Sous le ciel d'Argentine

Betty Grable goes "Down Argentine Way" in this 1940 musical, also starring Don Ameche, Charlotte Greenwood, Carmen Miranda, and J. Carroll Naish.

Grable is Glenda Crawford, who buys a horse from the South American Ricardo Quintana (Ameche), unaware that the families don't get along. On hearing her last name, Quintana realizes that he has to cancel the sale in accordance with his father's (Naish) orders.

Glenda and Ricardo are already falling in love, so although Glenda rejects him after the aborted sale, she soon heads for Argentina on the excuse of buying horses. With her is her aunt Binnie (Greenwood). There, she reconnects with Ricardo, though she has to meet his father under the assumed name of Cunningham.

This is a typical Fox musical with its bright, vibrant colors and high energy. And, like many Fox musicals, it has no plot and literally one musical number after another. Because Fox had Carmen Miranda and Cesar Romero under contract, there was often a south of the border flavor. Here, Miranda plays herself performing in a nightclub, and she's a dynamo.

Ameche sings pleasantly and does his usual good job, and Grable as usual is a joy - a pretty, likable actress, a good dancer and singer, and a bundle of energy. Charlotte Greenwood has several musical numbers and is very entertaining.

These musicals are always good for what ails you. My favorite Fox musicals of this kind are "Springtime in the Rockies" and "The Gang's All Here," but "Down Argentine Way" is a delightful film.

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).

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").

Betty finally got lucky in landing the staring role in this one after Alice Faye,the intended star, pleaded exhaustion. Fox had picked up her contract only months before, after Betty had had enough of Paramount not knowing what to do with her. She was doubly lucky in that this was also Carmen Miranda's first Hollywood film. Fox wanted to show off Carmen's colorful costumes, thus filmed the show in Technicolor, an uncommon luxury at this time, even for musicals. Yet, Carmen was not in a position to steal the show from Betty. She was still contracted to a nightclub in NYC, thus her limited screen time had to be filmed in NYC, away from the rest of the cast. No doubt, Fox also wanted to test the response of US audiences to Carmen before featuring her more. Thus, this film served as the launching pad for the celebrity of two of the biggest Hollywood stars of the '40s.

The story, though quite implausible, is important to the film. Two wealthy American or Argentine horse breeding families meet and have their problems as well as attractions. In one scene, Betty unexpectedly sees Argentinian Ricardo Quintana(Don Ameche) in a Buenos Aires nightclub, having been escorted by another man she just met. She drops her date and accompanies Ameche to a more private room, where they talk, not having seen each other since their falling out in the US over the reneged offer to buy Ameche's horse. Betty pretends to forgive Ameche and to warm up to his advances, then suddenly slaps his face and walks out, saying that's what she really came to Argentina to do. One would think that to be the end of their association, but actually it was just a new beginning. She really is attracted to him, but wanted first to get even for the disappointment he had caused her. I thought Betty and Ameche had good chemistry,as they would show again the following year in "Moon over Miami". Ameche is quite handsome and always immaculately dressed, and Betty wears a variety of beautiful outfits. To me, Betty looked and acted like a blond, blue-eyed, singing-dancing version of Olivia DeHaviland. Both had great appeal. Ameche could sing tolerably well in solos and duets with Betty. Unlike most of the Fox musicals of the early '40s involving Betty, Alice Faye or Sonja Henje, the romance between the stars is put on sound footing relatively early, rather than doing a flip flop at the end.

The supporting cast was fine, and included some stars in themselves. Charlotte Greenwood, who would appear in quite a few of Fox's musicals over the next few years, serves as Betty's aunt, and is the featured singer-dancer in a number or two. She was famous for her sidewise high kick. Henry Stephenson made a very credible Argentenian aristocrat, as Ameche's father. Carrol Nash added some down-on-the-farm atmosphere to the mostly aristocratic banter. However, I would have preferred the originally cast Cesar Romero in place of Leonid Kinskey, as the sly gigolo. But, perhaps Cesar would have been too handsome and polished to resist. The Nicholas Brothers, who would appear again in the Fox musicals "Sun Valley Serenade" and "Orchestra Wives", were an added major attraction, with their unique acrobatic dance routines. Several other singing and dancing groups were also featured, taking more of the load off the stars. One, consisting of 6 men and a girl, had the cute name of The Six Hits and a Miss.

The commentary by Sylvia Stoddard and the bio of Betty on my DVD are quite worthwhile. According to the commentary, although Fox was pressured by FDR to make some Latin American-oriented feature films, as part of his effort to keep these countries from joining the Axis in the developing WWII, the effort backfired. The Argentinians were offended by the Hollywood inaccuracies in their Spanish accents and portrayal of the details of the Argentine aristocracy. They also didn't like the inclusion of Carmen, a Brazilian, in a film supposedly set mostly in Argentina. Thus, as in the case of "The King and I", which offended Thais in the portrayal of their past king, the film was banned in the country it was supposed to bring to the American public.

'Down Argentine Way' is notable for being the American debut of Carmen Miranda and the film that made Betty Grable a star. This said, while the casting seemed unlikely initially (for example Alice Faye was intended for the character played by Betty Grable), they mostly come off well and 'Down Argentine Way' manages to entertain enormously.

Sure, while there is so much to enjoy for many it is also to see why others won't connect with it. One says that one shouldn't see a musical for its story, which in a way can be seen as true seeing as even in the classic musicals the story tended to be not as good as the rest of the respective films. Here though the story is thin on the ground, feeling stretched and has its implausible stretches.

The romance between Don Ameche and Betty Grable has many moments of endearing charm, but that Grable replaced an indisposed Alice Faye due to illness makes the chemistry not quite as natural as it could have been. This may have been that Ameche and Faye had worked together a few times before and Grable was in her film debut, so didn't know Ameche as well.

Harry Stephenson on paper couldn't have been a more unlikely and dubious choice for his role and in the final product is for me quite badly miscast. He is not being remotely believable as a Argentinian, which did to me took away hugely from the rest of his performance, with an accent that is phoney at best and comes and goes quicker than one can down a can of fizzy drinks.

On the other hand, 'Down Argentine Way' looks great, with gorgeous use of colour and lavish production design. The songs are lively and infectious, no standards but it's the quality of the music itself and the way it's used that matters more and 'Down Argentine Way' succeeds in those areas.

'Down Argentine Way's' script crackles with wit, energy and charm and the film is rarely dull due to so much being so good. Ameche is as ever suave and charming and Grable's beguiling performance deservedly made her a star.

With the exception of Stephenson the supporting cast work very well. Miranda is not in the film much and her scenes don't necessarily add much to the story and narratively may feel like padding, but she is absolute dynamite in her American debut and her two songs are two of the film's most catchy. J. Carroll Naish is amusing, the Nicholas Brothers dazzle with their athletic dancing and Leonid Kinsky succeeds in making buffoonery not annoying, but the best supporting turn comes from a note-perfect Charlotte Greenwood.

In summary, not great but hugely entertaining, foibles and all. 7/10 Bethany Cox