The Thrill of Brazil
Director: S. Sylvan Simon
Year: 1946
Rating: 6.0
Hollywood's love affair with Latin music was
in full flush in the mid-1940s and this one is squarely in it. There are
a number of songs and all with a Latin tinge and beat to them. Tito Guizar
and the dancing pair of Veloz and Yolanda are back from Brazil in 1944 but
the main spots in the cast go to Hollywood regulars - Keenan Wynn, Evelyn
Keyes and Ann Miller. Miller dances as fast as quicksilver and Wynn talks
even faster. Keyes looks lovely and has the repartee down but at human speed.
It is one of those only in Hollywood films where quips, insults and witticisms
are tossed around at the speed of light and you are hit with three more before
the first one registers. There are three credited writers, so I don't know
which it was, but one of them came up with some fairly clever and funny lines.
It has that Cary Grant-Rosalind Russell
or maybe Irene Dunne style - but unfortunately it isn't Cary Grant. Maybe
they couldn't get him, so they give it to Keenan Wynn, who normally would
be the sidekick to the romantic leading man. Wynn is fine in bites but 90-minutes
of him is bad for the digestion. He delivers the lines like the fine actor
he is, but he skips being charming and goes directly to being a jerk and
stays there. That two women could love him as he merrily throws verbal darts
at them is harder to believe than aliens landing in New York City for Christmas
shopping.
He and his show are down in Rio getting
ready for Broadway. Among the large group of performers are Miller doing
three numbers and Tito doing two. His ex-wife (Keyes) has come to get his
signature on the divorce papers and along with her is the man she plans to
marry (Allyn Joslyn). As soon as you hear he lives in Iowa and is VP of a
toothpaste company, you know his days are numbered. He is the Ralph Bellamy
of the film. Nice guy but they never get the girls especially if they live
in the mid-west.
The romantic situation is simple - Tito
loves Miller who loves Wynn who loves Keyes who loves Joslyn who loves his
respectability. Not quite Wong Kar-wai but a lot of unrequited love going
on. With his ex who he still loves, Wynn pulls every sneaky trick he can
think of to make her stay, she sees through all of them but - seriously move
to Iowa after a life in show biz? The music is fine and the presentation
of the songs is excellent - good camera set-ups and movement. A lower
tier musical from Columbia but generally enjoyable.
