One of the best things about setting out to enjoy the movies of one particular actor or performer is the side benefit of getting to know and appreciate other actors whose work you may not have seen before. That was the recent case with me when I decided to watch 1944's Cover Girl, starring Rita Hayworth and Gene Kelly.

I rented this film because I've been on a quest to see as many of Gene Kelly's films as I can. I love the energy, talent and joy he brings to a movie, no matter how fluffy or silly the musical plot. So I went into the watching of this film thinking of it as a "Gene Kelly movie." Which it isn't, at least not entirely, though there are important moments graced with his charm and touched with his dancing magic.

The film was really a vehicle for the stunningly lovely Rita Hayworth. Directed by Charles Vidor, Cover Girl was released by Columbia Pictures in 1944. The fact that it was produced and released by Columbia makes this a rarity in Kelly's musical film career, as it was one of the few times (if not the only?) that MGM released him to make a musical for another studio. The fact that the film was such a success was actually something of a stumbling block for Kelly's future options with other studios, as boss Louis B. Mayer decided Kelly was too big a star to lend him out so readily again. That became the main reason that Kelly wasn't able to do Columbia's film version of Pal Joey, though he had popularized Joey on Broadway.

We can be glad, however, that MGM had a moment of heart and released Kelly for Cover Girl. He and Hayworth had real romantic chemistry which makes the film worth watching even when the plot runs thin, as it inevitably does. Kelly was also given enough free rein to choreograph some of the more important dance numbers, most notably "Make Way for Tomorrow" (where Hayworth, Kelly and Phil Silvers dance down a street) and the "Altar-Ego Dance" where Kelly dances with...well...himself.

Love or Fame? Decisions, Decisions...

Hayworth stars as Rusty Parker, a funny name for a really glamorous chorus girl. She works as a dancer at Danny McGuire's nightclub in Brooklyn. She also happens to be dating Danny McGuire, played by Kelly. The two of them are also very good friends with a guy named Genius, played by a young and wisecracking Phil Silvers. Genius works at the nightclub too, but I'm not sure I ever figured out what he did exactly.

Like many other chorus girls, Rusty longs to break out of the pack. She seeks fame and fortune through a contest sponsored by a renowned fashion magazine called "Vanity." Although she doesn't immediately impress Cornelia "Stonewall" Jackson (played by Eve Arden, whose comic timing is brilliant) the editor seeing all potential candidates, she does impress Cornelia's boss, John Coudair (played by Otto Kruger). In fact, Coudair is smitten with Rusty immediately since she is the spitting image of her grandmother Mirabelle, with whom he was once in love. We don't find out till much later that Grandma left Mr. Coudair at the altar! But Coudair's choice of Rusty for the magazine cover opens up all sorts of fun possibilities for the film to do "flashbacks" to his youth when he was wooing Mirabelle, which gives Hayworth (who plays the dual role) the chance to do some singing and dancing numbers in costumes and styles from the late 1800s.

Meanwhile, the possibilities opening up before Rusty threaten to upset her relationship with Danny. Her magazine cover wins her almost instant fame, and people begin pouring into Danny's nightclub. It's not long until she's being wooed herself, by much bigger nightclub owner Noel Wheaton (Lee Bowman) who on the surface has much more to offer to the "cover girl" than Danny, both in terms of career options and in terms of financial security. Will fame and fortune go to Rusty's head? Or will she go with her heart and choose to stay with charming, boyish Danny and her Brooklyn friends and roots?

The rags to riches storyline, and the romantic choice between poor but dashing young man and older rich but boring man, have been done before. There's nothing much new to the story, and the ending felt pretty predictable. But it's still fun getting there, and I must give some props to the writers for the clever interweaving of the stories of Rusty and her grandmother.

Hayworth and Kelly

Of course, you don't watch a movie like this for the story. You watch it for its Technicolor brilliance and the way it evokes an era (and yes, an era of rather escapist and sentimental entertainment). You watch it for the romantic moments between the leads. The top romantic moment is definitely the musical number "Long Ago and Far Away." Jerome Kern's music and Ira Gershwin's lyrics are tender and poignant when delivered by the love-struck Kelly and Hayworth. Most of the songs within the film are wonderful Kern/Gershwin collaborations.

I was impressed with Hayworth's musical abilities, both as dancer and singer. I had always just thought of her as a glamorous startlet, known for her lovely face and figure (and that bright red hair...which by the way was not her real color!). It turns out her voice was dubbed, but her talent as an actress and dancer still shines through in every frame. The fact that she more than holds her own in dance sequences with Kelly is saying something.

The dance numbers in Cover Girl are not Kelly's best-known, but they're definitely worth watching. Fans of the later Kelly's work, especially 1952's Singin' in the Rain, will be reminded of that yet-to-come film when they see the dancing sequences by Kelly, Hayworth and Silvers (harbingers of Kelly, Reynolds and O'Connor) performed on the set of a wide-open street that looks like it could be just around the corner from the stage set where Kelly danced in the rain eight years later. (It probably wasn't, since this was a Columbia set, not an MGM one, but you know what I mean!) Kelly utilized porch steps and curbs in the exuberant "Make Way for Tomorrow" number and its reprise.

Best of all, Kelly fans will get to see his remarkable "Altar-Ego" dance. This comes mid-way or a bit later through the film, after Rusty has become a famous cover girl. Danny is walking home (yes, down another street) and wrestling inwardly with whether or not he can or should "let her go." He loves her so much that he doesn't want to hold her back if she really wants to leave. He begins to argue with his own fast-talking reflection in a plate glass storefront window. As their discussion grows more heated, Danny's reflection actually jumps out of the glass and lands on the sidewalk next to him. The two "characters" dance their way down the street in an amazing, energetic duet that visually underlines the frustration Danny is feeling and the fight that's going on inside him. Besides being an amazing dance, full of Kelly's energy and power, the number is a technical tour de force. Kelly and his creative partner Stanley Donen worked out all the technical details of synchronizing Kelly's two dances, so that the shadowy, see-through reflection and the man himself could dance a perfectly timed duet. If you're a Kelly fan, the entire movie is worth watching just to get to that scene.

But the rest of the ride is fun too, even if the stretched thin plot can make its 107 minutes feel a tad overlong. And if, like me, you've never seen a Rita Hayworth film, Cover Girl is probably as good a place as any to start. Along with glamour and romance, she and Kelly make this colorful, fluffy film a treat to watch.

~befus, 2007

Other Kelly films to enjoy:

On the Town (1949)
Take Me Out to the Ballgame(1949)

Gene Kelly: Anatomy of a Dancer (a documentary about his life and dance career)



Recommended: Yes

Viewing Format: DVD