ROAD TO RIO

New Zealand Listener, Volume 18, Issue 463, 7 May 1948, Page 25

ROAD TO RIO

(Paramount) C)NE of the most pleasant things about ‘~ the Hope-Crosby road-shows is that pne knows just what to expect from them. Some roll along a little better than others, but none imposes any mental strain on the filmgoer and all of them bo far have provided an acceptable ration of good clean fun. Road to Rio is slightly better than the average H. & C. nd a good deal better than Where here’s Life, Bob Hope’s recent solo effort, noticed on this page three weeks ago. Road to Rio runs true to type in ‘that it has ‘hardly any story to speak of, and what story there is proves to be ho more than a legpull at the expense of the audience, but coming after this week’s other Paramount shows I found it thoroughly enjoyable. My sole complaint would be that Hollywood has not yet evolved a technique which will allow me to hear all the jokes. A good 20 per cent. of them, I should -say, are lost through laughing at the other 80 per cent. Dorothy Lamour, who appears to have been included in the cast simply from force of habit, has little to do except + submit to hypnosis at the hands of Gale we peledt a dexterously sinister person whose technique seems more like a longdelayed joke at the expense of Lionel Barrymore’s Rasputin than a jibe at contemporary psychological trends. But in general the satire is abundant and up-to-the-minute-and as usual the princi- = don’t exempt themselves from it. should also mention that the Andrews Sisters appear briefly in one song-num-ber. For those who like the sisters that will be intimation enough; for those who don’t I need merely emphasise that it is a brief appearance.