The Songs of NANCY GOES TO RIO Ranked by Zaniness (Celluloid Road Trip Blogathon: International Edition)

Today we're going down to Rio, with a kooky MGM musical (is there any better kind?)... 

gif by me

Before we get started, this post is a part of Hometowns to Hollywood's Celluloid Road Trip Blogathon: International Edition. Make sure you click through to read three days' worth of excellent blog posts highlighting locations around the world!

As Paul Berten, the centre of the love triangle, says, Rio's "the most wonderful city in the entire world." 

Nancy Goes to Rio came out in 1950 and stars Ann Sothern (in her last MGM film before her contract ended) and Jane Powell as a mother-daughter duo. They're both excellent actresses and singers, and when Jane's Nancy winds up getting a role that Ann's Frances thinks is hers, it invites confusion, mayhem and mishaps all set against a Rio backdrop (or a Hollywood backlot backdrop, rather, because this was filmed in the studio). 

The gist is this: Frances wants a role in Brazilian playwright Ricardo Domingos's play, but he thinks she might be too old for the parts, so he demures. In the meantime, he meets Nancy and wants her for the role. He offers the part to her after seeing her in summer stock, but she doesn't know that her mother thinks she has the role. 

Her mother is vacationing in Rio, so Nancy goes to Rio via cruise ship. On board, she's overheard rehearsing her lines by Paul Bergen, who thinks she's a young unwed mother. He offers her help, she falls in love and assumes he's proposing, they all get to Rio... Nancy finds out that Frances thinks she has the part Nancy got but doesn't tell her; Nancy does tell her about Paul, and Frances goes to find him and falls in love with him; it's one thing right after the other, and listen, it's no Singin' in the Rain, but it's fun and zany, and sometimes that's all you want in a musical.  

So let's dive in. Here are the songs of Nancy Goes to Rio ranked by zaniness! 

1. Nancy's Goin' to Rio

With lyrics like "Nancy's going to Rio/ ABCDE-O/ Nancy's going to Rio/ Far across the sea-o/ That's where she will be-o/ Me, oh, my, oh, me-o/ Nancy's going to Rio" and "If it strikes my fancy/ A- sailin ' south goes Nancy/ In my new sombrero/ Headin ' for Janeiro" and "Eatin ' a banana/ Right off the plantation/ I'll cement our Pan-American relations", how could the title track not be the zaniest of the entire movie? 

2. Yipsee-I-O

Hello Carmen Miranda! This song is about loving America and American ephemera, and she sings it with slang like 'yippee-ki-yay' (which took me out of the movie for a minute, because all I could think of was Die Hard). It's great. 

Lyrics include "I wanna go to a big empty space/ Where the cows and the cantaloupes play/ Wanna be a cowboy gal/ Wanna sit in my corral/ And hipsee-i-o and kiay" and "I'll put Annie Oakel to a shame/ Don't know who she is/ Or what I'm saying/ But I have lots of fun just the same." 

3. Baião (Ca-Room' Pa Pa)

This song, performed by Carmen Miranda, is beautifully bright and high-energy. There are literal clowns accompanying her! You can't help but tap your toes when you hear it. 

4. Shine On, Harvest Moon

I feel like in another musical, this might be one of the zanier bits. Ann Sothern, Jane Powell and Louis Calhern performing their own pseudo-vaudevillian version of this standard? 

5. Magic Is the Moonlight

Of course Ricardo Domingos needs to overhear Nancy singing a beautiful standard in order to convince him that he needs to hire the daughter over the mother. It's getting ranked higher than the other 'normal' songs because of Nancy's summer stock costume. 

6. Time and Time Again

This is Ann Sothern's opening song, and it's perfectly normal and perfectly performed. Totally hides the wackiness that's about to occur. 

7. Embraceable You

You only hear it briefly, and while this is a perfectly romantic standard, it doesn't really advance the plot or enhance the zaniness of this movie, so I'm ranking it lower. 

8. Musetta's Waltz

A beautiful standard performed by Nancy towards the end of the film. Zany it ain't, but it helps move the plot along! 

9. Love Is Like This

The beautiful finale song, after Nancy and Frances have sorted out all of their problems. It's a perfect cherry on top of a frothy musical. 

___

Have you seen Nancy Goes to Rio? What were your favourite songs? Let me know in the comments!