Cover Girl

1944 / USA / 107 min. / B&W

Director: Charles Vidor

Rita Hayworth, Gene Kelly, Phil Silvers, Otto Kruger

Rusty (Hayworth) and Maurine are chorus girls at the nightclub owned by Rusty’s boyfriend Danny (Kelly). Both enter a contest to be on the cover of Vanity magazine. After she fails to impress, Maurine makes sure Rusty will do no better. Nonetheless, John Coudair, the editor,  then decides to check Maurine out at the nightclub, but can’t keep his eyes off Rusty. As for the music – it includes some great catchy songs by Jerome Kern with lyrics by Ira Gershwin. And who knew Phil Silvers could sing and dance so well? Not quite up to Gene Kelly’s standards, of course, both owe a lot of their future success to Cover Girl. Hayworth was, of course, established having already worked twice with Fred Astaire.