The Girl from Rio

This is brisk Monogram Feature,competently directed, within limited resources, by Lambert Hillyer Movita Castaneda is the Girl in question,as Marquita Romero,an aspiring Singer in Rio,who,on the verge of her big musical breakthrough,is diverted upon hearing the news that her brother Carlos has been arrested in New York,on a (false) charge of arson and a resultant death. She flies to the USA,to meet with the sender of the cable,Carlos' new Wife(Adele Pearce). Steven(Warren Hull),Marquita's boyfriend,follows her North to assist! With his help,and that of a Lawyer friend, and an interested Insurance Investigator,Marquita gains a singing spot at the new Nightclub of the main suspect,the owner of the premises,whose actions were responsible for her Brother's predicament! Marquita finds evidence of both the arson and the Insurance fraud,but is trapped by the criminals involved. However,her message(In Spanish!) for help whilst singing a few minutes earlier brings welcome timely assistance from both Steven and the Investigator!! Pretty heroine Movita sings three pleasant songs in the movie,including the catchy "Singing Burro"(Really!) She possibly should have had a better Hollywood career. Although of Hispanic origin,she found herself playing Polynesian maidens in several Films,including "Mutiny on the Bounty"(1935),"The Hurricane"(1937) and as the lead in the interesting "Paradise Isle"(1937),again with Warren Hull. "Girl from Rio" is a very watchable "B" movie,with a decent supporting cast and a simple but sensible screenplay.

Alpha Video, DVD distributors of generally unloved and long out of print American films, principally from the 1930s and 1940s, is rendering valuable service to those cinéastes who value these works, since many of these productions will probably not be otherwise accessible and are thereby on their way to being collectible items. Many of these are from prints proffered by private collectors, with Alpha selecting the best available copies, as there is no attempt toward re-mastering, and no DVD extras are provided other than scene selection, and some trailers, although the company's packaging is attractive and its liner notes are, for the most part, useful. This film's principal attraction is Movita Castaneda, talented Mexican coloratura who favourably impressed United States audiences with her efforts in such as FLYING DOWN TO RIO and MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY, later gaining additional renown when she, while pregnant, married (a much younger than her) Marlon Brando. She is quite effective, both musically and dramatically, in this movie, noteworthy because few retakes are to be had under the aegis of lowly-budgeted Monogram Pictures, and while there are several scenes marked by brief skips, the largest portion of the print is free of these flaws and a viewer is rewarded by a briskly paced and interesting tale. Movita is cast as Marquita Romero ("La Marquita"), an aspiring singer in Rio de Janeiro who, directly preceding a stage performance, receives a cablegram providing her with an unpleasant surprise: her brother Carlos is under arrest for murder in New York City. Marquita immediately flies there, leaving behind her swain Steve (Warren Hull), and meeting with Annette (Adele Pearce), the young woman who had sent her the message and who is the new wife of Carlos. Annette explains to Marquita that her husband is victim of a frame-up. Naturally, Steve has followed Marquita to New York where he joins the women, the trio then engaging the services of a prominent criminal attorney, and it soon develops that a night club owner is the probable murderer, not Carlos, in an insurance related case where he may have destroyed his own business through an act of arson. Marquita applies for a job to sing at the club as means of discovering the truth in this matter, and is hired by the suspect, all very melodramatic to be sure, yet the plot just about comes off thanks to some able acting by a competent cast of supporting players. The film is burdened with a somewhat cluttered narrative line but Pearce, in addition to Dennis Moore and Kay Linaker as associates of the tale's villain, bring clarity to those sequences within which they appear. Movita sings three numbers and veteran director Lambert Hillyer, thoroughly accustomed to working with thin budgets, abruptly ends the piece when time and funding run dry. It must be noted that the language of Brazil and Brazilians is Portuguese rather than Spanish as is used here but, nonetheless, there is a good deal of enjoyment to be found in this admittedly routine production.

In the late 1930s, Carmen Miranda was a VERY hot item. In Brazil, she was queen of the Samba—and folks in the States really loved her as well. Her popularity was such that Twentieth Century-Fox gave her a HUGE contract to come to America even though she could barely speak English! And, her films were immensely popular and made a mint for the studio. At the same time, several other studios attempted to create their own Carmen Mirandas—with much less success. One was Movita*—whose only real similarity to Miranda were her apparent Brazilian roots. But her singing and style were NOTHING like the real thing—and this film is ample proof why she, too, didn't become a household name.

The film begins with a horrid scene. Movita was talking to her immensely untalented maid. I say immensely untalented because the lady simply could not deliver her lines—stumbling over them and sounding about as convincing as Mr. Potatohead! At least this helped to make Movita look much more talented by comparison.

The story is about the lady's brother. He's in America—held in prison on arson and murder charges! When Movita learns of this, she leaves her lucrative career in Brazil and zips to America. She soon learns that her brother in married (you'd sure think she'd know about this considering it's been five months) and moves in with his wife. Later, with the help of her friend (Warren Hull), Movita gets a job at a nightclub in order to do some undercover work to prove her brother's innocence. In the process, she sings lots of songs (none of which sound the least bit like the Samba) and miraculously saves the day.

So is there anything to recommend the film? Nothing especially, though occasionally the film is mildly interesting. Unfortunately, as Movita has little charisma in the film and her singing is pretty awful, I can easily understand how this one slipped under the radar! Not terrible…but not at all good. And, a film with a terrible ending that I would have a hard time describing—it's that dumb. For Movita groupies only.

By the way, it was inexplicable that the secret code spoken by Movita was in Spanish, not Portuguese. Didn't the folks who made this film know that folks in Brazil do NOT speak Spanish?! So, would you like to know where in Brazil Movita hailed? Arizona, USA, actually!! This lady later went on to become Mrs. Marlon Brando and is the last remaining living member of the cast of "Mutiny on the Bounty". Because she was not Brazilian, you have to feel sorry for her and can understand why the film turned out father poorly.

There's an undeniable directness to the picture - a brisk, steady pace over these 62 minutes, and a brusque curtness and declination of subtlety. Those characteristics apply rather equally to Lambert Hillyer's direction, the acting, the plot progression, and the writing and orchestration of each scene. At the same time, some scenes go on a surprisingly long time without advancing the narrative, providing character insights, or having any major significance. By the time 'The girl in Rio' is half over it seems to have gone almost nowhere, and meaning no particular disrespect to those involved, it hasn't made much of an impression. By the time it's three-quarters over, the same statement holds true. This is certainly a bit peculiar.

This is the type of movie that was clearly designed not for a sense of realism, visceral impact, or emotional investment, but for the rudimentary enjoyment that follows from storytelling. It feels less like a motion picture and more like a drama broadcast live, scene by scene, on TV, or maybe even a radioplay given form on the big screen. There's nothing wrong with this approach - it's just a reflection of a simpler form of entertainment for a different time long past - but watching 'The girl in Rio' in 2022 requires open-mindedness in recognition of how the medium changed over the past several decades.

For what it's worth, I don't think this is completely bad... but nor is there anything really noteworthy about it, and little leaps out as especially praiseworthy. The cast demonstrates some nuance in their performances, though the acting is restrained by the slant of the production as a whole, and so no few moments come across as staged and unconvincing. Hillyer's contribution seems geared toward keeping cast and crew alike on track and wasting not one inch of film or cent of budget, whatever it meant for how the picture looked to an outside perspective. True, though modest, the production design and art direction, and every little rounding detail to greet our senses, is suitable enough. Yet more important than anything else for most features in my opinion is the writing, and even putting aside the forthright tenor of it all, I find the screenplay wanting. There's some mild levity, and mystery. There's also an active disregard for moving the story along, or maintaining cohesion, as scenes are tossed in that sometimes lack clear or meaningful connection to the small tale on hand. And with the scene writing and narrative being inconsistent and disjointed as they present, it's even more difficult to care about characters that don't seem to carry substantial personality, or dialogue that rarely rises above "perfunctory." There's a story here. What is it? Who cares?

More than anything else the title appears to have been an excuse to allow star Movita an opportunity to sing. In fairness, she does have a wonderful voice. But 'The girl from Rio' is so unbothered about anything else in its content or composition that one hour feels like an extraordinarily long time to sit around for a scant few tunes. If as much thought were put into penning and developing a sequence of events to hold viewers' attention as had been put into centering Movita, I'd be writing words now with a very different tone - a tad more attentiveness would have gone a long way. As it is, the climax seems to arrive so suddenly that despite all the dots having technically been connected from A to B and onward, it's hard not to respond with a distracted "what just happened?"

Frankly, unless one is a diehard fan of Movita, I'm just not sure there's much of any reason to watch this. There are countless features from the years before and after that are essential classics - thrilling, absorbing, satisfying. 'The girl from Rio' is all but entirely forgettable. Is it a bad way to pass the time? No, not per se. Yet why bother at all when you could be watching something else?