The first on-screen pairing of Fred Astaire (1899-1987) and Ginger Rogers (1911-1995) occurred in the 1933 RKO film Flying Down To Rio, directed by Thornton Freeland (1898-1987). The score was supplied by Max Steiner (1888-1971).
Dolores del Rio (1904-1983), a beautiful actress I’d seen in a photograph countless times on the wall of a local movie theater, is listed first in the credits. She is the star. To my knowledge, this is the first time I’ve seen her in a movie.
Other actors in the credits include Gene Raymond (1908-1998), Raul Roulien (1905-2000), Ginger Rogers, and Fred Astaire – in that order. These weren’t starring roles for Astaire and Rogers. The film also features Eric Blore (1887-1959), an English comic actor who would appear in several more Astaire/Rogers pictures during his career.
According to its entry on Wikipedia, the story begins this way:
Composer Roger Bond (Gene Raymond) and his orchestra are appearing in Miami, with vocalist Honey Hales (Ginger Rogers). Despite the warnings of accordionist and assistant band leader Fred Ayres (Fred Astaire), Roger is attracted to the beautiful and flirtatious Belinha (Dolores del Río) in the audience. He leaves the bandstand to pursue her.
What follows is typical early Hollywood mayhem, complete with mistaken identity: for example, unbeknownst to Gene Raymond, his love interest – Dolores Del Rio – is engaged to Raul Roulien…and an ending in which everything works out for all concerned. (I was going to type “happy ending” but I decided against it.)
Whenever I watch an old movie, I like to put it in context. For example, this movie was filmed in 1933 – 87 years ago! Pre-World War II, four years into the Great Depression, and six years after the first talking picture. Call me crazy, but I like knowing that information.
Other information I like knowing is that Astaire was 34 in this film. Rogers was 22. Del Rio was 29. Raymond was 25. Director Freeland was 35. Composer Steiner was 45.
The first song in the film was sung by Ginger Rogers. Fred and Ginger’s first on-screen dance was during the song Caricoa, which occurred about half-way through the film. (Etta Moten Barnett (1901-2004) sang the song. She would later find great success as “Bess” in Porgy and Bess.)
I wonder if people knew watching Astaire and Rogers during this film that the two would later become world famous for their movie roles and dance numbers? (Astaire has a fleet-footed dance number 3/4 through the movie that I found amazing, as always.)
The problem with old Hollywood movies, like TV series from the late 1960s – early 1970s is that nothing much really happens. Nothing of great consequence, anyway. It’s fun to watch not necessarily because of the plot, acting, or dialogue; rather, because of who the stars are. Or, were at the time of the filming.
In other words, if it wasn’t for Fred and Ginger, I never would have spent nearly two hours watching this and writing about it. As it is, I’m not inclined to ever watch it again, despite the presence of Fred and Ginger. It’s just not that good – although the women supposedly doing a dance number on the wings of airplanes is pretty clever, if highly improbable. Audiences today can see the support wires, as well as realize it’s not possible for women to stand, wearing skimpy clothes and heals, on the wings of an airplane flying 140 miles per hour, and dance. Plus, the movie is filmed sort of like 1929’s Broadway Melody was: strange camera angles, cuts, and fades. It looked and felt sort of like a film of a stage play.
On a scale of 1-10, I’d give Flying Down to Rio a 3. For its age, the DVD transfer isn’t too shabby. But this could be of Blu-ray quality and that wouldn’t improve the viewing experience even a smidgen. It’s a forgettable movie as a whole, with only a couple of worthy dance numbers to its credit.
One more thing: This movie was supposedly 89 minutes in length. But it seemed a full two hours or longer. It just wouldn’t end!