Wartime escapism in movie

Rita Hayworth stars in <i>Cover Girl</i>, Whanganui Film Society's Monday screening. PICTURE / SUPPLIED

Whanganui Film Society's Monday screening is a recent restoration of the 1944 technicolour musical Cover Girl, directed by Charles Vidor and starring Rita Hayworth and Gene Kelly.

Cover Girl
Monday, August 6, 7pm
Davis Theatre, Whanganui Regional Museum
Charles Vidor • USA • 1944 • 107 mins • PG

Charles Vidor's technicolor musical is laced with wartime escapism. Rita Hayworth stars as a bombshell nightclub dancer who wins a modelling contest and becomes the ultimate "cover girl". Also starring Gene Kelly.

REVIEWS
"Rita Hayworth's bewitching Brooklyn nightclub dancer Rusty finds Broadway and a wealthy husband within her grasp when she wins a modelling contest and becomes the in-demand 'cover girl' of the title. The humble pleasures holding her back are Gene Kelly, as Danny the nightclub manager and her devoted paramour, and comedian chum Genius, played by Phil Silvers. The glamour provided by the handsome leads, the wish-fulfilment plot and the gorgeous climatic number are there to add sparkle to the movie's old-fashioned message about the value of friendship and hard work."
— Pamela Hutchinson, Sight & Sound.

"Offers plenty of style: Gene Kelly dances up a dream, Rita Hayworth is elegance incarnate, the Jerome Kern/Ira Gershwin score including the marvellous Long Ago and Far Away — is tuneful throughout, and the whole thing, especially the comic stuff from Phil Silvers and Eve Arden, is executed with considerable brio. And Rudolph Maté's Technicolor photography is faultless."
— Time Out

Cover Girl launches the second half year of the Film Society's 2018 programme. Half-Year memberships are available for $50 for the remaining 14 films. Three-film samplers are available for $25 and can be upgraded. The society also offers a flexible payment option: contact whanganuifilmsociety@gmail.com or ask at the venue for details.