Down Argentine Way (1940)

Down Argentine Way
Directed by Irving Cummings
Written by Darrell Ware, Karl Tunberg et al
1940/USA
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation
First viewing/YouTube

[box] Glenda Crawford, aka Glenda Cunningham: Excuse me, I’ve got to go see a man about a horse.[/box]

This is strictly for old-time musical comedy lovers but I’m one and I liked it a lot in spite of, or maybe because of, all its basic silliness.

Ricardo Quintana (Don Ameche) is sent to America by his father Don Diego (Henry Stephenson) to sell several horses.  He is warned not to sell any to Don Diego’s long-time enemy or any of the Crawford family.  Naturally, Ricardo immediately meets and falls in love with Crawford’s daughter Glenda (Betty Grable).  After wooing her he has to welsh on a horse sale when he discovers her identity, making her furious.

She is so mad at him that she, of course, needs to head straight to Buenos Aires with her Aunt Binnie (Charlotte Greenwood).  There the couple reunites and patches up the romance in about five minutes.  They decide the best way to win the father over is to defy him by training his prize jumper to be a race horse and entering it in the big race. Meanwhile there are plenty of songs and rather goofy comedy.  With J. Carrol Niaish as an old horse trainer, Leonid Kinskey as a guide/gigolo, and Carmen Miranda and the Nicholas Brothers performing specialty numbers.

This film got points right off the bat for all the location shots of Buenos Aires, a city I know well and love.  And then I’m a Don Ameche fan and he is unusually appealing right down to his pretty good Latin accent. The rest of the cast is very good and all the production numbers are light and fun.  I love the Academy-Award nominated title tune.

Down Argentine Way received Academy Award nominations for Best Color Cinematography, Best Color Art Direction, and Best Original Song (“Down Argentine Way”)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=11Uq0it1x9g

Trailer