Rio Rita 1929 It's based on a 1927 stage musical by Florenz Ziegfeld with a book by Guy Bolton and Frederick A Thompson. Guy wrote 14 shows with Fred, 21 shows with P G Wodehouse, and 10 shows with George Middleton. Luther Reed wrote the film script and directed. I can't say I've seen any of his silent work but I have seen his 1930 film of Dixiana.
That's Dorothy Lee on the left, Robert Woolsey in the middle and Bert Wheeler on the right. The play made Wheeler and Woolsey famous and the producers hired them to appear in the film. They are the only members of the play's cast that appear in the film. Wheeler and Woolsey would appear in 21 films between 1929 and 1937. Woolsey would die the following year at age 50 and Bert would only appear in a handful of films after that. Bert died in 1968 at age 71.
The film is set in a little town in Mexico called San Lucas. Bebe Daniels is Rio Rita and she's being wooed by a Texas Ranger played by John Boles and a local warlord played by George Renavent. The Ranger is after a bandit called Kinkajou. The warlord is going around saying it's Rita brother, he wants to help Rita out by saving her brother, then he can get her to marry him. The audience quickly finds out that the Warlord is Kinkajou.
In the subplot Bert has come to San Lucas to get a divorce, Robert is his lawyer. Bert married Dorothy Lee but right after the wedding Robert tells him the divorce isn't valid. Then Bert's wife shows up. Things get complicated in their lives before it all works out through the medium of song.
There's a fair number of songs in the 103 min film, there were more in the original 141 min version. The 5 missing reels are said to be lost and the shorter version is the 1932 release. There are big lavish dance numbers with lots of dancers and extras on the stage. The film switches to 2 strip Technicolor for the big musical numbers at the end of the film. The sets were reused in Dixiana.
There's plenty of activity and some good number of jokes. Wheeler and Woolsey are rather madcap and they cavort and blather a lot. I'm not as big a fan of the musical numbers but I do like Bert and Robert. I first saw them on cable back in the 80s. I'd just recently bought their whole film catalog on DVD from Warner Archives. I'll be getting to them occasionally as time passes.