'RIO RITA’

Evening Star, Issue 20422, 1 March 1930, Page 14

'RIO RITA’

ENTHUSIASTIC LONDON REVIEW ‘Rio Rita,; the spectacular talking and singing picture, which' is coming to the Regent Theatre next Friday, was reviewed in London by the News or the World ’ in the following enthusiastic strain: — “ The much-taiked-of new film ‘ Rio Rita ’ which is now appearing at the Tivoli, certainly lives up to its promises as a lavish production. And it strikes a new note in the all-talking, all-sing-ing variety of picture, in that it is not a film revue, but a musical comedy in tradition. ‘“Rio Rita’ provides an entirely new kind of rolo for the extremely clever actress Babe Daniels, who until now has mostly confined herself to parts in which sho emerges from a chrysalis comic stage to that of a beauty. Here sho begins as a beauty, and as a Mexican one, with no hint of the comic, but complete with Spanish clothes and foreignaccent and a most pleasing singing voice. ; •‘She is the lovely dusky Rio Rita around whom centres the Kmkajou mystery. The Kinkajou is a mysterious bandit wanted by the police on both the American and Mexican sides of the border. No one has seen him, but many become suspected during the course of the picture. . Among these are Rita’s own brother and the man she loves, who turn out to be the people most interested in the respective countries in the capture of the bandit. “ The most jealous and most suspicious person in the hunt for the Kiukajou, and least suspected, is the sinister Russian general, who has assumed much authority in Mexico, and is very keen to win Rita as his wife. And he nearly does so by blackmail. Leading her to suspect her lover, he promises to protect him if sho will consent. Ot course, ho himself is the Kinkajou, but the disclosure does not come until she is actually in her wedding dress. “ So much for the story which connects the piece—a story which is delightfully interrupted by two. comedians, a man whose second honeymoon is beino, inconveniently spoilt by the news that he is still married to his first wife, and his shady lawyer friend. These two provide some intensely funny scenes, particularly their drinking episode in a cellar. “Many of the scenes are really lovely, and infinite trouble was taken in designing the Spanish settings and the mis-en-scene of the wonderful ball given by the Russian general. And Bebe Daniels is a ravishing figure in her many beautiful dresses.”