Rio Rita (1942)

When Kathryn Grayson was Star of the Month back in January, TCM started off with some of her smaller, earlier roles, such as in the 1942 version of Rio Rita.

The star here isn't Grayson, but the comedy duo of Bud Abbott and Lou Costello, hired from Universal for a three-movie deal at MGM. They play Doc and Wishy respectively, and at the beginning of the movie are finding themselves getting fired from their jobs at a pet store. So they stow away in the car of singer Ricardo Montera (John Carroll), who is going off to perform a special live radio show at a resort ranch owned by Rita (Grayson).

Rita is too young to have experience in the business, so she's handed managing duties over to Maurice Craindall (Tom Conway). What Rita doesn't know is that Maurice is actually the head of a cell of Nazi fifth columnists, and has hired a bunch of his fellow cell members in jobs at the resort. Ricardo's broadcast is going to be the opportunity for them to send out their coded message.

Ricardo gets to the ranch with Doc and Wishy in tow, although he only finds out when the trunk is opened. Rita takes pity on the two jobless, homeless men, and gives them some workfare, as the house detectives, even though neither of the two men knows the first thing about being a detective. But they're going to have to hurry up and learn how to do the job fast, what with those Nazis about to wreak whatever havoc they have planned.

Whether you like Rio Rita is going to come down entirely to how much you like Abbott and Costello. I tend to prefer Laurel and Hardy, and would rather take Abbott and Costello in smaller doses. Costello is particularly irritating here, and a couple of the bits had me rolling my eyes over the plot holes. The first is a service station next to a cliff, and later there's an explosive that's acid enough to dissolve glass, but only gives hallucinations for somebody who drinks the stuff.

As for Grayson, I don't care for either her singing or that of John Carroll, but at least Grayson doesn't do all that much singing here since her career was still being built up. Again, those who do like that type of singing will Rio Rita a lot more than I did.

Both the Abbott and Costello Rio Rita, and the 1929 version starring Wheeler and Woolsey, are on DVD courtesy of the Warner Archive.