You Were Never Lovelier

Columbia Pictures, 1942
Starring Rita Hayworth, Fred Astaire, Adolph Menjou, and Isobel Elsom
Directed by William A. Seiter
Music by Jerome Kern; Lyrics by Johnny Mercer

We're taking a trip down to South America today in honor of Cinco Del Mayo for the second of two movies to pair Fred Astaire and Rita Hayworth. This romantic comedy with music was based after a popular Argentine comedy; it wound up being a huge hit over here as well, including three Oscar nominations. How does the story of a dancer who finds himself tangled with an Argentinian beauty and her family look now? Let's start at the race tracks in Buenos Aires and find out...

The Story: In need of money after losing big at the tracks, American dancer Bob Davis (Astaire) goes to the owner of the Sky Room nightclub Eduardo Acuna (Menjou). His fussy receptionist Fernando (Gus Schilling) won't let him pass, but Xavier Cugat (himself) finds Bob a job singing at Acuna's daughter's wedding. Acuna has a rule that each of his four daughters must get married in turn. It's now Maria's (Hayworth) turn to marry. She hasn't found anyone she likes yet, to the despair of her younger sisters who have found beaus they wish to wed.

After Bob claims Maria has an icy personality, Eduardo writes love notes attached to orchids to fan her flame and put her in a more romantic mood. She has no idea who sent them, until she sees Bob delivering them for her father at the door and assumes it's him. Eduardo convinces Bob to try to steer her away from him in exchange for doing his dance at the club (at a later date). Bob's too charming for it to work, and he and Maria fall for each other instead. Now both men have to figure out how to keep up the deception without hurting Maria or muddling things further.

The Song and Dance: A terrific cast and one of Jerome Kern's best scores makes this a vast improvement over the earlier Astaire-Hayworth vehicle You'll Never Get Rich. Menjou is a delight as Maria's stubborn, overprotective father, who wants to see his daughter married off as per tradition to someone who'll make him happy. I also like sarcastic Isobel Elsom as Maria's godmother, who was once in love with Eduardo herself. There's some wonderfully funny moments with the fussy secretary Fernando as well when he constantly tries to get Bob out of the office, with little success.

Favorite Number: The Oscar-nominated ballad "Dearly Beloved" shows up twice, first as a solo song for Astaire with Cugat's orchestra at the wedding, then as a brief, sexy dance for Hayworth after she thinks Astaire is the one for her. Astaire considered the Latin-tinged "Audition Dance" at the office to be one of his best, and it does make good use of the enclosed space. "The Shorty George" is a dynamic dance routine for Astaire and Hayworth at the club that radiates fun and is a joy to watch.

The big number here is "I'm Old Fashioned." Not only is it my favorite song from the score, but it gets a number worthy of it too, with Astaire and Hayworth dancing on the romantic patio of her family's home. It's gorgeous and lovely, and makes me wish Astaire went back for a third go-around with Hayworth.

Trivia: The rehearsal halls at Columbia were all full, so Fred Astaire and Rita Hayworth worked on their complicated numbers together in a room over Hollywood Cemetary.

What I Don't Like: Not only is the story fluffy and rather silly, but it's very dated. Even the movie acknowledges how old-fashioned Eduardo's views on love and marriage were and are. While the costumes are appropriately glamorous, the sets don't really look much like Buenos Aries. This probably could have been set anywhere in South America - or anywhere on the globe - and worked just fine.

The Big Finale: Worth catching for Astaire and Hayworth and the fabulous music alone.

Home Media: The DVD is currently out of print, but you can find it on TCM and The Criterion Channel with a subscription.

DVD