User Reviews

Okay, I enjoy these old, obscure 1940s movies. "The Thrill Of Brazil" is a hokey, corny, and just plain fun musical that just happens to feature the father of a friend of mine in a major supporting role. That's how I came to be familiar with this old, obscure flick. This is a fun bit of cinematic fluff with lots of clever writing and musical numbers.

I'm not sure if I would have sat through it were it not for Sid Tomack's major supporting role as the cab driver "Irkie Bower". Sid's elastic face and big beaming smile made his performance as the goofy cab driver quite entertaining. But what was more surprising was the quality of the writing of the entire film! As one reviewer mentioned, there are an abundance of puns.

The theme of this film can best be stated as: "Their marriage didn't work out, but there is hope, neither did the divorce." And it's set to music!

The script of this film appears to have been a re-write and musical version of "His Girl Friday", which pre-dated "Thrill of Brazil" by six years. Instead of a newspaper, the backdrop is a nightclub owned by the lead character.

Basically, boy wants girl back, "befriends" her fiancé, hires short thug to steal fiancé's wallet, takes counterfeit money from thug, and gives fiancé the fake money, all the while trying to keep girl involved in a new show at the club. Girl thinks boy gave up on her, re-formats and makes show a success, fiancé is arrested with counterfeit bills, girl realizes boy still loves her, girl breaks down in romantic reconciliation with boy and declares intent to return wallet to fiancé and to return fiancé to hometown.

Oh yeah, boy also gives job to dumb schlep to keep quiet about finding the wallet, which results in discussion about schlep's wife. About the only original concept is the music and its rather insulting portrayal of Brazilians.

Other than that, Ann Miller's dancing is great, and Keenan Wynn succeeds in propping up the story line as the oily impresario.

You need energy to keep up with "The Front Page" and "His Girl Friday," from which "Thrill of Brazil" stole the story. You need a frontal lobotomy to sit through TOB.

I don't like manic movies. The Marx Brothers always give me headaches. For me, pacing is important and "Thrill of Brazil" has none. You are never allowed to take a deep breath and regroup, but are kept listening to the hue and cry of dialogue, singing and dancing.

The music is eminently forgettable, with little charm and less enjoyment. After seeing the fourth, or was it fifth, dancing number with the same rhythm, same costumes, same dance steps... well, ho-hum.

I wish I could say something - ANYTHING - nice about this movie. The actors had a hard row to hoe and, unfortunately, didn't acquit themselves well. Keenan Wynn was just plain loud. There was no charm to his portrayal, no attractiveness to his character. He was so oily and slimy and underhanded, I wished for someone to shoot him within the first 20 minutes.

I wouldn't waste your time. I'm sorry I wasted mine.

1 out of 10 only because there was no 0.

The hit Cole Porter musical "Kiss Me Kate" was perhaps just a thought in its book writer's eyes when Columbia released this enjoyable musical (that seems to be crying out for Technicolor!) a few years before. It surrounds the divorce antics of a musical star (Evelyn Keyes) and her producer husband (Keenan Wynn in a rare leading role) and her visit to him to get his signature on documents proving their divorce so she can marry the stuffy Allyn Joslyn and move to a small town near Des Moines. To make the "Kiss Me Kate" comparisons more ironic is the presence of Ann Miller as the tap dancing star of his Brazilian revue who has more than just a passing interest in Wynn even though the suave Tito Guizar has a romantic interest in her. Wynn tries all kinds of ploys to either insult Joslyn or keep him and Keyes from getting together, even repeating the same gag from "His Girl Friday" by identifying an older gentleman standing nearby as Keyes' fiancee and dismisses Joslyn's presence. The dialog in this sequence is nearly identical to the sequence in "His Girl Friday" between Cary Grant, Ralph Bellamy, Rosalind Russell and whatever old man happened to be standing nearby. Later, Wynn arranges for Joslyn (arrested for some reason along with Keyes and Miller) to be photographed behind bars and for the headline and photograph to make the front page.

For those not familiar with Tito Guizar, this is a good chance to see the Mexican born singer at his best, a great dancing partner for Ann Miller and very warm hearted in his performing, especially with "You Never Say Yes, You Never Say No" which he sings both in English and Spanish. He has such an easy going charm in his manner that it is impossible not to be captivated by him. The musical numbers are all elegantly staged, overstuffed with glorious sets and large dance ensembles, and featuring Miller at her tap dancing best. Considering that Columbia had been doing color movie musicals for several years ("Cover Girl" in 1944, "The Jolson Story" the same year as this), it makes no sense to have this in black and white. Of Ann Miller's Columbia films, this is by far the largest budget, and the glamorous atmosphere seems to be screaming for reds, blues and green's. Even though he never really played any other leading roles, Wynn is very funny in his part here, and Joslyn is delightfully stuffy. Miller gets some very feisty lines and some truly sexy musical numbers, including "Man is brother to a mule". There are a lot of thrills in this Columbia look at Brazil, but oh that cry for color. I just can't get over that one.