Film / Rio Rita

Rio Rita is a 1942 musical comedy, starring Bud Abbott and Lou Costello. It is a (very) loose remake of the 1927 Flo Ziegfeld Broadway musical of the same name, which was made into its own motion picture in 1929.

Doc and Wishy, two down-on-their-luck tramps, stow away in the car of famed singer Ricardo Montera, and wind up at a resort on the Texas-Mexico border called the Hotel Vista del Rio. Ricardo is singing on the radio at a fiesta hosted by the resort, which is owned by Rita Winslow, Ricardo’s old sweetheart. Unfortunately, the resort is unwittingly employing a group of foreign spies in management, who have brought in a number of shortwave radios disguised as apples to receive coded messages. They plan to distribute them among other spies in their network, then use a commercial break before Ricardo’s broadcast to distribute critical orders, information, and messages to their agents in code. Doc and Wishy steal the “apples”, then throw them away when they realize they’re inedible. Rita takes the boys in, making them the resort’s “House Detectives”. While trying to earn their keep, the detectives learn that two secret service agents are already investigating the spies, and have stolen their code book. One is gunned down, but passes the book on to Wishy and tells him everything before he dies. Now, Doc and Wishy need to stop the spies and keep The Vamp Lucette from flirting with Ricardo at the heartbroken Rita’s expense… but Lucette has plans of her own, and her goals may be nobler than anyone knows.

Hilarity Ensues.

The film was a general success upon release, and was the first of three MGM films that Abbott and Costello made while under contract to Universal. During filming, Abbott and Costello also ended up enshrining their handprints and footprints at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre – an impressive feat, considering their first film had only been released less than two years prior. The movie overall is often regarded as one of the best of their earlier works.

This film provides examples of:

• Betty and Veronica: Sweet, responsible, affable childhood friend Rita compared to The Vamp Lucette. Wishy tells Lucette to drop her flirting with Ricardo, and surprisingly, she does. However, it turns out Lucette is just trying to warn Ricardo about the threat of the spies.

• Beware the Silly Ones: Wishy spends most of the film being the typical inept, immature, cowardly Lou Costello character. Nearing the climax, however, he has a few legitimately impressive moments. He escapes his captors and leads them on a chase through the resort, drops the Time Bomb meant to kill him and Doc into Jake’s pocket, scares all the rest of the spies away with a bluff, and finally pulls Ricardo off Jake so he can “escape” with the rest of the spies, wiping them all out.

• The Brute: Jake, the biggest and most brutal member of the spy ring.

• Cactus Cushion: Wishy accidentally backs into a cactus at one point, and gets a big chunk of prickly pear stuck to his rear.

• Can't Stop the Signal: Just before the broadcast of coded orders goes out, Ricardo quickly shouts into the radio mic that foreign agents have compromised the broadcast, blowing the roof off the spy ring.

• Cassandra Truth: Lucette tells Ricardo everything about the spies under the guise of kissing him in the garden. Rita sees them, and storms off. When Ricardo tries explaining everything to Rita, she refuses to believe him until the actual spies come in with guns drawn.

• The Cavalry: Faked. Doc and Wishy realize several burros on the resort have eaten the apple radios, and that the local radio stations have been playing the “Ranger Song” a lot on Wishy’s requests, resulting in the radio broadcasts coming from inside the burros. As the spies menace the entire resort, they hear the song along with hoofbeats coming from outside, and fear the Border Rangers are coming for them, so they flee immediately.

• Clueless Detective: Doc and Wishy need to have the important clues basically hand-delivered to them to make any progress.

• Delicious Daydream: While Doc and Wishy are starving, Doc mentions that hallucinations are common in people starving to death. Wishy then sees a real table of food, and starts eating the “mirage” as quickly as possible.

• Double Agent: Lucette, a Secret Service agent who has infiltrated the spy ring and ultimately tells Ricardo everything that’s been going on.

• Evil-Detecting Dog: A big dog that hangs around the resort comes to Wishy’s rescue in the end, attacking and scaring off Jake.

• Faux Affably Evil: Maurice, the ringleader of the spies. He’s polite and courteous to everyone around him while pretending to be only a hotel manager, but when his true colors are revealed, he immediately attacks Ricardo.

• The Fool: The spies’ plans are constantly foiled by simple tramps Doc and Wishy, who don’t even know about the spies until about halfway through.

• Gargle Blaster: The resort’s Pulque. It’s so strong it sends up plumes of steam at room temperature, evaporates in seconds when poured into a glass, and makes Wishy hallucinate after a single drink.

• iSophagus: The apple radios are eaten by a dog and several burros, who display this ability later in the movie. Wishy mistakes the former for a talking dog. The burros scare the spies off at the end by broadcasting the song of the Border Rangers en masse.

• Latin Lover: Ricardo, the primary romantic interest of the film. He and Rita’s relationship is handled with a little more care than most Abbott and Costello traditional-leading-man-and-lady duos.

• MacGuffin: The spies’ Code Book for the second half of the film.

• Old Flame: Rita still remembers Ricardo, but Ricardo barely remembers Rita until she reminds him extensively. Worse, Lucette seems to have designs of her own on Ricardo. They get along again later on, and it’s ultimately played straight when Lucette turns out to be working for the Secret Service, and is trying to warn Ricardo about the spy ring’s intentions.

• Punk in the Trunk: Doc and Wishy get to the resort this way, by hiding in Ricardo’s car trunk. Turns out they can open it from the inside.

• Shoe Phone: The shortwave spy radios disguised as apples. It turns out the disguise is a little too good; animals will eat them on the spot, and the whole batch is stolen – then thrown away – by a couple of hungry tramps.

• Super Window Jump: When Wishy realizes he's in the same room as a murder victim, he dives through the nearest window in terror.

• Take That!: A pretty good one towards Hitler. As Jake is menacing Wishy with a gun, a burro leans in the window just as a radio broadcast from Germany of a Nazi speech starts coming from its mouth, due to the radio it ate earlier. As Hitler’s voice blares from the burro’s mouth, Wishy doesn’t look surprised.
  • Wishy: "I’ve heard you on the radio, but I’ve never seen your face myself!"

• Those Wacky Nazis: The spy ring work for them.

• Time Bomb: Jake ties Doc and Wishy up in a room and sets one up to go off at 11:25 PM to wipe them out. Wishy secretly slips it into Jake’s back pocket, then keeps anyone from stopping Jake as he escapes with the rest of the spies at the end. A few seconds after they drive off, it hits 11:25 and wipes them all out.

• The Vamp: Lucette seems to be this at first, working with the spy ring and flirting gleefully with Ricardo to butter him up in preparation for the broadcast of their coded messages. However, it turns out to be an act; she’s working for the Secret Service and is trying to warn Ricardo without raising suspicions.