Cover Girl

source: Cover Girl

Except for a couple of spritely dance numbers and the lovely song "Long Ago and Far Away," which became a big hit for Helen Forrest and Dick Haymes,this one is contrived and unconvincing even for a 'boy loses girl' musical. The distance between Brooklyn and Broadway may be emotional and psychological, but it's still only a long subway ride. The characters don't seem to grasp that much. I always had a problem with Kelly's voice, which was not up to the songs he was given. Astaire realized that he was "no singer," but he put the songs over -- "Night and Day," "The Way You Look Tonight," "Let's Face the Music and Dance," etc. And it's Martha Mears singing for Rita this time, not Nan Wynn. The most ludicrous scene in this one is Kelly and Silvers entertaining the troops as they ride along in a truck. Radically unconvincing. The 1948 film "Easter Parade" stole the cover girl concept and did wonderful things with it, projecting it back to a pre WWI era accompanied by Irving Berlin's wonderful "Girl on the Magazine Cover." "Cover Girl" has about 8-10 minutes of really wonderful dance and music, but the rest of the film is dull.

Like 'Singin' in the Rain', 'Cover Girl' has a trio of two guys and a girl. In 'Cover Girl', Phil Silvers (Genius) is the comic relief. He corresponds to Donald O'Connor's funny man part in 'Singin in the Rain'. In Cover Girl, Gene Kelly's love interest is Rita Hayworth and in 'Rain', it's Debbie Reynolds. That's where the comparison ends. Whereas "Singin' in the Rain' is a classic American movie musical, 'Cover Girl' is mediocrity incarnate. The story isn't very complicated. Rusty Parker (Rita Hayworth) is a dancer in Danny MacGuire's low-rent nightclub in Brooklyn. Rusty decides to enter a Cover Girl contest sponsored by a wealthy publisher, John Coudair, who made an unsuccessful play for Rusty's grandmother years ago. Coudair introduces Rusty to Broadway producer Noel Wheaton who makes her into a star. Danny feels slighted when Rusty starts showing up late for rehearsals at the nightclub and decides to close the club down and go on the road entertaining the troops along with his sidekick, Genius. At the last minute, with Rusty at the altar with Noel, she realizes the error of her ways and runs back to Danny. They live happily ever after. Gene Kelly has the least developed part in the movie. All we find out about him is that he owns a nightclub and is madly in love with Rusty. Coudair and Wheaton act like besotted teenagers toward Rusty and Phil Silvers delivers some thoroughly goofy but unfunny shtick. The most interesting aspect of Rita Hayworth's performance is the scene in which she gets drunk. This foreshadows what happened to her in real life. Anyone who has read her biography will learn that she disliked Hollywood, pined away for a normal home life which she could never attain but eventually began drinking and ended up with full-blown Alzheimer's during the last years of her life. Almost all of the songs in Cover Girl are old-fashioned and not very tuneful. Gene Kelly has only one really excellent dance number and that's the scene where he dances with his 'alter ego'. Earlier, the trio has another number which is a pale precursor of 'Make em Laugh' from 'Singin' in the Rain'. The most annoying thing about 'Cover Girl' is the way in which Rita Hayworth is put up on a pedestal. A couple of decades later, Raquel Welch had the same problem. Both actresses later in their careers would always try and find scripts that showcased their acting abilities. They wanted to be known as 'actresses' and not 'pinup girls'. Unfortunately, 'Cover Girl' is an example of how Hollywood used to exploit women for financial gain.

I know it has Gene Kelly in it. I know it has Rita Hayworth in it. I know Phil Silvers provides comic relief and Jerome Kern wrote the songs and Ira Gershwin wrote the lyrics, but I've tried several times to get my appreciative apparatus wrapped around this movie and can't do it. Kern has provided a terrific, soaring tune, "Long Ago and Far Away," which doesn't involve a dance, and the others are without distinction. I mean, the guy composed like nobody else. For "Roberta" he wrote, among other tunes, "Dearly Beloved" and "I'm Old Fashioned", icons in the Great American Songbook. Except for "Long Ago and Far Away," there's nothing like that here. Gene Kelly oozes an easy-going charm but his athletic dancing here still looks like it came out of vaudeville, his arms held out at an awkward angle. He would improve quantumly over the next few years. Rita Hayworth is gorgeous but is stuck in a corny part in a corny plot. Corniness, in the sense of reflecting old-fashioned values, isn't bad per se. I don't think there's anything more juvenile than the story behind "On The Town." But the book means a lot. If the story behind the numbers isn't engaging, it's difficult for the numbers to succeed. Not "impossible" -- look at Fred and Ginger's best -- but difficult. Unquestionably, one of the reasons for the evidently undying popularity of "Singin' In The Rain" is that it's funny as hell, quite aside from the numbers themselves -- which are also light-hearted and well integrated into the plot. "Singin' In The Rain" makes a viewer feel HAPPY in a way that this film simply doesn't. Who wants to see unhappy singers and dancers? I'll tell you who wants to watch unhappy musicals. Opera fans, that's who! There's not a somber moment in "Singin' In The Rain", no serious conflict at all. The more somber a musical film gets, the less entertaining it is. "An American in Paris" was much more ambitious but memorable mostly for its expensive sets. Then there is the dismal "It's Always Fair Weather." I'd like to recommend this because nobody is better at projecting a kind of flamboyant joy than Gene Kelly. That smile belongs in a toothpaste commercial. But, really, "Cover Girl" isn't much more than routine.

A good story about Rusty Parker (Rita Hayworth) who dreams of being on broadway which means she would have to leave the small dinner theater where she works with Danny (Gene Kelly) and Genius (Phil Silvers). Rusty is in love with Danny. All three are good friends and every Friday night they go to a local bar where they get oysters so they can look for a pearl (they never eat them). The story line provides numerous opportunities for songs and dancing. The movie has two questions that Rusty must answer: Is fame all that it is cracked up to be? and Is less really more if you are happy? Answering those questions makes the movie. The movie also does a good job of showcasing the talents that all three principals had. Never a dull moment!

Good things about "Cover Girl" - Gene Kelly dancing with his own reflection; the luminous Rita Hayworth; the street dance; "Long Ago and Far Away", the cover girls sequence. Bad things - "Poor John", an unbelievable by-plot about Hayworth's grandmother, and perhaps too much Phil Silvers. But when it is good, it certainly is good. I'd say it passes the time but nothing too mind-boggling in musical terms (although for Columbia it was probably one of the studio's peaks in the genre).

"Cover Girl" is the best musical Rita Hayworth ever made. Ms. Hayworth will always be remembered for "Gilda", however, the next movie would be "Cover Girl". The story is great. It is about a dancer who wants to be a cover girl and makes it big in show business. She does it without the help of her talented dancer/director boyfriend (Gene Kelly). Mr. Kelly is given the chance to choreograph the musical numbers. The dances are spectacular. It is fun to see Phil Silvers, a comic, do the musical numbers with Ms. Hayworth and Mr. Kelly. The supporting cast is perfect. Lee Bowman is given a chance to be an interesting third wheel, the other boyfriend.

Cover Girl's importance lies not in its originality as a book (it's a standard backstage Cinderella story), as much as it does in what happened to each of its stars. Gene Kelly was "loaned out" to do it when MGM boss L.B. Mayer didn't have much use for him at his own studio. His performance in this film, coupled with the ground-breaking 'Alter Ego' dance solo (duo?) was so successful that it made MGM take him seriously at last (he was never loaned out again) and allowed him to flourish with the soon-to-come hits of "Anchors Aweigh," "On The Town," and "An American In Paris." Likewise for Rita Hayworth; Columbia had been grooming her for years, but she had done mostly B-level films. CG showed her off as a lead in glorious Technicolor, and paved the way for GILDA, her signature (and much more adult) role. Here she and Kelly make a sweet couple, and dance well in "Put Me To The Test" and the fresh, energetic "Make Way For Tomorrow." They are at their most poignant in "Long Ago And Far Away," but the number (played on piano by Phil Silvers and sung as they both stack up nightclub chairs) seems to beg for a dance number, then doesn't have one. Another good number is the title tune, which pays tribute to the famous American magazines/cover girl models of the day. Hayworth appears as the last model, running down a curved runway in a gold dress with her flaming mane flying behind her. A dream in Technicolor!!

This is a very enjoyable, fluffy, glamorous musical from the 40's. 'Cover Girl' made Rita Hayworth (formerly the dark-haired Latin senorita Margarita Cansino) into a bona-fide, all-American star. It confirmed Gene Kelly's amazing talent as a dancer, singer, actor and choreographer. It epitomises the exuberance and colour of the musical genre. Rita Hayworth is great as Rusty Parker- it is her picture, and her presence is always at the forefront. Her singing is dubbed, but her dancing is absolutely brilliant and she combines very well with Kelly. I think that Rita was highly underrated as an actress- she plays every scene superbly here. Gene choreographed the dance sequences (he was basically given almost complete creative freedom here), and his 'Alter Ego' dance number is amazing. Such artistry. The stand-out tunes are 'Make Way For Tomorrow', 'Put Me To The Test', and, of course, 'Long Ago and Far Away'. The plot is rather thin, yet it does have a moral. It's about the perils of quick fame and fast money, and how any happiness with only these factors will ultimately be doomed. This will cheer you up, lift you up to your feet and make you laugh. That said, 'Cover Girl' is not the greatest musical ever produced- it has a number of flaws that must be addressed. One can say that a little bit of Phil Silvers goes a long way. His character gets tedious rather quickly. However, I was impressed with his dancing ability and how he was able to keep up with Gene and Rita. Another major problem is that too many songs are just not that great. The 'Cover Girl' number looks fantastic, but I'm not a fan of the lyrics or the singing. 'Poor Tom' is a huge downer. I think it's one of the worst numbers I've heard in a 40's-50's musical yet. It stinks. The grandmother sub-plot borders on being ridiculous. But that's only my opinion. Others may like these elements. Still, apart from it's faults it's a very, very good film, much better than most of the product churned out today. The dancing and singing is sublime, the production values are excellent, and it's mood is infectious. 8/10.

... Rita Hayworth made two movies with Fred Astaire and one with the poor man's Astaire, Gene Kelly. Astaire brought out the best of her, as he tended to do with any dancing partner whilst Kelly is unable to do anything to enhance her own natural talents but then we ARE talking about a thoroughbred (Astaire) and a carthorse (Kelly). Jerry Kern wrote one of his greatest ballads (The Way You Look Tonight) for an Astaire vehicle and another good one (Long Ago And Far Away) for a movie featuring Kelly - he also weighed in with I'm Old Fashioned and Dearly Beloved for BOTH Astaire and Hayworth so perhaps we should leave it at that. The plot on offer here is the usual hack-writer fantasy and needn't detain us but we do get a bonus in the shape(s) of Eve Arden and Phil Silvers (who teamed with Kelly again in Summer Stock) with Arden's trademark acid-drops adding much-needed brownie points to the story. Ira Gershwin was on hand to supply the lyrics and overall the score is up to snuff - with the exception of the execrable Poor John - yielding such gems as Make Way For Tomorrow and the strangely neglected Sure Thing. Not quite in the Astaire class but then what is.