Sous le ciel d'Argentine

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.

The Quintana family (Don Ameche and "Dad"... Henry Stephenson) are shipping horses to be raced and perhaps sold afterward. But for some reason, they must not be sold to the Crawfords (Betty Grable, Charlotte Greenwood). When Glenda (Grable) finds this out, she's all fired up angry. And follows the Quintanas back to Argentine. For some reason. We don't know why Grampa is so mad at the Crawfords, but he keeps throwing them off his property, and they keep acting surprised when it happens. They must be saving the explanation for the grand finale. The always talented and energetic Carmen Miranda does a couple of fun numbers. Although she was born in Portugal, and moved to Brazil. Not Argentine. Anyway. Film directed by Irv Cummings. The picture was nominated for three oscars. It's okay. So much singing. Betty Grable, Don Ameche, and Charlotte Greenwood would meet again, making Moon Over Miami.

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.

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").