Blame It on Rio

Stanley Donen directed many wonderful films from 1949 through the 1960s. But his career became very scattershot after the production code fell, and his big screen career came to a lamentable end with Blame It on Rio (1984). Although he later directed a nice little TV movie for ABC in 1999

The film is billed as a comedy, but its grim. Michael Caine stars as a man in the midst of a midlife crisis who, perhaps under the spell of a trip to sultry Rio, embarks on a brief affair with the nymphet daughter (Michelle Johnson) of his best friend (Joseph Bologna). The actors look embarrassed and stricken (this extends to Valerie Harper and Demi Moore as well), the script isn't funny (no laughs in this film, only one gag that produced a tiny smirk), the photography is flat, and the end result is very dour and unappealing.

But the worst mistake of all in the film is including a luscious black-and-white clip of the wing walking "Rio by the Sea-o" production number from 1933's Flying Down to Rio. The brief scene shows the studio system at its height, with true wonder and fascination. It leaves one lamenting the film around the clip all the more.