Road to Rio

Road to Rio is a 1947 American musical comedy film directed by Norman Z. McLeod and starring Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, and Dorothy Lamour.

Scat and Hot Lips recruit three local musicians (the Wiere Brothers, who in the film cannot speak English) and coach them with a few phrases in jive talk, hoping to fool the nightclub owner.

Hope's frequent sidekick Jerry Colonna has a cameo, leading a cavalry charge to rescue Bing and Bob, as the film cuts away to the galloping horses periodically.

Paramount's president Y. Frank Freeman objected, but because Crosby and Hope were the film's majority owners, the posters stayed in.

Road to Rio produced $4.5 million in rental income in its initial release period in the United States and was placed sixth in the top-grossing films of 1947.

The pattern established by other Paramount Road pictures is solidly followed by Daniel Dare's production to keep the laughs spilling and the paying customers satisfied."

Showmen's Trade Review raved: "Hilarity reigns supreme, with Crosby and Hope practically knocking themselves out and apparently having a swell time doing it.

"[7] Thomas M. Pryor of The New York Times was more guarded but still positive: "With Bing Crosby and Bob Hope on the tramp again in Road to Rio, recklessly scattering jokes and rescuing perennial girl friend Dorothy Lamour from dangerous hypnotic trances, there's fun to be had at the Paramount.

They are traversing more of a rollercoaster highway than usual this time and so there are some tedious uphill pulls when the huffing and puffing is excessive and the results negligible.

[9] Clinical psychologist Deirdre Barrett emphasizes the hyper-(un)realistic use of verbal hypnotic induction as a central plot device in Road to Rio as part of her analysis of mid-20th-century tropes and stereotypes of hypnosis in popular culture.

Marquita Rivera with Hope and Crosby during a break from filming
Road to Rio (Decca Records 1948)
Lobby card