Rita Rio and Her Orchestra

Roy Mack directs another nice musical short at the Vitagraph Studios out in Brooklyn -- if you go out to the neighborhood, you can still see the company logo on the chimney, although it hasn't been used as a studio in decades. Production shifted for the war in 1942 and never got moving again afterward.

Rita Rio -- also known as Dona Drake -- is a jitterbug, like Betty Hutton and June Allyson in her early shorts, leading the band and dancing and having a fine old time. This sort of short was a staple of Warner Brothers' Vitaphone division from 1926 through 1944 and this is a good example of the genre.

This is one of the later Vitaphone shorts--known as a "Melody Master". These later musical shorts generally were more straight forward and had simpler sets and no real story to tie it all together--just a famous band of the day doing their stuff.

This in an unusual short in that it features a female band leader and her all female band. It begins with Rita herself dancing to the song "When You Are Smiling" in her apartment as her mother yells at her. Finally, the frustrated mother calls the doctor as Rita won't stop dancing. However, her boyfriend steps in--announcing he will make her a star. Then, after a quick montage, you see the VERY energetic Rita dancing about with maracas--singing a Mexican-inspired ditty. Then, Emily Adrian comes out and dances, though her dancing looked more like an acrobatic routine than dancing. It was NOT especially graceful. The way the songs are linked and with the beginning of the short it all comes off more like a condensed film than just a music video--which I liked. However, I was not a huge fan of the music itself. It wasn't bad--but didn't exactly bowl me over like many of the other Vitaphone shorts.

Rita Rio and Her Orchestra (1939)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Dona Drake is basically playing herself but under the role name of Rita Rio. It's hinted that not too many people gave her a shot at being famous but she proved them wrong with her singing and dancing. There's no tell how many Vitagraph shorts were made throughout the late 20's and 30's but this is another decent one from director Mack who made over a hundred shorts but his career dried up in the early 40's, which was also the same time the Vitagraph studio lost its steam. In this film Drake does a pretty good job in terms of acting and there's no doubt she has a great voice and a few nice steps.