With all the innocence of a German shepherd in heat, the sultry and seductive Michelle Johnson prances around completely naked for at least 50% of the time she’s on screen during Blame It On Rio.  And this is without the benefit of one single acting lesson.

This gorgeous newcomer teases and taunts as her curvaceous body glistens in the Rio de Janeiro sun. And it makes for some erotic and very funny situations in this comedy from Stanley Donen, the veteran director of Singing In The Rain, Charade and Seven Brides For Seven Brothers.  He’s come quite a distance with this one.

Johnson plays teenage seductress to Michael Caine (whom she sweetly calls Uncle Matthew), friend of Joseph Bologna (her father).  The three, along with Caine’s daughter, head off for a summer vacation to the tropical paradise of Rio (nicely filmed, incidentally, by Donen). While the comedy of errors take precedence, the steamy encounters between this nubile girl and her middle-age-crazy “uncle” increase.

All of this makes for the right combination of humor and sex.  The dialogue, with the exception of what is written for Johnson, is surprisingly deft.  For a sex comedy, everything seems realistic.  Character development, although thin on a couple of important players, does not get left out, even with sex on everyone’s (including the director’s) mind.

So I recommend Blame It On Rio.  While it won’t win any Academy Awards, it treats its sexual matter in a sophisticated way.