Linbeymusol Wonderful character development!

ThedevilChoose When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

Janae Milner Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.

Raymond Sierra The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

JohnHowardReid Copyright 15 September 1929 by RKO Distributing Corp., and RKO Productions, Inc. New York opening at the Earl Carroll Theatre: 6 October 1929. U.S. release: 15 September 1929. 15 reels. 11,506 feet. 128 minutes. SYNOPSIS: Who is the mysterious "Kinkajou", a rascally bandit who robs the Fremont bank? Is it Captain James Stewart of the Texas Rangers. Or is it Roberto Ferguson, the brother of "Rio Rita" Ferguson (the beloved of our "just Jim")?NOTES: The stage musical, produced by Florenz Ziegfeld, jr, ran 62 weeks on Broadway at the Ziegfeld Theatre, starting 7 February 1927. J. Harold Murray played Captain Stewart and Ethelind Terry the title role. Wheeler and Woolsey recreated their roles for the screen.With USA/Canadian rentals of $2.4 million, number four at the domestic boxoffice for 1929. Only Sunnyside Up, Broadway Melody and The Cock-Eyed World took more money. COMMENT: There are two words which absolutely must be used in any review of the original Rio Rita and those words are "creaky" and "spectacular". But even more to the point, I rate Rio Rita as one of the most entertaining movies ever made. There are so many things wrong with the movie that I could practically fill a whole book with its faults, starting with the lousy acting, the stupid script and nondescript direction and going right through to the incompetent chorus work, the incredibly bad sound recording, the often blurry cinematography, the jerky continuity and the amazing usurpation of the director's role by Victor Baravalle. Now Mr Baravalle is the music director. For some reason or other, perhaps with the encouragement of producer LeBaron or sound supervisor McDowell, he has taken it upon himself to drown out whole sections of the movie with his orchestra. Not just the lyrics of the songs, mind you, some of which-rendered by the female chorus-are completely indecipherable (not one single word, not one, mind you, being sufficiently audible to give the hearer a clue as to what they're actually singing). No, not just the songs, but whole slews of straight dialogue are also attacked by Mr Baravalle's frantic orchestra. Poor Bebe Daniels has little chance, though John Boles gives the musicians a good run for their money. Don Alvarado is the worst victim. He has little enough dialogue as it is, but all but two of his words are completely blacked out by the band's determined cacophony. It's only Georges Renavent, in the biggest role of his career, who really seems to be totally aware of Baravalle's machinations and always manages to shout above the musical din loud enough to be heard. Fortunately, Baravalle's ploy is often a big success. Who wants to hear the corny dialogue? I'd rather listen to Tierney's compositions any day. And if you're not a particularly rabid fan of Bebe Daniels, you won't mind the fact that she's saddled with a Mexican accent and recorded so poorly. The real star of the Baravalle film is not the McDowell-shaded Miss Daniels, or the too-eagerly pleasant John Boles (who does rather well by Captain Stewart in a stagy sort of way), but Bert Wheeler who has the lion's share of the audible dialogue (which he shares with his usual partners, fast-talking Robert Woolsey and plaintively cute Dorothy Lee) and two absolutely wonderful song-and-dance numbers. The first of these, "On the Loose", is an absolute classic of merry footwork, melodic musical invention and visual delights (including a hop-skip-and-jump overhead shot and the most comic exit ever recorded on film). The other occurs early on in the Pirate Barge scene. Wheeler and Lee share a nice romantic ballad which they top off by an acrobatic stunt in which the pert Lee carries Bert on her back! This is again topped off by another reprise in they are joined by Woolsey and Kaiser.The last half-hour of the movie is presented in Technicolor. A pity the rest of the movie was not tinted too. The chorus costumes especially cry out for color. And the soundproof-boothed washed-out photography is much improved by the added shading provided by Technicolor's laboratory. Big crowd scenes (eagle-eyed fans will spot Woolsey, sans make-up but still smoking his big cigar, posing as a crowd extra in the introductory Mesa Francisco tracking shot) add to the film's luster as a faithful transcription of the original lavish Ziegfeld stage production-an impression reinforced by Reed's penchant for long takes and proscenium-style direction.

Michael_Elliott Rio Rita (1929) ** 1/2 (out of 4) A Texas Ranger (John Boles) goes to Mexico to try and find a bandit known as The Kinkajou but ends up falling in love with a woman (Bebe Daniels) who might just be her sister.RIO RITA would be the first major film for RKO who went all out with a very large budget and especially when you consider they were just an upstart company and had everything to lose. Apparently the film was a major hit but then again just about every musical from this period was a hit. When sound came into play it's clear that people wanted to hear singing and see dancing and this film pretty much gives them exactly that.In fact, RIO RITA appears to have wanted to give its viewers everything they could possibly want because not only is there singing and dancing but there's a Western mood, a love story and comedy bits with Bert Wheeler and Robert Woosley. I think it's fair to say that this film is a complete mess because it tries to do way too much and none of it is very good. While none of it is good, it's at least slightly entertaining and makes the movie worth sitting through.Both Boles and Daniels are good in their roles so I think the level of entertainment is going to come from how much of Wheeler and Woosley you can put up with. Personally I thought several of their routines here were funny or at least silly enough to make me smile. The musical numbers were decent at best but I think it's fair to say that there were way too many of them. The final act is in 2-strip Technicolor and this here is certainly another plus.RIO RITA isn't going to appeal to everyone but fans of these early sound pictures should find some entertainment in it.

preppy-3 Early talkie with musical interludes. In Mexico people are looking for the bandit Kinkajou. Many people believe it is the brother of the lovely and popular Rio Rita (Bebe Daniels). Looking for him is dashing Captain Stewart (John Boles) and evil General Ravanoff (Georges Renavent). The "comedy" team of Bert Wheeler and Robert Woolsey provide some astonishingly unfunny routines.Historically this is important. It was one of the first talkies and the last half hour is in color. But it's really pretty bad. The plot itself is creaky and the sound recording is terrible (but that can be excused). The songs and dancing themselves aren't bad (for 1929) but the movie is slow-moving and pretty boring. I find it hard to believe this movie was actually 30 minutes longer! Good acting doesn't help much. Also the comedy team of Wheeler and Woolsey pop up. They were pretty big in the 1920s and 30s but they're virtually unknown today. Considering their material in this I can see why! Their comedy is downright painful--I groaned aloud at some of the lines. It reached the point that I was fast forwarding through their "comedy" bits. To make things worse the final half hour is in very washed out color. So, film buffs might want to watch for historical purposes but it's a real long haul. I give it a 4.

vandino1 This was a huge hit in 1929 and was one of RKO's first film releases. It was based on the successful Ziegfeld 1927 stage show that featured Wheeler & Woolsey, pairing them together for the first time. It also features two-strip Technicolor for the last thirty minutes. There you have it, film history-wise. As for the content of the film? Don't bother, it's terrible. In fact, almost unwatchable. Aside from secondary player Dorothy Lee, an 18 year-old (at the time) ball of personality, the rest of the cast is dull or obnoxious. Dull: leads Bebe Daniels and John Boles. Obnoxious: Wheeler & Woolsey. The story is antique: Rio Grande Mexican gal Rita and her impossible love for Ranger Boles. The music score is almost entirely forgettable and the staginess of the whole thing from dance numbers to solo vocals is quite obvious. Lastly, the comedy team of Wheeler & Woolsey are abominably bad, making one understand quickly how they've become forgotten. Their antics are painful to watch, especially since they're having such a good time being so unfunny. Obviously they're replicating their stage performance at a time when their material might have been considered enjoyable, thus they react as if what they're doing is just killing the audience. 75-plus years later and we're in a different comedy world, admittedly, but I see little in W & W's work in this film to invoke anything more than head scratching or annoyance. And most of their following films are no better. As I said, this film is only of interest for historians, unless you are very easily entertained.