Road to RioRoad to Rio was the first of three "Road" pictures jointly produced by stars
Bing Crosby and
Bob Hope. On the run from the law again, musicians
Bob and
Bing stow away on an ocean liner. They try to come to the rescue of heiress
Dorothy Lamour, who is doomed to an arranged marriage to caddish
George Meeker. All gratitude and effusions for their assistance,
Dorothy surprises
Bob and
Bing on their next meeting by slapping them in their faces and declaring "I hate you! I loathe you! I despise you!" The explanation?
Dorothy is being hypnotized by her scheming aunt
Gale Sondergaard, who has set up the marriage for mysterious mercenary reasons of her own. When
Dorothy is "herself" again,
Bob and
Bing smuggle her off the ship and into their Rio de Janeiro hotel room. The boys plan to save
Dorothy from her unwanted marriage by passing her off as a nightclub singer, and themselves as band leaders. Trouble is, they have no band. Enter the
Wiere Brothers, three Rio street entertainers.
Bob and
Bing hire the threesome on the spot, unmindful that they have booked themselves into
Nestor Paiva's nightclub on the promise that they're delivering an American band. Since the
Wieres speak only Portuguese,
Bing teaches each brother an American phrase by rote: "You're in the groove, Jackson", "You're Telling Me," and "This is Murder." Naturally, it isn't long before the boys' ruse is discovered, and this coupled with the newly hypnotized
Lamour's threats to have
Bob and
Bing arrested, leaves our heroes broke and stranded once more. Still, they pose a menace to
Sondergaard, thus she contrives a method of disposing of them. Hypnotizing them both,
Sondergaard orders
Bob and
Bing to kill each other. They snap out of the spell just in time, but still there's the problem of rescuing
Dorothy. And now there's a new angle: mysterious stranger
Frank Puglia informs the boys that the only way to stop the wedding is to retrieve (pause; a furtive glance left; a furtive glance right) "The Papers." Said papers are in the possession of
Sondergaard, obliging
Bob and
Bing to show up at the pre-nuptial festival in disguise (with
Bob in drag). Managing to hypnotize
Sondergaard's henchmen
Frank Faylen and
Joseph Vitale,
Bob and
Bing uncover the precious Papers, and
Dorothy is saved. But how can those papers stop a wedding? We won't give away the surprise, nor will we tell you whether
Dorothy ends up with
Bob or
Bing, nor even what the heck
Jerry Colonna is doing in the picture leading a cavalry charge. Not the best of the "Road" pictures, Road to Rio is nonetheless one of the most memorable--and quotable (how many of your high school pals used to confound the teacher by declaring "You're in the groove, Jackson"?) ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
