Flying Down to Rio

Flying Down to Rio
Film poster by Harold Seroy
Directed by	Thornton Freeland George Nicholls Jr. (associate) Ray Lissner (assistant)
Screenplay by	Cyril Hume H.W. Hanemann Erwin Gelsey
Story by	Lou Brock
Based on	1933 unpublished play by Anne Caldwell
Produced by	Merian C. Cooper Lou Brock
Starring	Dolores del Río Gene Raymond Ginger Rogers Fred Astaire
Cinematography	J. Roy Hunt
Edited by	Jack Kitchin
Music by	Songs - Music: Vincent Youmans Songs - Lyrics: Gus Kahn Edward Eliscu Score: Max Steiner
Production company	RKO Radio Pictures
Distributed by	RKO Radio Pictures
Release date	December 21, 1933 (1933-12-21) (New York) [1]
Running time	89 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$462,000[2]
Box office	$1,545,000[2]

Dolores del Río and Gene Raymond in the film

The first screen announcement of the Astaire–Rogers partnership, in the trailer for Flying Down to Rio

Flying Down to Rio is a 1933 American pre-Code RKO musical film famous for being the first screen pairing of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, although lead actors Dolores del Río and Gene Raymond received top billing. Among the featured players are Franklin Pangborn and Eric Blore. The songs in the film were written by Vincent Youmans (music), Gus Kahn and Edward Eliscu (lyrics), with musical direction and additional music by Max Steiner. During the 7th Academy Awards, the film was nominated for the new category of Best Original Song for "Carioca", but it lost to "The Continental" from The Gay Divorcee, the next Astaire and Rogers film (and their first with top billing).

The black-and-white film, which had a color-tinted sequence,^[3] was directed by Thornton Freeland and produced by Merian C. Cooper and Lou Brock. The screenplay was written by Erwin S. Gelsey, H. W. Hanemann and Cyril Hume, based on a story by Lou Brock and a play by Anne Caldwell. Linwood Dunn did the special effects for the celebrated airplane-wing dance sequence at the end of the film. In this film, Dolores del Río became the first major actress to wear a two-piece women's bathing suit onscreen.^[4]

The film follows composer Roger Bond as he falls in love with Brazilian woman Belinha De Rezende, although she is actually already engaged to a friend of Roger's. Roger's bandmate Fred Ayres and Ayres' companion Honey Hales support Roger through various musical misadventures.