Rio Rita

Rio Rita used to run on TV along with the other Abbott and Costello features back in the 1970s, but it seemed to disappear in the video age. It has shown up recently on cable in what looks to me like a well restored version.

Bud and Lou get mixed up with Nazi spies while working at a ranch hotel in the desert. It's got some decent gags and some good songs, but I think most people will enjoy it because it looks good. There are good southwestern sets, good scenes of the Rangers riding along singing, and Bud and Lou are still in their youth. It's not the best Abbott and Costello movie you'll ever see. This was their first feature with MGM, and they were better with Universal, but I missed this one from the TV days, so I was happy to finally see it again.

Best friends Doc (Bud Abbott) and Wishey (Lou Costello) get fired from their jobs. They sneak into a car trunk thinking it's a ride to NYC. Instead, they arrive in a Texas resort border town and stumble upon a Nazi spy ring.

Abbott and Costello are basically in their own movie as the story unfolds. They are a duet while the rest of the movie is playing different tunes. I don't mind it that much since I like the duet plenty. It's not perfect but I like the idiotic banter. Costello is always good for some fun idiocy. If only the movie is about them...

The Haughty MGM Studios had to Have it All. Borrowing Abbott and Costello from Universal, because the Comedy Team was a Big Hit, the Studio Managed to Cobble Together a Number of Elements in this Awkward Amalgamation of Opera On a Ranch, and Nazis Out West, and Set A & C Loose Among this Bizarre Combination.

None of it Works. There is an Awful Lot of Awful Singing with Crooners on Horseback and Operatic Scale Sliding. The Comedy Team's Routines are OK and Quite Amusing with Slapstick, Sight Gags, and Word Play.

But the Combination of Bud and Lou with the Other Parts Never Come Together. The Nazi Threat is Hardly Realized, and the Ranch Setting is Never Used for Any Advantage. The Love Interest is Never Interesting and the Only Thing Worth Watching is When Abbot and Costello are On the Screen. Everything Else is Embarrassing at Best and Atrocious at Worst.

Cast: Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Kathryn Grayson.

Director: S. Sylvan Simon.

Abbott & Costello's three MGM films (RIO RITA, LOST IN A HAREM and ABBOTT AND COSTELLO IN Hollywood) are slicker, more polished and slightly more sophisticated in tone than their Universal series begun with BUCK PRIVATES. They also lack the brash energy that makes those films so enduring in entertainment value.

Even so, one personally finds RIO RITA to be one of the better movies the classic comedy team were associated with. It must, however, be approached with the understanding that it is a Musical with comedy rather than the other way around.

RIO RITA is an updated, entirely re-written version of Florenz Ziegfeld's comic operetta, previously filmed in 1929 with star comics Wheeler and Woolsey repeating their roles from the Broadway blockbuster.

Bud and Lou receive first billing due to their great popularity, but the new production is a primarily a vehicle for pretty young soprano Kathryn Grayson (ANCHORS AWEIGH, SHOW BOAT, KISS ME KATE!) who was then being groomed for MGM stardom as an answer to Universal's Deanna Durbin. Hence the focus is on Grayson who performs several good songs (including two from the original show) and an operatic aria which displays her formidable vocal ability.

Even more than A&C's other early movies, comedy takes rather a back seat to music and romance. Even the dated dramatic situation involving Nazis infiltrating a Western ranch, original to this version, is secondary to the charms of the leading lady.

RIO RITA is, not unlike Abbott and Costello's introductory Musical Comedy film ONE NIGHT IN THE TROPICS, a matter of taste. Fortunately, it is a taste that can be acquired. Personally, one loves Musicals, is fond of Kathryn Grayson and is an admirer of Abbott & Costello; therefore one was thoroughly primed to enjoy this. The movie is recommended to all fans of the comedy team, but some may need several viewings, music and all, to come to terms with it.

Rating: GOOD.

With the money that Abbott and Costello made in their films at Universal to save that studio from going bankrupt, L.B. Mayer decided he wanted some of that himself. So Universal was probably paid a lot of cash to loan them out for the first of three films.

MGM dusted off the old show Rio Rita which was a smash Broadway success for Florenz Ziegfeld in 1927-1928. Universal had filmed it in 1929 with John Boles, Bebe Daniels and Wheeler and Woolsey. Come to think of it, they probably tossed in the rights for Rio Rita in the loan out deal for Abbott and Costello.

All that was retained were the two big songs of the show, the title song and the Ranger song. Harold Arlen and E.Y. Harburg wrote You Came Along sung very nicely by John Carroll and Kathryn Grayson.

The plot is pretty silly involving some Nazi spies sending coded messages during a broadcast featuring Latino crooner John Carroll. He's got a cheap Mexican accent that really doesn't fool anyone. Why didn't MGM use a real Latino performer like Tito Guizar? I guess we'll never know.

And Abbott and Costello don't get to use any of their patented routines here although they do have some funny moments. MGM did much better by them in Lost In a Harem which is more like the stuff they were doing at Universal.