It was on this day, 68 years ago, that Abbott and Costello’s Rio Rita was released. This comedy film is a remake of the Ziegfeld Broadway operetta and the 1929 RKO movie starring Wheeler & Woolsey, both of the same name.
Rio Rita, along with Lost in a Harem (1944) and Abbott and Costello in Hollywood (1945), were made for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer while the comedy team was under contract to Universal. Abbott and Costello had become so popular by 1942 that MGM made a deal to “borrow” them for these three films.
It’s interesting to note two connections that Rito Rita has with MGM’s The Wizard of Oz. The first is that the songs for Rio Rita were written and composed by many of the same individuals who put together the songs for MGM’s The Wizard of Oz (1939). Second, Mitchell Lewis, who plays Julio in this Abbott and Costello film also played the Wicked Witch’s lead soldier in The Wizard of Oz.
Here is the funny “Laundry Room” clip from Rio Rita: