That Night in Rio.

Review #1357: That Night in Rio.

Cast: 
Don Ameche (Larry Martin / Baron Manuel Duarte), Alice Faye (Baroness Cecilia Duarte), Carmen Miranda (Carmen), S. Z. Sakall (Arthur Penna), J. Carrol Naish (Machado), Curt Bois (Felicio Salles), Leonid Kinskey (Monsieur Pierre Dufond), and Frank Puglia (Pedro) Directed by Irving Cummings (#1328 - In Old Arizona)

Review: 
Everybody needs a bit of musical comedy flair now and then. It does help to have a good trio at hand to deliver a few musical numbers and laughs, complete with Technicolor and a bit of worldly charm that makes for a moderately decent time. It was the second of three adaptations of the play The Red Cat, which Fox Film had adapted as Folies Bergère de Paris (1935) while 20th Century Fox would do it over again with On the Riviera (1951). This was the sixth and final pairing of Ameche and Faye in a film together along with the second film of Ameche with Miranda (after Down Argentine Way, also directed by Cummings). Miranda had arrived to the United States in 1939 from Brazil (where she had made a few appearances on film), making her way onto Broadway that year before making her American film debut with Down Argentine Way the following year. She appeared in numerous films for Fox over six years, and she was one of the highest paid entertainers of those years, although she soon went into decline and tragically died at 46 in 1955. With her fruit hat and absorbing personality, she certainly captures your attention fairly well. Her and Ameche certainly have a few moments to get a few laughs with quirky chemistry together and a diverting number or two. Ameche does fine with a double role that goes pretty much exactly as you might expect (it's the journey that counts, one would argue), a double-act that can be diverting to see the differences. Faye carries off her part with fair timing and singing to go alongside a storyline (done by five writers in George Seaton, Bess Meredyth, Hal Long, Samuel Hoffenstein, and Jessie Ernst) that gives a few by-the-book things that she does without too much trouble. The rest of the cast do just fine, making things go by with casual timing for a casual film. If one needs to kill time for 91 minutes with something flashy and fairly charming, I suppose one can't go wrong with something like this. It may be a bit predictable, but it is the kind of escapist entertainment that can deliver a smile or two at times for the curious, if one is into that sort of thing. The 1940s have plenty of films to pick from in musicals, and That Night in Rio has a fair standing as average yet useful to recommend to others.

Overall, I give it 7 out of 10 stars.