Down Argentine Way

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).

Irving Cummings takes on a fun tour to Argentina. This is a happy musical that defies all logic as the writers Rian James and Ralph Spence appear to be telling us we're in Argentina, but taking us to Havana, by way of Rio de Janeiro. Talk about a confusion of styles!

Once the viewer gets over the jet lag caused by the disorientation, we are introduced to the Crawford girls, Glenda and Binnie and the Quintana boys, Don Diego and Ricardo. Both these families have grown apart by something that happened long ago in Paris, when Glenda's father stole Don Diego's girlfriend. They're horse people and we are shown the Argentine estancia that looks more like a Mexican hacienda, but we go along for the ride. There's even a fiesta in the town where Binnie makes a splash dancing and being admired by the locals. There are the inevitable night club hopping scene where Carmen Miranda and the Nicholas Brothers are headlining. We see everyone dancing the craze of those years, a Cuban rhumba!

Talk about a melange of styles!

The costume designer Travis Burton dresses Ms. Grable and Ms. Greenwood in creations that might have been popular back home, but no sophisticated Argentine women would have been caught wearing them. Otherwise how can Mr. Burton show Betty Grable in that "American Flag" shmatte? How about the typical Cuban rhumba dancer dress at the end?

The musical numbers are fine, but hello?, aren't we in Buenos Aires, a mild interpretation of a tango wouldn't have been out of place! Someone commented on Carmen Miranda's dancing, but in her two numbers she only shakes her hips and that's the extent of what she does. The amazing Nicholas Brothers fare better because they were the best in the business.

Betty Grable and Don Ameche are fine playing with the material they were given. Charlotte Greenwood, Henry Stephenson, Leonard Kinskey and J. Carroll Naish seem to have a great deal of fun with their characters. As a curiosity, we get a glimpse of Elena Verdugo, who later became famous for her television work, just for a moment.

The film is entertaining once we realize we have been taken for a mindless ride down the Argentine way.

'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

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.

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").