Rio Rita

Like a river in the parched desert, so the lovely señorita known as RIO RITA brings joy to all who know her. But with her brother being chased as a bandit, unwelcome attentions from a brutal Russian general & a new lover who refuses to divulge his true identity, pretty Rita has plenty of problems to distract her.

Florenz Ziegfeld's smash Broadway hit was brought to the screen in this very early movie musical. At times it wheezes quite badly and shows its age. The transitions into the songs look very stagy & artificial. Many of the lyrics, especially sung by the female cast, are completely indecipherable.

But it should be remembered that movie musicals were still in their cradle and the studios only had stage traditions to draw upon at first. So the few innovations showcased here are welcome. Some of the dance numbers are pleasingly elaborate, even including a primitive overhead shot. Occasional outdoor photography helps open up the screenplay, and the early Technicolor featured in the last half hour is a big bonus.

Bebe Daniels & John Boles play the romantic leads. She is saddled with a thick accent & ludicrous script. He appears somewhat awkward & ill at ease. Much better film roles would await them both in years to come.

The real highlight of RIO RITA is the film debut of the wonderful comedy team of Wheeler & Woolsey, who had appeared in the Broadway version. Here, although somewhat gynandroid, they cement what will be their screen personas through 26 films together. Bert Wheeler (1895-1968) plays a young, naive romantic. Robert Woolsey (1888-1938) portrays a shiftless, cigar-puffing conniver. Together, they would make a hilarious comedy team, their partnership only being sundered by Woolsey's untimely death. Today they are all but forgotten.

It is only fitting that pert little Dorothy Lee (1911-1999), Wheeler's perennial love interest, should make the first of her 14 film appearances with the Boys here. This Kewpie-doll-cute actress would become an integral part of the Boys' cinematic success, as well as a constant delight for viewers.

Bebe Daniels, with a ridiculous accent and a trilling voice to rival Jeanette MacDonald, is Rita, being romanced by mysterious gringo John Boles. Their operetta duets are fairly pretty and Bebe gets to wear some good costumes.

In another storyline interwoved with that of Rita are Bert Wheeler and Robert Woolsey (with little Dorothy Lee) in a comic divorce-based plot. Woolsey is the wise-cracking cigar-chomper with the glasses, Wheeler the little guy with the high voice and a nice line in song 'n dance.

Rio Rita is a fun early musical with primitive Technicolor bits and one Berkeley-esque overhead shot with the frilly girlies doing their thing round Wheeler. Dorothy Lee's voice reminded me of Helen Kane (the lady who introduced I Wanna Be Loved By You before Marilyn got her hands on it).

My favourite bit music-wise is the catchy 'Sweetheart, We Need Each Other'; otherwise the invisible girl only seen by the boys after quaffing some seriously strong plonk is a really funny bit.

And I did like the fact that for 1929 this wasn't as primitive as other early talkies I've seen. Good stuff (and an invaluable record of a Ziegfeld show of course).

Lovely old musical based on a smash 1927 Broadway show produced by Flo Ziegfeld.

Stale plot but it doesn't matter what with great leads by John Boles and Bebe Daniels. Nonsense about a bunch of vigilantes seeking the notorious "Kinkajou." But the songs are terrific and both Boles and Daniels have great voices. It must have been a big surprise to film fans to see Bebe Daniels in this film. She had been a star for a decade and emerged as the great singer. Their duet on "Rio Rita" is excellent.

Along for the ride (and from the Broadway play) are Bert Wheeler and Robert Woolsey (their film debut) who are very funny here. Contrary to general knowledge, they were NOT a vaudeville team. They had never even met before being hired for the Broadway production. But RIO RITA started a long and very funny teaming of the two in many films.

Dorothy Lee is also good in this film as the "boop-a-doop" voiced girl friend of Wheeler. Their duet on "Sweetheart, We Need Each Other" is a delight and when they break into a tap dance routine, they are just perfect. Lee (in her second film) is especially good, but I don't remember much dancing from her other films.

The existing 104-minute print is from the cut down 1932 re-release of the film. The original 140-minute version is not known to exist, although a complete print once existed at New York's Museum of Modern Art.

The pirate ship finale was filmed in 2-strip Technicolor and exists.

Also in the cast are Helen Kaiser as Mrs. Bean, Don Alvarado as Roberto, Georges Renavent as the general, Eva Rosita as Carmen, and Richard Alexander as Gonzales.

When movies began to talk a whole new vista of motion pictures opened up with the musical. Not that musical properties hadn't been done before, most famously Rudolf Friml's Rose Marie was done as a silent film with Joan Crawford in the lead. The Student Prince was also done with Norma Shearer. But singing and dancing was something new and it's no accident that the first talking film, The Jazz Singer was a musical.

The guy who made the best musicals back in those days was Florenz Ziegfeld. One of his best was the operetta Rio Rita which ran for 494 performances in 1927-1928. Since the setting was the west, to be exact the Texas-Mexican border, we essentially get the screen's first musical western.

Rio Rita was the newly formed RKO Studios big budget film for 1929 and it starred John Boles and Bebe Daniels and Rio Rita was her talking picture debut. She surprised the world with a really nice soprano voice doing those Harry Tierney-Joseph McCarthy songs. Boles was one film's earliest singers and he does the famous Ranger song with gusto in the best Nelson Eddy manner. The other big song from the score was the title song that is sung as a duet with Boles and Daniels. Bebe's best solo number is an item that Tierney and McCarthy wrote specifically for the screen, You're Always In My Arms.

Repeating their roles from the stage show are the comedy team of Wheeler and Woolsey who also make their screen debut as well. The team itself was a creation of Florenz Ziegfeld and he used them in one of his Ziegfeld Follies editions. They're involved in a subplot about playboy Wheeler getting a Mexican divorce and getting into the clutches of a shyster attorney in Woolsey.

I could see that both of them were individual performers because Bert Wheeler gets himself a fine song and dance number in Out On The Loose. He was quite the dancer, something we rarely saw in his comedy films with Robert Woolsey. Still it was as a team that they have come down to us.

The main plot involved Texas Ranger captain John Boles going across the border to ferret out and apprehend a bandit called El Kinkajou and finding romance with Bebe Daniels. Like the first version of Rose Marie though his main suspect is her brother and Texas Rangers like Canadian Mounties put duty first.

The film is a photographed stage musical essentially, just like the first two Marx Brothers films, The Cocoanuts and Animal Crackers. But the opulence of a Ziegfeld Show is preserved and that is the main reason to see Rio Rita. The last half hour is in color and we can thank the Deity that was preserved.

So for film historians and those who want a glimpse at the showmanship of Florenz Ziegfeld, don't miss Rio Rita when broadcast.

Though Rio Rita has a big reputation among aficionados, I think it's probably due more to its success as a stage vehicle than as a film.

Nevertheless, for those who are interested in historical films, I feel Rio Rita serves as a good example of the kinds of obstacles that faced early film makers and actors. As the sound and music was recorded live, there are a number of mistakes, slips and awkward moments. But rather than detract, I think it's interesting to see how the actors and staff negotiated these difficulties. Particularly in the reprise of "Sweetheart We Need Each Other" you can see Dorothy Lee struggling to follow the conductor while Bert Wheeler keeps on distracting her, while Helen Kaiser is clearly trying to follow Lee but both Woolsey and Wheeler keep on getting in her way.

Then there are moments that, because the recording was done live, are just over the top. The most hysterical moment has got to be when, after 5 minutes of singing and tap-dancing in a single take, and then after a series of double summersaults, Bert Wheeler literally jumps on Dorothy Lee's back and rides piggy-back while she resumes singing. Wow!

And of course, with so few surviving films with two-strip Technicolor, it's always interesting to see how early film makers took advantage of it.