Cover Girl (film)

Plot

Rusty (Rita Hayworth), a chorus girl working at a nightclub run by her boyfriend Danny McGuire (Gene Kelly), is given a chance for stardom by the wealthy magazine editor John Coudair (Otto Kruger), who years earlier had been in love with her grandmother, Maribelle Hicks. Offered an opportunity to be a highly paid cover girl, Rusty would faithfully remain with her nightclub act if only Danny would ask her. He doesn't want to stand in her way, so he picks an argument to send her packing. Rusty becomes a star on Broadway after appearing in a musical produced by Coudair's wealthy friend, Noel Wheaton (Lee Bowman), and decides to get married to Wheaton. At the last second she leaves the wedding and reunites with Danny.

Cast

Cast notes

Musical numbers

Cover Girl marked the first film collaboration of Jerome Kern and Ira Gershwin.

Production

Columbia Pictures originally wanted to use Warner Bros. star Dennis Morgan for Cover Girl, but when Kelly's project at MGM, Dragon Seed, was postponed, MGM extended their loan of Kelly to Columbia, allowing this film to be made with him. Columbia's production head, Harry Cohn, was initially opposed to having Kelly do the film, but producer Schwartz nevertheless obtained him, promising Kelly that he would be able to choreograph, which MGM had not allowed him to do.

Columbia gave Kelly almost complete control over the making of this film, and many of his ideas contributed to its lasting success. He removed several of the soundstage walls so that he, Hayworth, and Silvers could dance along an entire street in one take. He also used trick photography so that he could dance with his own reflection in the sequence "Alter-Ego Dance", achieved using superimposition to give his "double" a ghost-like quality. Kelly, along with Stanley Donen, devised his own choreography. Film historians consider Cover Girl the point where Kelly hit his stride in a musical role that foreshadowed the best of his future work.

The film was Hayworth's fourth musical: the first two she had done opposite Fred Astaire. Hayworth's singing voice was dubbed by Martha Mears.

Cover Girl was Columbia's first Technicolor musical, and songwriter Arthur Schwartz's first venture into producing. The film was a big hit, and made stars out of both Hayworth and Kelly. The success of Cover Girl caused MGM to pay closer attention to Kelly as a viable property, and they allowed him to create his own dance numbers for his next film, Anchors Aweigh (1945), also starring Frank Sinatra. Columbia bought the film rights to Pal Joey, which Kelly had done on Broadway, hoping to pair up Kelly and Hayworth again, but MGM refused to loan him out, and instead the film was made with Sinatra playing the lead.

Awards and honors

The film won the 1944 Academy Award for best musical scoring. It was also nominated for four other awards; Best Art Direction (Lionel Banks, Cary Odell, Fay Babcock), Best Cinematography, Best Original Song for "Long Ago (and Far Away)" and Best Sound, Recording (John Livadary).

The film is recognized by American Film Institute in these lists: