For a 1929 musical, "Rio Rita" is pretty good. However, early talkie musicals stink--so this isn't a glowing endorsement. Like too many of these films, this one is extremely stagy, the singing is god-awful by today's standards and the film is dated beyond the capacity of most viewers to stick with the movie. So I am saying the film is terrible, right? Well, no. It is well worth seeing if you are very familiar with films of the era or if you are a huge fan of early comedies, as it's the first film featuring Wheeler and Woolsey, a duo who achieved a lot of success in the 1930s but who are practically forgotten today.
The film is about some Mexican outlaw named 'The Kinkajou'--an odd name since a kinkajou is a very unassuming looking little creature that kind of cute. The bandit, a federal agent and the Kinkajou's sister all come together in Mexico. However, apart from this main plot are Wheeler & Woolsey who are almost like an entirely different movie within the movie. Wheeler is a guy in love with his usual on- screen love, Dorothy Lee, though this is complicated since he is technically STILL married. Woolsey is his lawyer. When it turns out the wife (who Wheeler THINKS he's legally divorced) has come into a fortune, Woolsey makes a play for her!
The characters sing and sing and sing in this film. There is definitely too much singing and it's made worse since so much of it is dated and dull--and almost operatic in style. Combined with the original Ziegfeld song and dance numbers, it's all very hard to take. Plus, the songs are so omnipresent that they really get in the way of the plot--and often derail the comedy. The film also would have greatly benefited from getting rid of the whole Kinkajou plot!
Overall, this is an odd little curio that is of interest to nuts like me who want to see Wheeler & Woolsey in their first film. Otherwise, you need to have a lot of patience to bother with this dated old musical.
FYI--Some of the film is in color--very nice looking for 1929. It's obvious that RKO was really pulling out the stops in their first film. However, I assume the color prints for some of the reels were lost, so the film goes back and forth between the two.
The film is about some Mexican outlaw named 'The Kinkajou'--an odd name since a kinkajou is a very unassuming looking little creature that kind of cute. The bandit, a federal agent and the Kinkajou's sister all come together in Mexico. However, apart from this main plot are Wheeler & Woolsey who are almost like an entirely different movie within the movie. Wheeler is a guy in love with his usual on- screen love, Dorothy Lee, though this is complicated since he is technically STILL married. Woolsey is his lawyer. When it turns out the wife (who Wheeler THINKS he's legally divorced) has come into a fortune, Woolsey makes a play for her!
The characters sing and sing and sing in this film. There is definitely too much singing and it's made worse since so much of it is dated and dull--and almost operatic in style. Combined with the original Ziegfeld song and dance numbers, it's all very hard to take. Plus, the songs are so omnipresent that they really get in the way of the plot--and often derail the comedy. The film also would have greatly benefited from getting rid of the whole Kinkajou plot!
Overall, this is an odd little curio that is of interest to nuts like me who want to see Wheeler & Woolsey in their first film. Otherwise, you need to have a lot of patience to bother with this dated old musical.
FYI--Some of the film is in color--very nice looking for 1929. It's obvious that RKO was really pulling out the stops in their first film. However, I assume the color prints for some of the reels were lost, so the film goes back and forth between the two.