Friday 3 August 2012

Dolores, Fred, Ginger, Rio...

This blog, being what it is, cannot let the birthday of Dolores Del Rio (1905) go unmarked. She was a remarkable woman, and not only for her beauty - a shilling life (or rather Wikipedia) will give you all the facts, one of them being that she was Orson Welles's lover when he was at his creative peak and ultimately, he said, the love of his life (as he seems to have been of hers). However, lovers of Fred and Ginger will know her as the ostensible co-star (with Gene Raymond) of Flying Down to Rio, the rather dreadful film in which Astaire and Rogers made their celluloid debut - and stole the show. The film comes to a climax with a quite extraordinary aerial ballet, which has to be seen to be believed - enjoy!

2 comments:

  1. Probably 50 years since I last viewed that 'flypast'and I'm forced to think of the loss of innocence it represents. My 'shock' when the girl fell from one 'plane, and my relief when she landed on the one below. And the innocent pleasure of all involved in making the picture in the first place. "You fellas like music?" followed by the unison "Sure!". Why do I miss that world so much? Is there something wrong with me?

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  2. I'm sure there isn't! I live in the naive hope that one day we'll return to a world more like that. Is there something wrong with me? After all, things come round...
    I've never seen the aerial ballet before. It gave me vertigo!

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