Carnaval à Costa Rica

Mixture of the new Latin appreciation with the old Hollywood guard results in stilted musical from Fox. Vera-Ellen, who ricochets around the dance floor while never losing her smile, plays a young lass down South American way who changes her mind about an arranged marriage to Cesar Romero. She loves creepy, corn-fed Dick Haymes instead, while Cesar is currently squiring New York gal Celeste Holm around Costa Rica. The weirdest casting must be rigid-backed Anne Revere as Vera-Ellen's mother, who hovers over her daughter like a clucking goose yet doesn't even recognize her own child when she sees her on a parade float. The production is well-dressed--and blessedly gets outside of the studio on several occasions--but the music score seems built around one monotonously cheerful tune, and Romero comes off like a Latin Don Ameche: whipped and all wet. *1/2 from ****