not as good as all the hype

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

.Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

Okay, I enjoy these old, obscure 1940s movies. "The Thrill Of Brazil" is a hokey, corny, and just plain fun musical that just happens to feature the father of a friend of mine in a major supporting role. That's how I came to be familiar with this old, obscure flick. This is a fun bit of cinematic fluff with lots of clever writing and musical numbers.I'm not sure if I would have sat through it were it not for Sid Tomack's major supporting role as the cab driver "Irkie Bower". Sid's elastic face and big beaming smile made his performance as the goofy cab driver quite entertaining. But what was more surprising was the quality of the writing of the entire film! As one reviewer mentioned, there are an abundance of puns.The theme of this film can best be stated as: "Their marriage didn't work out, but there is hope, neither did the divorce." And it's set to music!

Among the widely divergent IMDb reviews of this film, I'm inclined toward the positive. Having missed seeing the credits, I thought I'd come upon an obscure but worthy MGM musical (Kennon Wynn was an MGM player, Ann Miller about to become one, the set's, choreography, musical arrangements were MGM caliber, so maybe they borrowed Evyln Keyes from Columbia. . .) Well in fact it was a Columbia picture. The witty, fast paced dialog was better than that in most 1940's MGM musicals. The arty, sexy, and unusual choreography by Eugene Loring (Nick Castle is co-credited) is very similar to what he did in "Yolanda and the Thief" with Astaire and company at MGM the year before. Evyln Keyes does an excellent job giving a Roz Russell performance with just the right comic tone, zest, facility with fast paced comic repartee. Keenon Wynn is the weak link, he's no Carry Grant, and seems to me loud, obnoxious, and hard to take. Ann Miller is genuinely sexy in this film, something I never thought she was at MGM.

Non stop puns. That and a whole lot of song and dance, tap dancing, and verbal sparring are what we get in "Thrill of Brazil." All in good natured fun, Steve (Keenan Wynn, Annie get your Gun ) and John ( Allyn Joslyn) are fighting over Vicki (Evelyn Keyes, Gone with the Wind, many others). Meanwhile, Ann Miller is caught up in the whirlwind as Linda Lorens, tries to sing and dance her way through the her entertainment numbers. Also some great music from Enric Madriguera and his orchestra, as well as Tito Guízar, all of whom actually did perform and record in public at the time. This film might have been even more hokey if the music and dance weren't so good. Filmed after the war, so the mood is very upbeat and happy. Ann Miller had been making movies for 10 years by now, but she still has the look and demeanor of a young, rookie, but this could just be good acting on her part. Interesting scene where Vicki captures some of the local downtown market scenes and fights in pencil drawings, to be used in their nightclub act later. Several sight gags have a vaudevillian feel, but it all works. Although she was a major starlet in her own right, Evelyn Keyes is also known for her marriages to the bigshots Artie Shaw, John Huston, Charles Vidor. Also look for Ludwig, played by the always funny Felix Bressart, who had made "Shop around the Corner" with J Stewart. Bressart and Wynn had just made "Without Love" together in 1945.

The script of this film appears to have been a re-write and musical version of "His Girl Friday", which pre-dated "Thrill of Brazil" by six years. Instead of a newspaper, the backdrop is a nightclub owned by the lead character.Basically, boy wants girl back, "befriends" her fiancé, hires short thug to steal fiancé's wallet, takes counterfeit money from thug, and gives fiancé the fake money, all the while trying to keep girl involved in a new show at the club. Girl thinks boy gave up on her, re-formats and makes show a success, fiancé is arrested with counterfeit bills, girl realizes boy still loves her, girl breaks down in romantic reconciliation with boy and declares intent to return wallet to fiancé and to return fiancé to hometown.Oh yeah, boy also gives job to dumb schlep to keep quiet about finding the wallet, which results in discussion about schlep's wife. About the only original concept is the music and its rather insulting portrayal of Brazilians.Other than that, Ann Miller's dancing is great, and Keenan Wynn succeeds in propping up the story line as the oily impresario.