Flying Down to Rio

Directed by Thornton Freeland, this RKO musical is the first film in which Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers appear together and the only pre Code entry in their partnership. Roger, a bandleader who is also a pilot, follows Belinha, a Brazilian woman he met in Miami, to Rio, unaware she is engaged to his friend, and when local officials threaten to revoke the hotel's entertainment license he solves it by strapping dancers to the wings of airplanes and staging the opening number in midair. Astaire and Rogers are billed fourth and fifth, but The Carioca, the number they dance together, went into history: the idea of dancing with their foreheads pressed together came from Hermes Pan, who became Astaire's lifelong collaborator after this film. The wing walking finale was actually shot inside a hangar, with the planes suspended on wires a few feet off the ground and wind machines running, and the dancers never left the ground. Ginger Rogers only got the part because the actress originally cast chose to marry the studio head and go on honeymoon instead. Made for four hundred sixty two thousand dollars, it grossed a million and a half and helped pull a nearly bankrupt RKO back from the edge. Who it's for: Fans of classic Hollywood musicals wanting to see where a legendary partnership began. Who it's not for: Not for viewers expecting Astaire and Rogers at the center, since they are still supporting players here.