In 1933, RKO Pictures had the bright idea of pairing Dolores Del Rio and Gene Raymond for their new musical blockbuster, Flying Down to Rio. The film was a smash, but not for the reasons anyone expected. The fourth and fifth-billed stars were an RKO bit player and a Broadway man breaking into Hollywood. Their names were Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire, and their pairing in this and eight subsequent RKO films would help to rewrite cinematic history. Most of Rio's screen time is spent on a humdrum romantic triangle involving Del Rio, Raymond and Raul Roulien, but Fred... (as Fred Ayres) and Ginger (as Honey Hayes) are still able to establish many of the trademarks of their later films. Ginger fronts the band (with Fred on accordion) in the saucy "Music Makes Me", and Fred does some solo tap then sings and leads the band for the spectacular airborne finale featuring chorus girls perched on the wings of biplanes. The heart of the film is "The Carioca", a company dance extravaganza that would be imitated by "The Continental" and "The Piccolino" in later films. Here Fred and Ginger take the floor together for the first time; their eyes meet and their foreheads touch. Their dance lasts only a few minutes, but it was the highlight of the film and audiences wanted more. A prophetic moment occurs toward the beginning of the dance, when, after watching for a while, Fred grabs Ginger and tells her, "I want to try this. Come on, Honey". She declares, "We'll show 'em a thing or three". They did indeed. It was magic, and it was only the beginning. --David Horiuchi, Amazon.com [show more]
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Please note this is a region 2 DVD and will require a region 2 or region free DVD player in order to play Although they were not the main stars this film will always be remembered for the first ever pairing of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers Aviator and band leader Roger Bond (Gene Raymond) falls for Brazilian beauty Belinha de Rezende (Dolores Del Rio) after his Yankee Clippers band is hired to open the new Hotel Atlântico in Rio Actors Fred Astaire Ginger Rogers & Dolores Del Rio Director Thornton Freeland Certificate Universal Suitable for All Year 1933 Screen Fullscreen 1331 Anamorphic Languages English Duration 1 hour and 33 minutes (approx)
Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers began their screen partnership as the 'sidekicks' in this musical romance. A love triangle is set up when heiress Belinha de Rezende (Dolores Del Rio), herself the object of crooner Julio Rubeiro's (Raul Roulien) affections, sets her cap at American Roger Bond (Gene Raymond). Famous for its finale, in which girls dance on the wings of moving airplanes.
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