with Hope and Crosby during a break from filming Filmed from January to March 1947,
Road to Rio was financed by Crosby and Hope (1/3 share each) and Paramount (1/3 share). Crosby and Hope used the film to promote their latest investment, a soft drink called Lime Cola. The product had been invented in 1915 but the company wasn't incorporated until 1945; its stock rose from $1 to $10 per share within one year, and the bottler declared a 50% dividend in 1946. At this point Crosby and Hope, always on the lookout for worthwhile investments, bought a substantial interest in Lime Cola. They insisted that signs and posters for Lime Cola must appear in the background throughout
Road to Rio. Paramount's president
Y. Frank Freeman objected, but because Crosby and Hope were the film's majority owners, the posters stayed in. Crosby and Hope even tried to create interest with an original song in the movie. They wanted the name of a city that included the word "cola", but Florida's
Pensacola was too close to soft-drink rival
Pepsi-Cola. They settled on
Apalachicola, another town in Florida, and in the film's first song number they chanted over and over, "Apalachi-
COLA! Apalachi-
COLA!" The blatant plugs went for naught when demand far exceeded supply, and the Lime Cola Company filed for reorganization in April 1948. Crosby and Hope, with heavy interests in the company, lost their considerable investments.
Road to Rio produced $4.5 million in rental income in its initial release period in the United States and was placed sixth in the top-grossing films of 1947.
Variety reviewed it at a
tradeshow: "This celluloid
junket along
The Road to Rio should find smooth riding to sturdy
box-office. The pattern established by other Paramount
Road pictures is solidly followed by Daniel Dare's production to keep the laughs spilling and the paying customers satisfied." ''Showmen's Trade Review
raved: "Hilarity reigns supreme, with Crosby and Hope practically knocking themselves out and apparently having a swell time doing it. Great entertainment. Business should be outstanding in all situations." Thomas M. Pryor of The New York Times was more guarded but still positive: "With Bing Crosby and Bob Hope on the tramp again in Road to Rio'', recklessly scattering jokes and rescuing perennial girl friend Dorothy Lamour from dangerous hypnotic trances, there's fun to be had at the Paramount. Maybe this is not the funniest picture ever made; maybe it is not even quite as rewarding as some of those earlier journeys, but there are patches in this crazy quilt that are as good and, perhaps, even better than anything the boys have done before. They are traversing more of a rollercoaster highway than usual this time and so there are some tedious uphill pulls when the huffing and puffing is excessive and the results negligible. However, when they reach the top “Road to Rio” is irresistible... All that matters really is that “Road to Rio” is fairly well loaded with laughs." Later reception has been more mixed. Clinical psychologist Deirdre Barrett emphasizes the hyper-(un)realistic use of
verbal hypnotic induction as a central plot device in
Road to Rio as part of her analysis of mid-20th-century tropes and stereotypes of hypnosis in popular culture. The film was preserved by the
UCLA Film & Television Archive. ==Soundtrack==