Cover Girl

1944 "THE MOST BRILLIANT MUSICAL OF OUR TIME!"
6.7| 1h47m| NR| en| More Info
Released: 22 March 1944 Released
Producted By: Columbia Pictures
Country: United States of America
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website:
Info

A nightclub dancer makes it big in modeling, leaving her dancer boyfriend behind.

Genre

Comedy, Music, Romance

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Cover Girl (1944) is currently not available on any services.

Director

Charles Vidor

Production Companies

Columbia Pictures

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Cover Girl Audience Reviews

Borserie it is finally so absorbing because it plays like a lyrical road odyssey that’s also a detective story.
Hayden Kane There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes
Ella-May O'Brien Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.
Deanna There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.
gkeith_1 Spoilers. Observations. Opinions. A beautiful film. Beautiful Rita. Rita was the star. Wooden Kelly, but second banana. Third banana is Phil Silvers, who was a clumsy dancer at best. Sgt. Bilko, anyone? You Baby Boomers know who you are. Rita came from a family of professional stage dancers. She was remade for film, and here she shines in her seemingly effortless dance filmography. Her family was I think Mexican and/or Spanish. Her widow's peak hairline was altered, her hair was colored red and her last name Cansino was changed to the veddy-English-aristocratic-sounding Hayworth. Kelly was not handsome here. Sorry, Gene. Furthermore, his garish green and yellow dance costume hurt my eyes to look at it. Rita's accompanying chiffon pale yellow and green gown, with matching light green dance pumps, was just delightful, however. I love song and dance musicals. You know that. Here, I am still observing and critiquing places that I feel could use improvements -- and I give kudos in other places. I still give this film a 10, however. John Coudair, old and young, was portrayed by two handsome and distinguished actors. Rita as her grandmother was charming, especially in the Pearlies segment in which the poor young thing is rejected by her fiancé's snotty aristocratic mother. This non-MGM musical did not have the polish and snap that I am used to. The use of Technicolor is a real plus, however. Oh, how I hate black and white musicals even though some of them were very good. I figured, what the hey? Columbia made big bucks from the earlier It Happened One Night, so go ahead and splurge on Cover Girl.One more thing. Sidekicks. Phil Silvers and Eve Arden have no romantic attachments. They are asides, like wallpaper. Eve even has Stonewall for a character nickname. I know it goes with the character's last name of Jackson, but this seems pretty masculine if you ask me. Well, you didn't ask. At least Eve has some beautiful costuming and fancy hats in this film. She can play pool (billiards?) with the big boys.More Baby Boomer nostalgia. Our Miss Brooks' Eve Arden played zany characters in many earlier films before her famous 1950s TV show. Was she later in Grease?Rita wears flat gold dance shoes, to match her beautiful golden gown in the scene in which she runs down the ramp to meet tons of men. Were the men all that short in height? I was thinking. Short men. Was she taller? Was this to make her height stand out? They all then crouched down, in worship of her and to salute her as she floated past them, back up the ramp.
Predrag This love story is a comedy drama about a chorus girl named Rusty "Chicken" Parker (Rita Hayworth) working at McGuire's club owned by her boyfriend Danny McGuire (Gene Kelly). Columbia Studios made this a showcase for Rita Hayworth, but gave Gene Kelly control over the film, especially about dance routines, singing and choreography. The film has lavish costumes, great dance routines, and excellent music. Several dance routines performed by Danny and Rusty includes songs by Jerome Kern and Ira Gershwin. The classic song "Long Ago and Far Away" won the 1944 Academy Award for best musical scoring. Danny's dance with Rusty; "Put Me to the Test", or the joyful dance "Make Way for Tomorrow" (with Genius) is simply outstanding and very entertaining. Phil Silvers as Danny's sidekick "Genius" has performed brilliantly; although he is known for his comedy routines (as Sgt. Bilko in the TV series); he fits perfectly in dance and singing routines with Danny and Rusty.Many critics agree that Hayworth was the best dance partner Astaire ever had. Even when doing a fast tap routine, Hayworth could carry it off with great grace and look completely relaxed, as if she were having great fun. Check her out, for instance, in the Shorty George tap routine with Astaire from You Were Never Lovelier. She gives that same feeling of joy in dancing while working with Kelly. Everything, the sets, the costumes, the lighting, the make-up is handled with the kind of Hollywood studio perfection that isn't seen anymore. Even when the showgirls are putting on their makeup, they're perfectly made up. This movie is the first successful work of director Charles Vidor, who went on to make such classics as Gilda (Rita Hayworth), A Song to Remember (Cornel Wilde), and Love Me or Leave Me (Doris Day). This movie is highly recommended to all fans of Rita Hayworth and Gene Kelly.Overall rating: 9 out of 10.
SnoopyStyle 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.
Richard Burin Cover Girl (Charles Vidor, 1944) is worth it for the dancing - much of it choreographed by co-star Gene Kelly, in just his fourth musical. Rita Hayworth is a stage-star who spies a path to the big-time via a magazine beauty competition. Though she gets the gig, thanks to the sentimentality of a big shot who once dated her grandmother, it puts a strain on her relationship with boyfriend and former boss Kelly. That hackneyed but involving plot, which borrows from the Jessie Matthews musical Evergreen, is a springboard for some very interesting routines. The lovely Make Way for Tomorrow sees Hayworth, Kelly and comic foil Phil Silvers dashing around a vast set, arm-in-arm, while the ebullient Put Me to the Test is an energetic stage-set number teaming Gene with a succession of partners. The absolute highlight is Kelly's Alter-Ego Dance, in which he hoofs opposite a transparent version of himself. Until you've seen the screen's second greatest dancer leap over his own head, you haven't really lived. Elsewhere, the staging is just peculiar. During the title number, Hayworth descends the biggest staircase this side of The Great Ziegfeld. When she gets to the bottom, she just sort of waves her arms around a bit. I take it Kelly didn't devise that dance. Poor John, dubbed by Martha Mears, as were all Hayworth's numbers, features the oddest (Cockney?!) accent I've ever heard. The choreography and costumes are almost as weird.Cover Girl is too spotty and muddled to be ranked with the best musicals of the period, but it's a valuable snapshot of one of cinema's greatest creative forces at an important stage in his career. In the film's key numbers, Kelly's sense of ambition is already much in evidence - though it was only once he was given bigger budgets and more significant talents to work with that he really came into his own. Even so, he reportedly cited the Alter-Ego Dance as the most difficult routine he'd ever crafted, and it is a phenomenal achievement*. Hayworth, who Fred Astaire regarded as the best of his own partners, is good value in the lead, and displays a depth of emotion that transcends the slightly stale script, while Phil Silvers and especially Eve Arden provide exemplary comic support. Silvers - later TV's Sgt Ernie Bilko, of course - even does a couple of song-and-dance bits.*Trivia note: Fred Astaire would offer his own variation on the routine two years later - Puttin' on the Ritz - backed by no fewer than nine Astaires. The way Kelly and Astaire pushed one another to ever greater heights during this period is exhilarating.