"Sweetheart We Need Each Other"

One of the most spectacular early talkie musicals was RKO's 1929 production of "Rio Rita." 

Rio Rita began as a 1927 operetta produced by Florenz Ziegfield, featuring clever dialog, an engaging story, several hit songs by Harry Tierney and Joseph McCarthy, and Ziegfield's elaborately-staged musical numbers.  The 1927 stage production of Rio Rita also united Robert Woolsey and Bert Wheeler, veteran vaudeville performers who were both well-known, but who had never before worked together.  As a comedy team, Wheeler and Woolsey were an incredible smash hit, stealing the show and becoming one of the most in-demand comedy teams for the rest of the decade.

In 1929, RKO Pictures began work on a musical film version of the hit stage play.  The film kept Ziegfield's  stage numbers, replete with elaborate sets and dancing girls in showy, if not occasionally revealing, costumes.  RKO decided to cast two of its hottest talkie stars, John Boles and Bebe Daniels, as the movie's lead players.  Wheeler and Woolsey were the only original cast members from the stage show used in the film.  The movie also incorporated the show's original musical score, with the addition of new songs by McCarthy and Tierney.  The second half of the film, including its most elaborate musical numbers and dramatic finale, was shot in two-tone Technicolor.

Since Wheeler and Woolsey's roles were expanded for the film version of "Rio Rita," Bert Wheeler was given the freedom to choose his leading lady.  He picked Dorothy Lee, an 18 year old doe-eyed brunette beauty who had been singing with the Fred Waring Orchestra in their show Hello Yourself.  Wheeler and Lee seemed to be made for each other on the screen, and she went on to star with Wheeler and Woolsey in several other comedy films during the 1930's.

One of the new songs written for the movie "Rio Rita" was "Sweetheart We Need Each Other," introduced by Bert Wheeler and Dorothy Lee in a touching Technicolor sequence that segues into a short, snappy dance number.  Dorothy Lee is visibly nervous in this scene, continually glancing off-stage for cues or perhaps having difficulty following the conductor (the singing was recorded live, along with the dancing, and the orchestra was playing live off-stage).  Still, Lee's native charm (and that gorgeous dress) makes the scene work.  Enjoy it --

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QA6_Fe3z0iE 
(Embedding has been disabled for this video.)

"Rio Rita" was a smash hit, even though it ran over 140 minutes.   Many venues held the film over for three and even four weeks.  Wheeler, Woolsey, and Dorothy Lee became international stars, and the songs from the film went on to become some of the biggest hits of 1929.  Ben Pollack and his Park Central Orchestra recorded "Sweetheart We Need Each Other" on Aug. 22, 1929.  The vocalist is Harold "Scrappy" Lambert (even though label credit is "Burt Lorin") and the trombone soloist is Jack Teagarden.

Download Ben Pollack and his Park Central Orch - Sweetheart We Need Each Other.mp3

In 1932, RKO re-released a "modernized" version of "Rio Rita" for both domestic and foreign distribution.  RKO cut over 40 minutes from the film, mostly songs and musical numbers.  Most of the surviving prints of the film are the 1932 version, although prints of the full 1929 film do exist.  While the 1932 film is enjoyable, the cuts are obvious.  Blogger Jeff Cohen writes, "Musical cues slowly rise only to be cut away from, characters are spoken of yet never seen in the context of the moment, dancers are seen exiting scenes that they were never seen to enter, and unintentional jumps in continuity all serve to make what was once a finely tooled, tried and true success seem the work of amateur filmmakers, performers and technicians."

Perhaps someday the full version of the film will be restored to its opulent Ziegfieldian splendor.

(Many of the images in this post are from Jeff Cohen's essay on the original 1929 "Rio Rita.")

Comments

[GPM an Italian collector of RKO movies]

SWEETHEART, WE NEED EACH OTHER

from Ziegfield's "RIO RITA" (1929)
The Radio Picture Screen Operetta
Starring Bebe Daniels, John Boles and 1.000 Others
An R-K-O Production

Book by Guy Bolton and Fred Thompson

Music by Harry Tierney
Lyrics by Joseph McCarthy

Sweetheart, evrythings wrong Sweetheart, lonely so long
Would you, could you drop from the sky? How I'd huddle you, cuddle you;
Love light faded too soon Each night I talk to the moon
Sighing, crying, just to impress What I am wishing for, may you'll guess.
Why is the bluebird sad and so blue? Missing his sweetie, what can he do?
He has a blue song you hear him coo: "Sweetheart, we need each other!"
Not like a bluebird, more like a jay, I miss you, sweetie, I get that way,
Then like the mocking bird I have to say: "Sweetheart, we need each other!" How I'm
missing you, I'd rather spend my time just kissing you, Bees need the flowers,
Flowers the dew; We all need someone, Honey, How I need you! Oh, Sweetheart,
We need each other! Other!

* sung, in the movie, by Dorothy Lee, Bert Wheeler, Robert Woolsey and Helen Kaiser