A Musical June: Cover Girl (1944)

This month, we turn to a trio of musicals from the Golden Age of Hollywood, notable and seldom seen.

RODNEY BOWCOCK:  Cover Girl is a splashy 1944 musical of the sort that even those not overly familiar with the Golden Age of Hollywood associate with this time period.  It tells the story of Rusty (Rita Hayworth) a chorus girl at a Brooklyn nightclub owned and managed by her boyfriend Danny (Gene Kelly).  Rusty gets a big break with Vanity magazine due to her beauty and resemblance to her grandmother who the editor, John Coudair (Otto Kruger) had been smitten with and nearly married to decades earlier.  Rusty adjusts well to her newfound fame but Danny struggles with fears that she will move on from him.  His jealousy does cause her to move on, but in time, as happens in this kind of film, they wind up in each other’s arms at the end.  It’s not really a spoiler, as we know everything will work out in the end as soon as the opening credits are finished spooling by.

SAMANTHA GLASSER:  When magazine publisher Otto Kruger spots her, he is completely taken. She is the spitting image of her grandmother, a vaudeville actress with whom he was infatuated. At first, we are led to believe it was admiration from afar, but it turns out they had a full-blown relationship and they almost got married. I quite liked the flashback scenes, but some critics complained that they were unnecessary.

RB:  Well, I am kind of in two camps with the flashback scenes.  While I did enjoy them, I can also recognize why some would feel that they padded out a picture that already had nine music numbers that didn’t always go over in spite of the top notch collaboration of Jerome Kern and Ira Gershwin.

SG:  This is a musical with many forgettable songs. Part of this has to do with the flashback scenes where the songs tell a story more than they impart a melody, like “Poor John.” “Long Ago and Far Away” is the exception, a romantic tune you can hum under your breath while doing housework long after the film is over. It is used abundantly in the latter part of the film. “Make Way For Tomorrow” isn’t an earworm, but the dance number pops on the screen, a testament to Gene Kelly’s skill as a choreographer, because Phil Silvers wasn’t a dancer. The success of this film gave him permission to plan all of his musical numbers in his next film without interference, which resulted in his dance with Jerry Mouse in Anchors Aweigh.

RB:  Kelly had almost exclusive control over the film, which surely is part of why the film works as well as it did.  This was Columbia’s first technicolor musical so it kind of makes sense that the notoriously, ahem, frugal Harry Cohn may have been concerned about the risk.

SG:  Columbia borrowed Kelly from MGM for this film, giving up the rights to Best Foot Forward in exchange. Cohn, a notoriously gruff figure, asked Kelly to explain many of his choices for the film, especially the alter ego dance number, which he didn’t understand but let him take a chance on. When the movie made a pot of money, he was happy and spent years trying to borrow Kelly from MGM again, to no avail.

RB:  The success of this film arguably is what caused MGM to pay more attention to Kelly.  Columbia for years wanted to borrow him to do a film adaptation of Pal Joey, pairing him with Hayworth again, but MGM wasn’t about to let him go.  The film was eventually made with Frank Sinatra.

SG:  Hayworth’s character is one of the boys, which made me like her quite a bit. The other girls are jealous of her beauty and talent, but she can play baggy pants comedy just as well, and she isn’t afraid to roll up her sleeves and shuck oysters in search of pearls. There is a scene where she wears an auburn ribbon in her hair that blends with the red color perfectly. Her beauty lends itself well to the ultra-feminine early 1900s styles.

RB:  I’m increasingly convinced that there was very little that Rita Hayworth couldn’t pull off in her peak.  She’s a sex symbol, no doubt about that.  But in addition to the seductiveness, she also has deft comic timing and general likability.  That shines through in her performance here.

SG:  Hayworth was dating Orson Welles when shooting began, and they were working together informally in his Mercury Wonder Show, a magic show extravaganza. He wanted to hire her permanently, but Cohn stepped in and forbade her from working on it because he wanted 100% of her energy going toward Cover Girl. She consulted a lawyer, who confirmed he had the power to make such demands. Welles hired Marlene Dietrich instead, and the conflict brought him closer with Hayworth. To pacify her insecurity he proposed, and they eloped one afternoon during shooting to the astonishment of the crew.

RB:  It really wasn’t a particularly shocking pairing at the time, as Welles was very much a wonderkid in Hollywood and Hayworth was quickly becoming a top star and had already become one of the top two pinup girls during the war.  It was not a happy marriage, one rife with complications.  Welles still directed Hayworth in The Lady From Shanghai, one more stellar performance from the Hayworth catalog.

SG:  The character actors give the movie extra strength. Glamorous, no-nonsense Eve Arden supplies commentary over the antics of the girls hoping to be the next cover model. Ed Brophy slings oysters and alcohol at the local watering hole, interfering with the goings-on of the couples. Phil Silvers entertains through his character’s comedic incompetence, never quite making the grade but always trying.

RB:  Did you spot Billy Benedict walk through one scene carrying a box?  It was quick but it happened!

SG:  Eve Arden remembered suggesting a comic scene in which her character attempts to hit a billiard ball in her boss’s study, but having never played before, scratches the cover and shamefully and slowly backs away. Director Charles Vidor liked the idea and had props deliver a false green cover for the table. That was the day studio head Harry Cohn came to set, he raged when he saw her destroying an expensive piece of furniture before Vidor hurriedly assured him everything was okay.

Silvers remembered another tense studio visit when songwriter Jerome Kern visited on the day that Kelly was to sing “Long Ago and Far Away” for him. Everyone held their breath to witness his reaction, and he loved it and asked for an encore.

RB:  Phil Silvers and Eve Arden are always lots of fun and I really enjoyed them in this film as well.  Silvers pretty much reprises his role in every musical he’s in regardless of the studio, even down to his frequent “Gladdaseeya” catch phrase, which always makes me smile.

SG:  The Film Daily called Cover Girl, “a lush and vivid musical extravaganza in Technicolor that carries considerable weight as popular entertainment.”

 Sherwin Kane of Motion Picture Daily wrote, “And then there is a story. Not a heavyweight one, lumbering around and getting in the way of high-priced singing and dancing talent, but a nice, fluffy little yarn…”

RB:  The neighborhood theaters were split.  “I have never seen an audience enjoy a picture throughout as well as my audience enjoyed this one”. – WH Swan Auditorium Theatre, Roscoe SD

“Proved to be a very good draw but it certainly was not a super-duper.  In my opinion Columbia is in a rut and insists on staying there” – Leonard J Leise Rand Theatre Randolph NE

And my personal favorite…..

“Poor story and a lot of skinny legged chorus girls.  Color helped it out some”. – FR Crist Crist Theatre Loveland OH

SG:  Cover Girl is pleasant escapism with an excellent cast. Four stars.

RB:  This is not the sort of film that typically draws me in, and while I did not think it was a perfect film, padded with generally forgettable songs,  I found plenty to enjoy.  Three and a half stars.