Copacabana

1947

Comedy / Musical / Mystery / Romance

8
Rotten Tomatoes Critics - Rotten 41% · 5 reviews
Rotten Tomatoes Audience - Spilled 41% · 1K ratings
IMDb Rating 6.1/10 10 1471 1.5K

nightclub musical singer brazil

Plot summary

A talent agent sells his girlfriend to a nightclub – as two separate acts. The deception and constant costume changes are too much for his girl, and the men who have fallen for the different performers.

Director

Alfred E. Green Photo
Alfred E. Green

Top cast

Ethelreda Leopold Photo
Ethelreda Leopold as Nightclub Patron
Chili Williams Photo
Chili Williams as Copa Girl - with Sobel
Paul Newlan Photo
Paul Newlan as Owner - Genevieve the Seal
William A. Boardway Photo
William A. Boardway as Nightclub Patron
720p.BluRay
842.78 MB
1280*934
English 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  
23.976 fps
1 hr 31 min
Seeds 17

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by 6 / 10

Carmen and Groucho: a pair made in Nonsense-Heaven wasted in second-rate musical

"Copacabana" could've been GREAT fun. Groucho Marx and Carmen Miranda together: weren't they just born for each other? Unfortunately Hollywood has a recurring tendency of wasting unconventional talent, and "Copacabana" (and Groucho's film career, and Carmen's film career) is a sad evidence thereof. John Wayne, Bing Crosby, Clark Gable or Bob Hope had no problem strutting their old stuff over and over again; but in 1946 Hollywood decreed that the public was tired of Carmen's "exoticism" and Groucho's routines and came up with this B-budget turkey.The film departs on embarrassingly deprecating premises: that Groucho should play a passé comedian who is no longer funny (!); that Carmen should play a singer who isn't electrifying enough (!), so that she has to assume a new persona as romantic French (!) chanteuse Mlle. Fifi and sing incognito (!). Now, come on: even wearing a mushroom blonde wig and a veil that hides most of her face, who except the very blind wouldn't recognize Carmen Miranda's hyperactive, pure-joy rolling eyes and those boomerang eyebrows? The film is a dead duck that only comes to life when Groucho is allowed to deliver his peculiar one-liners and, especially, when Carmen sings and dances her "exotic" numbers (her "romantic" ones are totally unsuited to her talents). There's no point trying to resist the irrepressible, unique, sensuous Carmen, with her infectious smile, the arms and hands flashing like lightning, the athletic legs on the 7-inch platform shoes, and the gravity-defying, eye-popping costumes. She sparks with such high voltage she's like shock therapy: we smile just at the sight of how much fun she's having. There has never been anybody like her, a true one-of-a-kind.But there are four essential things missing in "Copacabana": a) a decent script; b) a bigger budget; c) a minimally creative director and d) Technicolor. "Copacabana" CRIES for color -- it was planned to be shot in color, but the Technicolor preparation process (this was a Beacon Productions movie, not MGM) took so long the producers decided to do it in b&w, as the film HAD to be released simultaneously with the opening of the L.A.'s franchise of "The Copacabana", then NYC's #1 night-club, whose owner was one of the financiers of the film. (By the way, Carmen was the #1 headliner of NYC's Copacabana in the 1940s, she had even a lounge named after her, the "Miranda's Room").There's a lot of expendable stuff in "Copacabana": pretty much the rest of the cast, especially toothy mellow- voiced dork-looking Andy Russell, and the super- cheesy Steve Cochran/Gloria Jean subplot. The songs are uniformly awful, with the soporific "Je Vous Aime" and "Stranger Things Have Happened" sung T-W-I-C-E each, with great exceptions being Carmen's tongue-twisting tour-de-force of Brazilian hit "Tico-Tico no Fubá" (a major hit in Brazil since 1917 and internationally famous since Ethel Smith's version in Disney's "The Three Caballeros" in 1943; later performed by Denise Dummont in Woody Allen's "Radio Days") and Groucho's performance - - or rather his "anti-performance" - of "Go West"."Copacabana" is that kind of disappointment that drives you mad with rage for what it could have been, but fans of Carmen and Groucho have got to see it anyway. Shame on Hollywood for wasting such talented, one-of-a-kind performers with third-rate material and filmmakers.
Reviewed by 7 / 10

Delightfully Naive and Entertaining

In New York City, Lionel Q. Devereaux (Groucho Marx) and his fiancée Carmen Novarro (Carmen Miranda) are unsuccessfully trying to find a spot in the show business. Lionel introduces himself to Steve Hunt (Steve Cochran), who owns the famous Copacabana nightclub, as an important agent and convinces Steve to see the presentation of Carmen. He enjoys the show and asks for another attraction; Lionel convinces Carmen to wear a veil and perform another song and introduces her to Steve as the French singer Mademoiselle Fifi. Steve hires both singers and Carmen has to change clothes and identities between her performances. When she sees Lionel flirting with a Copa Girl, Mlle. Fifi accepts the invitation to have dinner with Steve, hurting the feelings of his secretary Anne Stuart (Gloria Jean) that is in love with him. The situation gets complicated and Carmen simulates an argument with Mlle. Fifi with her subsequent disappearance, originating an investigation of the police where the prime suspect is Lionel. "Copacabana" is a delightfully naive and entertaining movie from a time when the society was extremely innocent and could buy such ingenuous story. The plot, i.e., the double-identity of Carmen Miranda, is totally absurd but the situation of Lionel after the disappearance of Mlle. Fifi was remade by Billy August in 1963 in "Irma La Douce". Groucho Marx is funny and responsible for the best moments of this movie; but the subplots with the silly romance of Anne and Steve, and the participation of the weird singer Andy Russell should be better written. The songs are boring and dated in 2009, but Carmen Miranda was very successful in those years and sings the famous "Tico-Tico no Fubá". My vote is seven.Title (Brazil): "Copacabana"
Reviewed by 6 / 10

Meet Me at the Copa, with your Clark Kent disguise

Copacabana marked Groucho Marx's attempt to go it alone without his brothers and it had mixed results.He co-stars here with Carmen Miranda of the tutti-frutti hat. They are a duo act, but decide they'd be better as a solo with he her agent. Through a comedy of errors, inspired by Groucho's eagerness to show he has more than one client. He convinces Steve Cochran at the Copacabana to sign Carmen and one Madamoiselle Fifi. Fifi is French Moroccan and per her religion and nationality, keeps her face covered with a scarf. And Carmen in her Fifi incarnation speaks with a French accent that's a cheap imitation of Ann Codee.Even though this is only one Marx Brother, it's still an exercise in the absurd. But I find it hard pressed to believe that no one realized that there was only one woman involved. Carmen Miranda is kind of distinctive even with a false accent. Well if everyone could get fooled by Clark Kent putting on a pair of glasses, who am I to question.Groucho gets a comedy number himself, written by Harry Ruby and Bert Kalmar called Go West Young Man. It's strictly comedy patter for Groucho, but Bing Crosby and the Andrews Sisters made a record of it in 1947 as a straighter version. Groucho guested on Crosby's show several times over the years and I'd be willing to bet Crosby recorded it as a favor to Groucho to plug the film.Carmen Miranda is nothing less than Carmen Miranda. With the way she mangles the English language, Groucho must have thought she was Chico with breasts. But Carmen is always entertaining in any situation.Crooner Andy Russell and a grown up Gloria Jean also contribute musically and to lend authenticity to the proceedings, Louis Sobol and Earl Wilson columnists, and Abel Green of Variety make appearances.Copacabana is dated simply because the era of the nightclub is just a memory. But at least the Copa got immortalized by Barry Manilow and they still have them in the tinsel world of Las Vegas.
Read more IMDb reviews

1 Comments

Be the first to leave a comment