Flying Down to Rio

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Flying Down to Rio
Original movie poster
Directed by	Thornton Freeland
Produced by	Merian C. Cooper Lou Brock
Written by	Erwin S. Gelsey H.W. Hanemann Cyril Hume
Starring	Dolores del Rio Gene Raymond Fred Astaire Ginger Rogers
Music by	Max Steiner
Cinematography	J. Roy Hunt
Editing by	Jack Kitchin
Distributed by	RKO Radio Pictures
Release date(s)	December 29, 1933
Running time	89 minutes
Language	English
IMDb profile

Flying Down to Rio is a musical film made by RKO and released on December 29, in 1933.

The film was directed by Thornton Freeland and produced by Merian C. Cooper and Lou Brock. The screenplay was by Erwin S. Gelsey, H.W. Hanemann and Cyril Hume, based on a story by Lou Brock and a play by Anne Caldwell. The music was by Max Steiner.

It starred Dolores del Rio and Gene Raymond, but is remembered today primarily for the teaming of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, in relatively minor roles, who would go on to star in nine more films together. Their first dance together on film, "The Carioca", appears in this film.

The film received an Academy Award nomination for Best Song (Vincent Youmans, Edward Eliscu, Gus Kahn) for "La Carioca".

[edit] Plot summary

Astaire plays Fred Ayres, an accordion player and deputy leader of an orchestra led by successful songwriter Roger Bond (Raymond). Rogers plays Honey Hale, the singer with the orchestra. Whilst playing in a nightclub in Florida, the orchestra is fired when Bond, a matinee idol with a roving eye, flirts with a guest, a rich Brazilian girl (del Rio) who's engaged to be married and under the stern eye of her aunt/chaperone.

The band manages to secure an engagement in Rio de Janeiro, where they become embroiled in the machinations of some shady businessmen who want to make sure that a new hotel does not open. The hotel, of course, does open and the orchestra leader marries his Brazilian girl.

Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers
Flying Down to Rio (1933) • The Gay Divorcee (1934) • Roberta (1935) • Top Hat (1935) • Follow the Fleet (1936) • Swing Time (1936) • Shall We Dance (1937) • Carefree (1938) • The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle (1939) • The Barkleys of Broadway (1949)