Cover Girl (1944)

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Rita Hayworth plays two characters and the title role in this musical comedy which won an Academy Award for Best Musical Score; the film also received Oscar nominations for its Color Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Cinematography and Sound; its Jerome Kern-Ira Gershwin original song "Long Ago and Far Away" was also nominated. It was directed by Charles Vidor, with a story by Erwin Gelsey and a screenplay by Virginia Van Upp; Marion Parsonnet and Paul Gangelin wrote the adaptation.Hayworth plays chorus girl singer-dancer Rusty Parker (and her grandmother Maribelle Hicks in flashback) opposite Brooklyn club owner and fellow performer Danny McGuire, played by Gene Kelly. Phil Silvers plays Genius, the third wheel and comedian in the trio that's struggling to make it big; they spend every Friday night at Joe's (Edward Brophy, uncredited) bar hoping to find a pearl in an oyster. When Rusty hears fellow chorus girl Maurine Martin (Leslie Brooks) discussing her dream to "get out of this dump and become famous" by auditioning for Vanity magazine's cover, she too decides to give it a try. But Maurine intentionally gives her some bad advice such that Rusty blows her chance with the fashion magazine's Cornelia 'Stonewall' Jackson (Eve Arden). Model Jinx Falkenburg appears briefly, as herself. Otto Kruger plays Vanity's owner, John Coudair; Jess Barker plays Coudair opposite Hayworth's character in the flashback sequences.Cornelia and Coudair go to McGuire's club one night to take another look at Maurine and he "discovers" Rusty, who bears a remarkable resemblance to his first love, singer-dancer Maribelle Hicks (Hayworth again), who'd left him at the altar for a piano player. Coudair puts Rusty on the next cover of his magazine and suddenly McGuire's Brooklyn club is all the rage. When Cornelia and Coudair take Broadway producer Noel Wheaton (Lee Bowman) to the club, he falls head over heals for Rusty and Coudair is only too happy to facilitate their introductions. Wheaton sends her flowers every day (via Billy Benedict's uncredited delivery boy) and, with Coudair's help, manages to sign her for his Broadway show. Naturally, this jeopardizes Rusty's relationship with Danny, whose jealously causes him to exacerbate the situation. Kelly performs a remarkable Stanley Donen-choreographed dance routine with (a ghost-like double exposure version of) himself. Danny and Genius enter military service - there's a war going on - while Rusty stars in Wheaton's show and drinks to salve her lost love. She walks down the aisle with Wheaton just like her grandmother had with Coudair, jilts him just the same, and returns to Danny at Joe's, where Genius joins and the three of them happily dance to the end, together again.

Rusty Parker (Rita Hayworth) is a chorus girl dancing at Danny McGuire(Gene Kelly)'s Night Club in Brooklyn. Genius (Phil Silvers) is the m/c performer in the club. She wins the Cover Girl spot in Vanity magazine when she reminds publisher John Coudair (Otto Kruger) of his lost love Maribelle Hicks. Showgirl Maribelle had left John at the altar for her true love, the piano player. It turns out that Maribelle is Rusty's grandmother. Coudair's friend wealthy theatrical producer Noel Wheaton takes an interest in Rusty both personally and in his Broadway show.Rita is a better bombshell than a young ingénue. She doesn't really fit the innocent young thing quite as well. It's great that she's dancing up a storm in this with Kelly and Silvers. The comedy doesn't work well especially with Gene Kelly being possessive of Rita. Don't get me wrong. I get it. I wouldn't want her to go off to do the magazine and everything else after. I would want her to only be in my show too. For the romance to really work, he has to do the best for her no matter what. It's the self sacrifice that sells a true romance. The struggle in Kelly should not be as hard as it is and it takes him too long to get there. It doesn't give Rita's character enough time to change. The dancing is well done with a few good sequences. There are some really big sets for Rita to strut her stuff. Rita is dubbed but that's the standard operating procedure at that time.

Chorus girl Rusty Parker (Rita Hayworth) wins a magazine's contest to pick a new cover girl. This is thanks to the magazine's editor (Otto Kruger), who was in love with Rusty's grandmother. Apparently Rusty is the spitting image of Grandma. Anyway, as things usually go in musicals, she must decide between success and love with nightclub owner Danny McGuire (Gene Kelly). Rita is gorgeous, of course, and that's only enhanced by the Technicolor. Her dancing is excellent as well. Kelly is fine in the acting department but the dancing is where he shines. This was the musical that put him on the map and from this point on he was allowed to choreograph his dance routines in films. The movie has comedy backup from Phil Silvers and Eve Arden. Arden is great but Silvers is like everybody's unfunny uncle. The musical numbers are mostly just OK. The highlight songwise is "Long Ago and Far Away." The best dance number is Kelly's solo "Alter Ego" dance. It's not a bad musical but it's not one of my favorites.

Rusty's a popular singer-dancer for small-timer Mcguire's club, but gets her head turned by fancy impresario Wheaton who wants her to leave her friends and take her talents to his swanky uptown stage show.Talk about eye candy. There's enough glamour here to send guys into a sugar overload. I hope they didn't show this WWII production overseas, otherwise a million GI's would be swimming home. I've seen a sexier Hayworth, but never a more sparkling one. She's obviously enjoying herself, and why not, she's got Kelly as a partner and a goofy Silvers to keep her in stitches. And get a load of the hats the gals wear. Some look like they're getting messages from Mars.Okay, except for "Long Ago and Far Away", the tunes are pretty forgettable, while that set-up in the trooper cattle car should have been seriously re-thought. Still, I thought that dancing threesome down the city street was utterly charming, and reminded me of Kelly's signature number in Singin' in the Rain (1952). Then too, actor Bowman (Wheaton) makes a perfect Manhattan lounge lizard. For younger folks, there were a lot of references to Brooklyn during the war. That's because the New York borough came to symbolize the common man and the American melting pot-- in short, the kind of national unity that winning the war would need. So, naturally, good guy McGuire (Kelly) has his stage show there, while slickster Wheaton has his in more snobbish uptown Manhattan. So Rusty (Hayworth) has to learn it's more fun to crack oysters in a Brooklyn bar than sip martinis in an swanky lounge.Anyhow, it's hard to think of a brighter, more colorful production than this line-up of Hollywood glamour that keeps "comin' at yuh", one pretty face after another.