Cover Girl

A boy-girl love story with lots of wonderfully garish colour and some good dance numbers, no doubt thanks to the presence of Gene Kelly, whose choreographic influence (he worked with Stanley Donen here) is most notable in the numbers "Alter Ego" and "Make Way For Tomorrow" which looks forward to the "outdoor" staging that would become commonplace in the 1950s, notably with Kelly/Donen-directed On The Town.

Cover Girl is not one of the great stage or film musicals but the Jerome Kern-Ira Gershwin penned score has solid songs (the song "Long Ago And Far Away" won the year's Oscar for Best Song), the set and costume design is high calibre and Rita Hayworth (her voiced dubbed by Nan Wyn) is herself sufficient reason to watch it. Gene Kelly delivers as the song and dance man, Phil Silvers as "Genius" is thoroughly annoying in the obligatory sidekick role and Eve Arden plays her usual tough cookie character.

The film was marked the beginning of Hayworth's season in the sun with Vidor taking her to the height of career two years later with Gilda.

 

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