Matcollis This Movie Can Only Be Described With One Word.

LastingAware The greatest movie ever!

BroadcastChic Excellent, a Must See

ChanFamous I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

JohnHowardReid Songs: "But Beautiful" (Crosby); "You Don't Have To Know the Language" (Crosby, Andrews Sisters); "Experience" (Lamour); "Apalachicola, Fla" (Crosby, Hope); "Cavaquinho" (Wiere Brothers) -- all by Johnny Burke (lyrics) and James Van Heusen (music), who wrote another song, "For What?" for the Andrews Sisters, but this was deleted; "Brazil" (orchestral) by Ary Barroso (music), Bob Russell (lyrics). Music director: Robert Emmett Dolan. Music associate: Troy Sanders. Vocal arrangements: Joseph J. Lilley. Dances staged by Bernard Pearce and Billy Daniels. Executive producers: Bing Crosby, Bob Hope.Copyright 25 August 1947 by Bing Crosby Enterprises, Inc., and Hope Enterprises, Inc. Released through Paramount. New York opening at the Paramount: 18 February 1948. U.S. release: 25 December 1947. U.K. release: 29 March 1948. Australian release: 6 May 1948. 9,144 feet. 101 minutes.SYNOPSIS: After a wonderfully stimulating special effects cross- country montage sequence in which our ever-helpful crooner identifies himself firstly as Frank Sinatra, than as Gene Autry, Bing and Bob sing and dance their way through "Apalachicola, Fla", after which they burn down a whole carnival. And this is just for openers. Fleeing from the vengeance of the carnival owner, they stow away on board a luxury passenger ship bound for Rio where they meet and rescue a beautiful heiress who is being craftily mesmerized by her evil aunt. The aunt's two goons hunt the boys down, but... NOTES: Fifth of the seven Road pictures. With a domestic rentals gross of $4.5 million, this was the number one box-office attraction in the U.S. and Canada in 1948. Although the movie did not do quite so spectacularly in Britain and Australia, it was certainly Paramount's top-grossing picture of the year in both countries. Despite its box office success, the film received only one Oscar nomination, and that was for Robert Emmett Dolan in the Scoring of a Musical category. He lost to Alfred Newman's Mother Wore Tights.Best Actor, Bing Crosby - Photoplay Gold Medal Award. COMMENT: Wonderful fun. "The Road to Rio" is an almost perfect musical comedy, wittily scripted, ingratiatingly played, sensitively directed and lavishly produced. The songs are great too. So are the clever dances. The bantering between Bing and Bob was never better and here they are joined by a really out-of-the-drawer support cast led by the spider lady herself, Gale Sondergaard. If you were compiling an anthology of memorable moments in film comedy, this film contains so many classic scenes you'd be forced to give the whole idea away and just use this movie instead. OTHER VIEWS: Even though it's full of "in" jokes, topical allusions and now-forgotten references, The Road to Rio is just as mightily entertaining today as it was to audiences in 1948. Partly due to the fact that Hope delivers his darts with such casual grace and marvelously off-handed timing, patrons not in the know won't realize he's being funny; and partly the fact that the film now has a tremendous boost in nostalgia appeal. It would be hard to better this cast line-up. Not only are the players at their peak, but the script's situations are still wonderfully, crazily funny. And the four main songs are tunefully witty standards that are still hummed today. As a satire on the movie chase thriller, complete with cross-cutting to the last-minute rescue party that here actually arrives on the scene too late, "The Road to Rio" is still an absolute delight. Bing and Bob put their own money into this one, spent it with admirably free hands, and happily received handsome dividends. Good on you, boys! - JHR writing as George Addison.

ksf-2 A chunk of history in this chapter of the Road films; Bob Hope and Bing Crosby traveled around the world (... the back lot of Paramount.) So many greats in here - Jerry Colonna, comedian, musician, and actor, was in many of Bob Hope's projects, as well as so many others. Gale Sondergaard, so evil and serious, also in many Hope films, but my favorite role for her is in the 1940 version of The Letter (bette davis). The multi-talented Andrews Sisters, in their final appearance as sisters in a film, according to wikipedia. they had recorded 47 songs with Bing, which is probably why they are in Road to Rio. The Wiere Brothers were an act that had come over from Deutchland, and stayed, performing when and where they could. This film was kind of in the middle of all the "road" films. the plot is pretty inane, but as usual, they boys run off from their last fiasco of a performance, and meet up with Dorothy Lamour on the way to Brazil. Her aunt has evil intentions, so Bing and Bob must run interference and save the day! A fun caper with Hope and Crosby. They don't show this one very often, but it IS (was ?) available on DVD. Directed by Norm McLeod, who had worked with ALL the great comedians, including the Marx Brothers.

weezeralfalfa Presently available on DVD packaged with the DVD for the next Road series: "The Road to Bali" Expect the same basic format as in the previous films of this series. As in most of these films, the boys(Bing and Hope) begin as ne'er-do-well struggling entertainers. This time they begin as a song and dance team, singing "We're on our way to Apalachicola". Next, Hope rides a bicycle on a high wire, with disastrous results. He falls and, in the chaos, a fire is started that consumes the circus tent. They flee as stowaways on a liner to Rio. After stealing a suit of clothes, they encounter Lucia(Dorothy Lamour) leaning over the deck railing, as if she's ready to jump in the ocean. They dissuade her and make friends with her. They hide in a lifeboat, then duck into a barber shop, where they trick the barber into a closet and continue working on his customer, especially clipping his mustache. This is very similar to to the episode in the prior Marx Brother's "Monkey Business", and I would imagine some other films. In both cases, the situation could have been further exploited for more laughs. Meanwhile, an evil middle-aged woman: Mrs. Vail, has hypnotized Lucia with her star sapphire necklace, into identifying the boys as the stowaways, and to say she despises them. They are given an opportunity to join the ship's orchestra, with "Hot Lips" Hope playing the trumpet and Bing the clarinet and singing. Mysteriously, soap bubbles emerge from Hope's trumpet when he plays(yes, stupid). The Andrew Sisters team with Bing, singing "You Don't Have to Know the Language.Mrs. Vail continues to try to get rid of the boys as romantic rivals to her brother whom she wants to force Lucia to marry so that she can obtain some important papers and control Lucia, presently being her guardian. Thus, the boys and 2 goons hired by Mrs. Vail play cat and mouse. She offers them $10,000. to scram, then hypnotizes them to fight a pistol duel with each other. I will leave their further adventures for you to see.The circus fire event near the beginning recalls the circus tent fire in "Road to Zanzibar", which also induced them to flee.I don't understand why the cavalry unit riding toward the wedding celebration was included periodically. They have no role in the boys' escape from their predicament.At one point, Hope is assumed dead of a gun wound, then 'wakes up' after a while. This reminds me of some cheap westerns where the hero is apparently dead, then 'wakes up'.

yenlo Another Road picture with Bob, Bing and Dorothy. As always there are moments of hilarity. This one is with the Wiere Brothers as non-English speaking street musicians who hook up with the gang. We first see the Wiere's putting on their music and dance routine in front of a small crowd. Then Bing gets them to join he and Bobs little combo. Bing teaches them a few words of English to get by. They encounter nightclub manager Nestor Paiva (Best known as Lucas from Creature from the Black Lagoon) and use their newfound language on him. Comedy is comedy now matter how old it is and this scene with the Wiere Brothers is still hilarious.