Sadly Over-hyped

Good concept, poorly executed.

Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

Columbia pictures tried for the first time in COVER GIRL to make a high budget film. Many inventions pave the way for future movies. One is the flashback as several scenes set forty years before the action. One is an out of character choreographed sequence when Gene Kelly dances with his alter ego his own choreography. One is a hodge podge of themes as the comedy routines of Stanley Donen, Phil Silvers and Gene Kelly alternating with Rita Hayworth's brilliant portrayal of a poor girl reaching for her dreams at the expenses of giving up her happiness. The harsh color pallet of the forties and the less brilliant panning shots of the choreographed sequences are the reasons I do not rank this academy award winning box office smash higher.

Never mind the studio with more stars than there are in heaven, this war-time musical has more colours than there are in a rainbow. "Cover Girl" really is a feast for the eyes and one can imagine it cheering up cinema-goers of the day and taking their minds off events overseas.The plot is a little silly as it tends to be in so many musicals I guess as lovely show-girl Rita Hayworth finds herself torn between true love for a jobbing choreographer (Gene Kelly obviously) and an ardent suitor who's a rich theatre-owner, in almost exactly the same dilemma as her identical grandmother forty years ago. Her present-day pursuer is coincidentally sponsored, if that's the right word, by an even richer publishing magnate on the search for the face of the year to emblazon on his magazine's cover, who wouldn't you know it was the spurned lover all those years ago. The latter scenario gives Hayworth the opportunity to dress up in turn-of-the-century costumes and sing (albeit her vocals are obviously dubbed) more old-fashioned Vaudevillian numbers. The outcome in both time-frames naturally is never in doubt.Employing the familiar device of a pair of love-birds (Kelly and Hayworth) and their tag-along pal, on this occasion a slightly camp Phil Silvers of all people, the film is undemanding entertainment, if not, in my opinion, of the very best of its type. The songs I'm not totally familiar with and sound to my ears pleasant if not outstanding. Charles Vidor directs solidly and occasionally stolidly, the camera staying fairly static throughout especially for the tiresome cavalcade of contemporary popular woman's magazine covers and Hayworth's ancestor's hackneyed routines of yesterday, including the worst attempt at a Cockney accent until Dick Van Dyck in "Mary Poppins".The best sequence is undoubtedly when Kelly dances with his own bad self in a routine reminiscent of similar trick-devices employed by the great Astaire. Hayworth however holds her own in her own numbers and photographs beautifully in glorious colour. Neither has to overstretch themselves in the straight-acting stakes and it's probably fair to say they don't try too hard anyway, but one can still easily imagine this light and bright movie cheering up war-time audiences back in the day.

What is essentially a very simple story ends up becoming a musical classic in this Columbia musical from the days of World War II that had soldiers clamoring for Rita Hayworth photos and home front movie audiences standing in line for hours to see. Even if she had never played Gilda, Hayworth would have entered screen immortality for the magnetism she possesses in this movie, in addition to the two films she had earlier starred with opposite Fred Astaire.While Rita had been seen on screen in color before ("Blood and Sand", "My Gal Sal"), Technicolor really falls in love with her in this outstanding musical. She plays a modeling hopeful who goes to the top of her profession after becoming a successful musical star, and ends up engaged to a stuffy heir (Lee Bowman) to a fortune. In denial that she's really in love with hoofer Gene Kelly, Hayworth prepares for a life of boredom while deep down inside, she's anxious to dance again down the street with him and his low-class friend (an amusing Phil Silvers) and "Make Way for Tomorrow".With Jerome Kern's former lyric writing partner Oscar Hammerstein II now busy with Richard Rodgers and Ira Gershwin's music writing brother George deceased, the two joined forces to write an original music score that has been called one of the best original song scores written for the screen. Hayworth, as usual, is dubbed, and performs an ancient musical hall song (complete with a dress covered in huge polka dots) bemoaning the fate of a heroine whose potential mother-in-law openly disapproves of her, and dances joyously with Kelly and Silvers to the optimistic "Make Way For Tomorrow", then flings herself down a curvy run-way to the magnificent "Long Ago and Far Away". Kelly gets some neat special effects, dancing with a transparent version of himself, in "Alter Ego Dance".Another highlight is the fashion show "Cover Girl" number which resembles "Easter Parade's" "The Girl I Love is on a Magazine Cover" and "Beautiful Girls" from "Singin' in the Rain" featuring live girls either on calendars or magazine covers. In fantastic support are Eve Arden as the sardonic magazine executive secretary who becomes Rita's confidante, Leslie Brooks as Rita's chorus girl chum, and Otto Kruger as a father figure in Rita's life. In short, this is a movie about Rita, aka Rusty, aka Maribelle. There's also a delightful cameo by Jack Norton, the tea-totaler actor who plays a drunk delightfully joining in Gene, Phil and Rita's big number together.This is a musical and visual delight from start to finish, probably Columbia's most popular film of the 1940's along with "The Jolson Story" and one of the factors that moved the studio from the "B's" to the "A's".

My title(taken from a song made popular by a young Sinatra), refers to the choice Rusty(Rita) has as she walks down the aisle, still really undecided whether to marry young, handsome, but bland,5th Ave. theater owner Noel Wheaton and star in his shows, or to marry young, handsome, flashy, Danny McGuire(Kelly), and return to starring in his modest Brooklyn dinner plus show restaurant.She knows if she turns down Wheaton at the alter, she can forget about continuing to perform in his theater. She will have to go back to Danny, who will only be too glad to have her back.It's old Mr. John Coudair, owner of Vanity magazine, also her current employer, who once wooed and lost her dancer grandmother, who sways her opinion, telling her why her grandmother rejected his overtures.Well, you can guess what she does, at the last second.She explains her decision in front of all, and runs to Danny's place, where she finds Danny encoring 'their song':the memorable "Long Ago and Far Away" to himself, with just his friend 'Genius'(Silvers) present. She joins in the song, setting the stage for the joyous exit scene: an encore of the threesome's previous street romp to "Make Way for Tomorrow", reminding us somewhat of the "We're Off to See the Wizard" romp of Dorthy and friends down the yellow brick road. The theme of this film is the same as that of "The Wizard of Oz": Home is where the heart is, and you risk a life of eventual unhappiness if you stray too far.Like her grandmother, she decided she would likely feel out of place, and looked down upon by too many of Wheaton's relations and friends, as a former lower class Brooklyn show girl. As many other reviewers point out, there are also certain antecedent connections between this film and the later, much more praised, "Singing in the Rain". The several street dances, either by Kelly himself, or with his 2 friends, have some obvious similarities to to Kelly's famous "Singing in the Rain" street dance. However, none of them are an exact functional equivalent. Functionally, Kelly's famous "Alter Ego" street dance with his own ghostly image much more resembles his pantomime ballet in "On the Town", in which he expresses his frustration in the unexplained disappearance of his new found love: Miss Turnstiles.In "Alter Ego", Danny is expressing his frustration and mixed feelings about Rusty's apparent move to Wheaton's theater. In contrast, in "Singing in the Rain", Kelly is expressing his joy in a new found love. In this respect, that performance was functionally analogous to his later 'roller skating' routine in "It's Always Fair Weather" and to his solo "It's Almost Like Being in Love" ballet in Brigadoon. Functionally, the 2 episodes of the threesome performing "Make Way for Tomorrow" more resemble that of "Singing in the Rain", but even more closely resemble the "Good Morning" threesome episode in the latter film.Just as there were a couple of Kelly-O'Connor comedic dance skits in "Singing in the Rain", there is a Kelly-Silvers comedic song and dance in a moving army truck. True, Silvers didn't have near O'Connor's dancing skills, being primarily a comedian, but it was enough to get by. Silvers and Kelly would be reteamed 6 years later as a sometimes comedic pair, in "Summer Stock". In place of "O'Connor's classic "Make Em Laugh" acrobatic dance comedy, Silvers does a traditional comedic skit with several chorus girls, including Rita, to the tune of "Whose Complaining", which deals with the then current rationing of many supplies during WWII.Let's talk about Rita. Unfortunately,this is her only musical I have seen. She already had done two with Astaire. She plays 2 roles: that of Rusty of the present, and of her look-alike grandmother, Maribelle, in a couple of flashbacks. We first see her as part of a forgettable chorus girl act at Danny's. Later, she does 2 show numbers as Maribelle. The first has her in a horserace scene, singing the catchy "Sure Thing", in which she compares betting on horses with betting on her romantic connections. The second has her singing and dancing, sometimes with a male chorus, "Poor John", in reference to the romantic advances of a young John Coudair, who is in the audience. Her outfit and those of the men are strikingly colored in contrasts.As Rusty, she takes part in the "Make Way for Tomorrow " threesome street dances, and dances with Kelly in the Kelly-dominated "Put Me to the Test" show number. This is her most challenging number, and is followed by her romantic duet with Kelly: "Long Ago and Far Away". As part of her discovery of Wheaton's theater, she does a brief dance with her classic flowing wardrobe. She gets a similar chance in her unique number, to the tune of "Cover Girl", in which she emerges from a cloud in a long golden flowing dress, to run down a long winding ramp, to dance with a bevy of men, before disappearing again up the ramp. This is the Rita we will most remember from this film. It would have made a fitting ending for the film, but that would have left her relationships with Danny and Wheaton unresolved. In summary, you may agree with many who see this as a 'poor man's "Singing in the Rain". But, if you have some liking for Rita and Gene, and are not put off by Silver's or Eve Arden's brand of comedy, I think you will find this is a generally entertaining, if more traditional, musical, from an earlier era, and a non-MGM studio.