      • (uncredited)
      • Director
        • Thornton Freeland
      • Writers
        • Cyril Hume
        • H.W. Hanemann
        • Erwin Gelsey
      • All cast & crew
      • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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      Storyline

      Edit

      Did you know

      Edit
      • Trivia
        Standing outside a bakery shop in Rio, Ginger Rogers asks, "Oh, Freddie, how do you ask for little tarts in Portuguese?" Fred Astaire replies, "Don't heckle me, try the Culbertson System." This pre-Code, double entendre joke would have been funny to Depression-era audiences, for whom bridge was a common pastime. Ely Culbertson was a champion bridge player and worldwide celebrity who had won several international tournaments by developing a rather aggressive bidding system for contract bridge. He was also notorious for his sexual exploits. His 1940 autobiography would be banned in many countries. In the 1930's, the word "tart" was equivalent to "slut" or "whore." Also, in the opening inspection of hotel staff, the boss sees a maid whose shoe heels are oddly beveled and says he will not tolerate that sort of thing. A "round-heeled woman" was 1930s slang for a prostitute, a woman who could tilt from standing to on her back with ease.
      • Goofs
        Just after the flying sequence with the wing dancers there is a scene with characters sat on the terrace. The back projected image is to the wrong scale resulting in someone with an enormous head being next to the parapet.
      • Quotes

        Belinha's Friend: What have these South Americans got below the equator that we haven't?

      • Connections
        Featured in Hollywood and the Stars: The Fabulous Musicals (1963)
      • Soundtracks
        Music Makes Me
        (1933) (uncredited)

        Music by Vincent Youmans

        Lyrics by Gus Kahn and Edward Eliscu

        Performed by Ginger Rogers

      User reviews76

      Review
      Review
      Featured review
      8/10
      South American Rhythm
      FLYING DOWN TO RIO (RKO Radio, 1933), directed by Thornton Freeland, is a musical showcase for Mexican star Dolores Del Rio playing a Brazilian beauty named Belinia De Rezende, Gene Raymond as Roger Bond, a girl chasing orchestra leader, and Raul Roulien as Julio Rubeiro as Belinia's fiancé and Roger's best friend who complicates matters. By the film's conclusion, the ones who "walked off" with the movie are the supporting players of Ginger Rogers as the band vocalist, and Fred Astaire as the accordionist-dancer, in that order, thus, the beginning of a new screen team, and never again in the persona of sassy Honey Hale and semi-sophisticated Fred Ayres. Yet it's amazing that Astaire and Rogers made such a lasting impression at all in this production, considering they play subordinate roles who supply "comedy relief," and have very little opportunity to act or dance together. Even in the famous, "Carioca," number (which was how they became crowned "The King and Queen of the Carioca"), they get to perform only a few dance steps, but the ensemble of other dancers and singers get most of the footage during its 12 minutes. But even without Astaire and Rogers, or either with one of them along with a different partner, FLYING DOWN TO RIO remains an early musical attempt to capture that South American feel and tango rhythm, predating all those cliché musicals MGM or 20th Century-Fox would distribute in the 1940s, with the addition of Technicolor and/or Xavier Cugat and Carmen Miranda, etc. As for the plot elements, it remains similar to the ones used in subsequent Astaire and Rogers films, but this time the situations of strangers meeting followed by a merry mix-up, belongs to its leading players (Del Rio, Raymond and Roulien). The first half of the movie takes place in Miami, Florida, where the plot development amongst the central characters begin, then shifts to Rio De Janiero, the second largest city in Brazil, where the complications continue and are resolved after 89 minutes of screen time. In between all this comes the singing and dancing to help the plot along.

      With the music and lyrics by Gus Kahn, Edward Eliscu and Vincent Youmans, the songs include: "Music Makes Me" (sung by Ginger Rogers in the foreground with Fred Astaire, as one of the members of the band, playing the accordion in the background); "The Carioca" (performed by musicians, danced by numerous Brazilians, sung by Movita and Etta Moten, and danced briefly by Astaire and Rogers); "Orchids in the Moonlight" (sung by Raul Roulien to Dolores Del Rio/reprise, danced by Astaire and Del Rio, with one observer saying to another, "Oh, look, Belinha is dancing our tango with an Americano."); "Music Makes Me" (tap dance solo by Astaire); and "Flying Down to Rio" (sung by Fred Astaire/ danced by girls chained to the wings of the flying airplanes).

      Other than some advanced camera techniques used in this production, portions of the movie play like a picture postcard advertisement, mainly during its montage sequences where the camera focuses first from an air-view of famous landmarks, then from the ground view of Rio De Janiero, and flipping over to other scenes of the city from people walking the streets to cars driving down the roads before returning to the storyline.

      In the supporting cast are Blanche Frederici as Belinda's old-fashioned Aunt (Tia) Elena; Roy D'Arcy, Maurice Black and Armand Kaliz (The Greeks); Franklin Pangborn (Mr. Hammerstein); Luis Alberni (The Rio Casino Manager); and Eric Blore (Mr. Butterbass), making his first of five performances in an Astaire and Rogers musical. He is an asset to every one of them. It's also interesting to note that Raul Roulien remained somewhat obscure after appearing in this, never to become the Cesar Romero-type of Hollywood. As for the few Hollywood movies to feature him in the early 1930s, this is the only one still in circulation today and possibly his best opportunity on screen.

      When Gene Raymond was interviewed about FLYING DOWN TO RIO in the documentary on RKO Radio titled "Hollywood, the Golden Years" (as narrated by Ed Asner back in the late 1980s), he mentioned that he thought that FLYING DOWN TO RIO was going to become the "Bomb of Bombs," but much to his surprise when it made its premiere during the Christmas season at Radio City Music Hall, he noticed while being in New York City that there was a long line of people going around the block waiting to go in and see this movie. One cannot be sure that history would repeat itself again in today's society, but FLYING DOWN TO RIO, in spite of whatever is right or wrong it it, is vintage entertainment at best. Only one debit: acrobats flipping and catching one other, and hanging on the swings under the wings of the flying airplane during the "Flying Down to Rio" number. Not realistic, but it got by. And on the historical side, this is where Astaire and Rogers got their start together on screen, thus, becoming the most popular song and dance team of the movies, never to be topped or equaled by anyone. Now that's something to think about!

      FLYING DOWN TO RIO, which was formerly shown on American Movie Classics for many years, is currently presented on Turner Classic Movies. It is also available on video cassette and DVD. Recommended highly to fans of the team and/or musicals from this era. (***1/2)
      helpful•13
      2
      • lugonian
      • Feb 1, 2002

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      Details

      Edit
      • Release date
        • December 29, 1933 (United States)
      • Country of origin
        • United States
      • Languages
        • English
        • Portuguese
      • Also known as
        • Karyoka
      • Filming locations
        • Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
      • Production company
        • RKO Radio Pictures
      • See more company credits at IMDbPro

      Box office

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      • Budget
        • $462,000 (estimated)
      See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

      Technical specs

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      • Runtime
        1 hour 29 minutes
      • Color
        • Black and White
      • Aspect ratio
        • 1.37 : 1

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