Serenata argentina

Decent but forgettable Fox musical starring Betty Grable and Don Ameche. Grable is an okay film presence, quite cute but not much of an actress. I generally find Ameche a bore, though I do like him in Midnight. Here he plays an Argentinian nobleman, a son of a famous horse breeder. Grable is an American hippophile who falls in love first with Ameche's horse, and then with the man himself. Her family, unfortunately, has bad history with his father, which forces Ameche to return to South America abruptly. Grable follows. Like many of these little, classic musicals, the plot is negligible. You watch it for the pretty colors, the songs and the dancing. I'd prefer more songs myself, but the ones that are here are fine. Carmen Miranda appears in a nightclub sequence and sings two songs (she also pops up right after the opening credits for no reason in particular - I guess they just wanted to get their money's worth). This was her first appearance in a Hollywood movie. The Nicholas Brothers also appear, and knock it out of the park, as always. The equine plot line is sure to please any horse-lover, even though the plot starts to make less and less sense near the end. It devolves into a "screw it, we're just gonna sing a medley of the film's songs" finale, in which the Nicholas Brothers return (but not Miranda).

Despite it's paper thin plot or saran wrap plot, DOWN ARGENTINE WAY is kind of fun, especially seeing it in this day and age. The DVD is outstanding with the colors very bright and chic, the way Foxs' musicals have always been. This put Betty Grable on the map and she is a fine replacement for Alice Faye. Maybe better, since Betty was a much better dancer as a couple of numbers have been added to the plot because of her. Carmen Miranda doesn't really have a role. She is just featured in a couple of night club scenes. Looks like her scenes were added on and has no bearing on the plot. Don Ameche is fine with his very good accent. The real standouts are Charlotte Greenwood and especially the Nocholas brothers. They must be seen to be believed. Like Miranda, they have no bearing in the story, just a showcase for their amazing dancing. For these reasons alone, see this one. Now Fox needs to release THAT NIGHT IN RIO and THE GANGS ALL HERE on DVD, as well as some other Betty Grables.

Nobody should expect to see Hamlet when watching Down Argentine Way. In fact the plot here is thinner and sillier than most of these fluff musical pieces. Still it's kind a fun.

Don Ameche is up from Argentina in the USA looking to sell some horses and Betty Grable is looking to buy, the horse and Ameche. But once Don hears that Betty's character has the last name of Crawford, no sale, no way, no how.

With mixed motives both looking to get even and an unspoken attraction for Don, Betty and Aunt Charlotte Greenwood take a trip to Buenos Aires for business and all different kinds of pleasure. We also meet Henry Stephenson, Ameche's father, and it does take the whole film to find just what he has against people named Crawford. The prize jumping horse of the Quintana family which is the character names of Ameche and Stephenson who gets turned into a racehorse by the old family trainer, J. Carrol Naish in another of his multitude of ethnic characterizations.

Of course this film never got out of the Hollywood back lot at 20th Century Fox Studios and there are even fewer establishing shots of Buenos Aires than usual. The two best things about Down Argentine Way are the musical score written by Harry Warren and Mack Gordon and the specialties of Carmen Miranda and the Nicholas Brothers.

This was Carmen's American debut and she opens the film with a song that was forever indelibly identified with her, South American Way. The other hit song in the film is the title song of the picture to which everyone in the cast sings and dances at some point.

The notes here say that Don Ameche's voice was dubbed. If so the guy must have been a great soundalike. Probably could fool a voice print identification. Sure sounded like Don Ameche singing from other films I've seen.

Look for a nice performance by Leonid Kinskey a rather inept gigolo with a few other sidelines.

Down Argentine Way was done before Juan Peron took power so the place was viewed favorably. The Roosevelt administration actively encouraged films to be made showing South America in a favorable light like this one with an idea towards making sure they were allies in the World War we were heading for. It's a nice piece of fluff with good songs Betty Grable's famous legs and the one and only Carmen Miranda.

One of the best Betty Grable musicals. As always the plot is unbelievably vacuous but who cares really? When you have the tippy-tappy Grable (doing what she does best), Carmen Miranda (in her American debut), Don Ameche (speaking in a nice Spanish accent), and the Nicholas Brothers (with their usual dance specialties) all in one movie, the implausible plot and meet-cutes are beside the point. The slick lively tunes and dances are more than enough to like this fluffy musical fiesta set in Argentina.

If you liked "Down Argentine Way", see also "Springtime in the Rockies"(1942)

This technicolor musical from 20th Century-Fox was directed by Irving Cummings. The wafer-thin plot concerns wealthy Buenos Aires horse rancher Ricardo Quintana (Don Ameche) traveling to America to sell some horses, where he meets wealthy American horse enthusiast Glenda Crawford (Betty Grable). The two instantly fall in love, but there's a problem: Ricardo's father Don Diego (Henry Stephenson) hates the Crawford family due to some disagreement decades earlier. Glenda eventually travels to Argentina with her aunt Binnie (Charlotte Greenwood) to try and win over the old man.

This was a major hit when released, and made Betty Grable a star. The movie was intended as a vehicle for Alice Faye, but when she bowed out, Grable was assigned the lead, becoming one of the biggest stars of the decade in the process. She's pleasant, pretty without being overly made-up, as she sometimes appeared later. Charlotte Greenwood gives an interesting spin on the older-matron-companion role. Naish hams it up big time as a peasant stable hand. Leonid Kinskey has the biggest role I can remember seeing him in as a paid escort and guide to Greenwood, playing the type usually assayed by Mischa Auer.

This movie was also the general American public's introduction to Carmen Miranda. She was signed to a strict contract at a NYC nightclub at the time, and so her scenes were all filmed there, and consequently her part is rather small, singing a few songs. I enjoyed the dance sequence where the Nicholas Brothers perform and basically steal the show from everyone else. The movie earned three Oscar nominations, for Best Cinematography (Leon Shamroy & Ray Rennahan), Best Art Direction (Richard Day & Joseph C. Wright), and Best Song ("Down Argentine Way").