Rusty Parker is a striking chorus girl who works at a Brooklyn nightclub run by her boyfriend, Danny McGuire. When a fellow showgirl enters a contest run by Vanity magazine to find a new cover face, Rusty decides to try as well, and an editor at the publication takes an immediate interest in her. Her sudden fame leads her to Broadway under the guidance of a theatre impresario, and the distance from Danny tests a relationship both of them still value. The story alternates romantic drama with a series of musical numbers.

How it was made

Cover Girl was conceived as an escapist musical for American audiences during the Second World War. Rita Hayworth, who had already danced opposite Fred Astaire in two earlier musicals, led the cast, though her singing voice was dubbed by Martha Mears. Gene Kelly was borrowed from MGM and was given unusually broad creative control, allowing him to devise the choreography with Stanley Donen. Among his ideas were a number on a street built by removing soundstage walls and another in which he dances with his own reflection, achieved through superimposition. It was Columbia's first Technicolor musical, and its songs by Jerome Kern and Ira Gershwin marked the pair's first film collaboration.

Reception and legacy

The film was a box-office hit that made stars of both Hayworth and Kelly. It won the Academy Award for Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture, credited to Carmen Dragon and Morris Stoloff, and earned several further nominations, including cinematography in colour, art direction, sound and the song « Long Ago (and Far Away) ». Its success persuaded MGM to give Kelly more say over his work, and he was soon allowed to create his own dance numbers for Anchors Aweigh (1945). The song was also ranked 92nd on the American Film Institute's 2004 list of 100 Years...100 Songs.

Stills

Trailer

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Trivia

A dance with his reflection

In « Alter-Ego Dance », Kelly dances with a version of himself created through trick photography. The double is superimposed with a ghostlike quality.

A street inside a studio

Kelly had several soundstage walls removed so that he, Hayworth and Silvers could dance along an entire street in a single take.

Columbia's first Technicolor musical

It was Columbia's first musical shot in Technicolor and marked songwriter Arthur Schwartz's first venture into producing.

More films by Charles Vidor

Gilda1946

A Farewell to Arms1957

Love Me or Leave Me1955

A Song to Remember1945

Song Without End1960

Hans Christian Andersen1952

Original Cinematopedia text based on Wikipedia (es) and Wikipedia (en) and Wikidata.