That Night in Rio is a 1941 American Technicolor musical comedy film directed by Irving Cummings and starring Alice Faye, Don Ameche (in a dual role as an American entertainer and an aristocratic businessman he is asked to impersonate temporarily) and Carmen Miranda. It was produced and distributed by Hollywood Twentieth Century Fox. It is one of several film adaptations of the 1934 play The Red Cat by Rudolf Lothar and Hans Adler. Others are Folies Bergère de Paris (1935) and On the Riviera (1951).

That Night in Rio
Directed byIrving Cummings
Screenplay byGeorge Seaton
Bess Meredyth
Hal Long
Samuel Hoffenstein
Jessie Ernst
Based onThe Red Cat
1934 play
by Rudolph Lothar
Hans Adler
Produced byFred Kohlmar
Darryl F. Zanuck
StarringDon Ameche
Alice Faye
Carmen Miranda
CinematographyRay Rennahan
Leon Shamroy
Edited byWalter Thompson
Music byMack Gordon
Harry Warren
Production
company
Distributed by20th Century Fox
Release date
  • April 11, 1941 (1941-04-11)
Running time
91 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

The original songs for the film were written by the musical partnership of Harry Warren and Mack Gordon. These include: "Boa Noite", "They Met in Rio (A Midnight Serenade)", "Chica Chica Boom Chic" and "I, Yi, Yi, Yi, Yi (I Like You Very Much)".

Plot

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Larry Martin (Don Ameche) is an American entertainer in the Casino Samba in Rio de Janeiro. He has a skit in his show, making fun of the womanizing Baron Manuel Duarte (also Ameche). On one particular evening, the Baron and his wife, Baroness Cecilia Duarte (Alice Faye) come to see Larry's impersonation. To the surprise of the couple, the act is amazingly realistic. Backstage, the Baron meets Larry's girlfriend, Carmen (Carmen Miranda), and invites her to a party he is going to hold. Carmen declines.

Later in the evening, Larry meets Cecilia and is attracted to her singing and her beauty. He does an impersonation of the Baron for her. But the real Baron receives a telegram that his airline is in danger because a contract is not being renewed and he has already purchased 51% of the stock. Needing money to repay the bank he borrowed it from, he flies down to Buenos Aires.

Larry is hired to play the Baron to confuse his rival, Machado (J. Carrol Naish), but at the stock market, he buys the remainder of the airline stock. That evening, at the party, Larry is hired again to play the Baron. He does not want the Baroness to know, but Cecilia is informed without his knowing. He sweeps her off her feet and they stay close to each other for the remainder of the evening.

Meanwhile, Carmen is furious to discover that Larry is at the party and decides to go there as well, where she discovers that he is impersonating the Baron. To make matter worse, the real Baron returns to his house, confusing all involved. Machado corners Larry instead and talks to him in French, which Larry can't understand. After the party, the Baron discovers that Cecilia was flirting with Larry for the evening and tries to play the joke on her. She, however, inadvertently turns the tables on him.

To get back at his wife, the next morning, the Baron calls and tells Cecilia that his plane has just landed. Cecilia fears that she has been unfaithful to Manuel but Larry later tells her the truth. At the office, Machado gives the Baron a payment of $32 million for his airline, the topic of his conversation with Larry. The Baron heads home but Cecilia tries one more time to get back at him by pretending to make violent love (in the old-fashioned sense) to Larry. It turns out to be the Baron and all is soon resolved in the end.

Cast

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Carmen Miranda and Don Ameche in scene in the film.

Production

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Alice Faye, Don Ameche, and Carmen Miranda in That Night in Rio.

The film was a follow-up to the successful Down Argentine Way and involved many of the same people.[2]

The movie's working titles were "A Latin from Manhattan", "Rings on Her Fingers", "They Met in Rio" and "The Road to Rio". According to The Hollywood Reporter of November 15, 1940, Paramount objected to the proposed title The Road to Rio because it created confusion with that studio's Road to Zanzibar starring Bing Crosby and Bob Hope. That Night in Rio marked the sixth and final teaming of Don Ameche and Alice Faye, one of Fox's most popular teams. Faye and Ameche recorded and filmed the song "Chica Chica Boom Chic" as a dance number, but only the sequence of Miranda and Ameche singing the song is in the released picture. Irving Cummings directed the screenplay by George Seaton, Bess Meredyth and Hal Long.[3]

According to a letter from studio head Darryl F. Zanuck, the script for That Night in Rio had been submitted to the Brazilian Ambassador in Washington, D.C., who approved it and described it as "the kind of picture that will be helpful to North and South America relations."

A report in the MPAA/PCA filed noted that the picture was rejected for distribution in Ireland, although no reason was given.[4]

Soundtrack

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  • "Chica Chica Boom Chic" — Don Ameche and Carmen Miranda
  • "The Baron Is in Conference" — Mary Ann Hyde, Vivian Mason, Barbara Lynn, Jean O'Donnell
  • "The Conference" — Don Ameche
  • "They Met in Rio (A Midnight Serenade)" - Don Ameche (in Portuguese) and Alice Faye (in English)
  • "Cai Cai" — Carmen Miranda
  • "I, Yi, Yi, Yi, Yi (I Like You Very Much)" — Carmen Miranda
  • "Boa Noite (Good-Night)" — Don Ameche, Alice Faye and Carmen Miranda[5]

Reception

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The film was released in theaters on April 11, 1941, to enthusiastic audiences and mildly appreciative critics, with Miranda stealing the notices. Variety wrote that "Ameche is very capable in a dual role, and Miss Faye is eye-appealing, but it's the tempestuous Miranda who really gets away to a flying start from the first sequence."[6] The Hollywood Reporter described her as "vivid, fiery and tempestuous,"[7] and The Los Angeles Herald-Examiner wrote that she was "outfitted in smart, barbaric colors, waving articulate hips and rollicking through the most fun of her Hollywood career."[8] The Sydney Daily Mirror, said that "Apparently exotic Carmen Miranda's lips are as fascinating as her hands."[9]

Bosley Crowther of The New York Times dryly noted that "In spite of its hot Latin rhythms and the presence of Carmen Miranda in the cast, That Night in Rio departs but little from the stock musical comedy formula, which inevitably sacrifices originality... In fact, the only departure of even slightly revolutionary degree is the employment of Don Ameche in dual roles, instead of his customary single one - and that, in the eyes of some people (including ourself), is hardly a step in the right direction."[10]

In a much later review for the Chicago Reader newspaper, Dave Kehr wrote: "Shrieking Technicolor and Carmen Miranda are the main attractions in this routine Fox musical from 1941."[11]

The film is recognized by American Film Institute in these lists:

References

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  1. ^ That Night in Rio at Maria Montez Fan Page
  2. ^ Green, Stanley (1999) Hollywood Musicals Year by Year (2nd ed.), pub. Hal Leonard Corporation ISBN 0-634-00765-3 page 101
  3. ^ "Read TCM's article on That Night in Rio". p. Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved March 8, 2018.
  4. ^ "American Film Institute Catalog: 'That Night in Rio'". p. American Film Institute Catalog. Retrieved March 14, 2014.
  5. ^ "Soundtracks: That Night in Rio". p. IMDb. Retrieved June 10, 2014.
  6. ^ "Review: 'That Night in Rio'". December 31, 1940. p. Variety. Retrieved March 10, 2014.
  7. ^ "'Vulgar Negroid Sambas': Issues of National Identity, Race, and Gender in That Night in Rio, with Carmen Miranda" (PDF). Walter Aaron Clark. March 7, 1941. p. University of California, Riverside. Retrieved March 22, 2014.
  8. ^ Los Angeles Herald-Examiner; October 24, 1941
  9. ^ Daily Mirror, Saturday 4 July 1942, page 5
  10. ^ "MOVIE REVIEW: 'That Night in Rio,' a Colorful Musical, With Alice Faye, Carmen Miranda and Don Ameche, Opens at the Roxy -- 'The Mad Emperor' at the 55th St". Bosley Crowther. March 10, 1941. p. The New York Times. Retrieved March 10, 2014.
  11. ^ "Film Search: That Night in Rio". Dave Kehr. p. Chicago Reader. Retrieved March 10, 2014.
  12. ^ "AFI's Greatest Movie Musicals Nominees" (PDF). Retrieved 2016-08-13.
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