Themes: Otherwise Engaged, Cons and Scams, Love Triangles
Main Cast: Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, Dorothy Lamour, Gale Sondergaard, Frank Faylen
Release Year: 1947
Country: US
Run Time: 100 minutes
Plot
Road to Rio was the first of three "Road" pictures jointly produced by stars Bing Crosby and Bob Hope. On the run from the law again, musicians Bob and Bing stow away on an ocean liner. They try to come to the rescue of heiress Dorothy Lamour, who is doomed to an arranged marriage to caddish George Meeker. All gratitude and effusions for their assistance, Dorothy surprises Bob and Bing on their next meeting by slapping them in their faces and declaring "I hate you! I loathe you! I despise you!" The explanation? Dorothy is being hypnotized by her scheming aunt Gale Sondergaard, who has set up the marriage for mysterious mercenary reasons of her own. When Dorothy is "herself" again, Bob and Bing smuggle her off the ship and into their Rio de Janeiro hotel room. The boys plan to save Dorothy from her unwanted marriage by passing her off as a nightclub singer, and themselves as band leaders. Trouble is, they have no band. Enter the Wiere Brothers, three Rio street entertainers. Bob and Bing hire the threesome on the spot, unmindful that they have booked themselves into Nestor Paiva's nightclub on the promise that they're delivering an American band. Since the Wieres speak only Portuguese, Bing teaches each brother an American phrase by rote: "You're in the groove, Jackson", "You're Telling Me," and "This is Murder." Naturally, it isn't long before the boys' ruse is discovered, and this coupled with the newly hypnotized Lamour's threats to have Bob and Bing arrested, leaves our heroes broke and stranded once more. Still, they pose a menace to Sondergaard, thus she contrives a method of disposing of them. Hypnotizing them both, Sondergaard orders Bob and Bing to kill each other. They snap out of the spell just in time, but still there's the problem of rescuing Dorothy. And now there's a new angle: mysterious stranger Frank Puglia informs the boys that the only way to stop the wedding is to retrieve (pause; a furtive glance left; a furtive glance right) "The Papers." Said papers are in the possession of Sondergaard, obliging Bob and Bing to show up at the pre-nuptial festival in disguise (with Bob in drag). Managing to hypnotize Sondergaard's henchmen Frank Faylen and Joseph Vitale, Bob and Bing uncover the precious Papers, and Dorothy is saved. But how can those papers stop a wedding? We won't give away the surprise, nor will we tell you whether Dorothy ends up with Bob or Bing, nor even what the heck Jerry Colonna is doing in the picture leading a cavalry charge. Not the best of the "Road" pictures, Road to Rio is nonetheless one of the most memorable--and quotable (how many of your high school pals used to confound the teacher by declaring "You're in the groove, Jackson"?) ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
The fifth in the "Road" series, Road to Rio is a bit more uneven than its predecessors, and a bit less zany in its humor. When Rio's humor misses its mark, it misses it by a wider margin than the earlier films -- but when it hits, it scores way up high on the laugh meter. As an excuse for anything other than gags and songs, the screenplay is fairly useless, but with Bing Crosby, Bob Hope and Dorothy Lamour around to knock the gags and songs out of the ballpark, who cares? The star trio gets an able assist in the humor department from the strange Wiere Brothers and delightful singing support from the Andrews Sisters, and Gale Sondergaard is on hand to supply a dangerously sinister touch to the plot. Comedic highlights include Hope in drag, Hope on a high wire and the Wieres making use of their precious little English. Crosby is in golden voice on the haunting "But Beautiful and his duet with the Andrews Sisters on the rhythmic "You Don't Have to Know the Language" is a gem. For her part, Lamour makes something special out of "Experience." Norman Z. McLeod's direction is fast and pointed, exactly what Rio requires. If Rio occasionally falls flat, its highs are more than enough to make it an entertaining little romp. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide
Hans Dreier - Art Director, Earl Hedrick - Art Director, Bernard Pearce - Choreography, Edith Head - Costume Designer, Oscar Rudolph - First Assistant Director, Norman Z. McLeod - Director, Ellsworth Hoagland - Editor, Johnny Burke - Composer (Music Score), Robert Emmett Dolan - Composer (Music Score), Robert Emmett Dolan - Musical Direction/Supervision, Ary Barroso - Songwriter, Bob Russell - Songwriter, Jimmy Van Heusen - Songwriter, Wally Westmore - Makeup, Ernest Laszlo - Cinematographer, Daniel Dare - Producer, Ray Moyer - Set Designer, Sam Comer - Set Designer, Gordon Jennings - Special Effects, Paul K. Lerpae - Special Effects, Edmund Beloin - Screenwriter, Jack Rose - Screenwriter
Scat Sweeney, and Hot Lips Barton, two out of work musicians, stow away on board a Rio-bound ship, after accidentally starting some fires at a circus. They then get mixed up with the distraught Lucia, who first thanks them, then unexpectedly turns them over to the ship's captain. When they find out that she has been hypnotized to go through a marriage of convenience when the ship reaches Rio, the boys turn up at the ceremony in order to stop the wedding and to help catch the crooks.
Hope's frequent sidekick Jerry Colonna has a cameo as the leader of a cavalry charging to the rescue of Bing and Bob, as the film cuts away to the galloping horses periodically. All is resolved before Colonna can arrive. "Exciting, though... wasn't it?!"
Songs
"You Don't Have To Know The Language", performed by Bing Crosby and The Andrews Sisters
The film's copyright was renewed in a timely manner by an associate of the film's owner.
Originally registered for copyright as LP1171 with a declared publication date of August 25, 1947, the continuation of copyright was contingent upon renewal between the 27th and 28th anniversaries of that date. Renewal occurred July 25, 1975, number R610335. The film opened February 19, 1948, so the renewal is still timely even if that later date were considered publication date.
The copyright is now scheduled to run until 95 years after the publication date (2042). The renewal form names as authors Hope Enterprises and Bing Crosby Enterprises, which were partners when the film was produced. As it turned out, the copyright (which never expired, and thus the film never entered the public domain) was re-assigned to Columbia Pictures Television--Columbia and LBS Communications (which formed the joint venture Colex Enterprises) assumed the rights to this film from Hope Enterprises, and re-released the film to television in the 1980s.
Today, CPT and what is now FremantleMedia hold ancillary rights, with FremantleMedia holding the video license. Any DVD release from a company not licensed by FremantleMedia violates the copyright, which continues to credit CPT as the copyright holder, as evidenced by recent video releases by BCI Eclipse.
