5 Star

Song and Dance.

Eureka bring back the hayday of the musical with release #162 of their Masters of Cinema series. From director Charles Vidor (The Great Gambini, The Desperadoes) we get the great combination of Rita Hayworth and Gene Kelly. What more could you want for?

War time Brooklyn New York and Danny McGuire (Gene Kelly, On the Town, Anchors Aweigh, An American in Paris) runs a small nightclub entertaining the soldiers on leave and the general public. His girlfriend is Rusty Parker (Rita Hayworth, Gilda, Music in My Heart, Blood and Sand) and she is his best song and dance girl, they put on shows with the other chorus line and also the comedy element Genius (Phil Silvers, Bilko, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World).

Rusty loves Danny and the shows, but she dreams of bigger things and she spots that a competition in Vanity’s magazine has been running a long time so she might as well give it a go.

When she gets to Vanity’s office she finds that there is plenty of competition including fellow chorus girl Maurine (Leslie Brooks, You Were Never Lovelier, Romance on the High Seas) who goes in to see Cornelia ‘Stonewall’ Jackson (Eve Arden, Our Miss Brooks, Grease, Anatomy of a Murder). Maurine doesn’t get the gig but she is hopeful so when she sees Rusty she tells her she did everything wrong and Rusty should be experienced and vivacious, the opposite of what Stonewall and her boss Mr John Coudair (Otto Kruger, Murder My Sweet, High Noon) who is looking for an unknown.

Danny is against Rusty taking ‘shortcuts’ to fame but wishes her well. Danny, Rusty and Genius started a tradition six months ago, that every Friday they all go done to Joe’s Oyster bar and order a serving each, even though none of them like oysters. They are looking for the sign, (a ‘Puiearl’, as Joe would say), but they have no luck this time. Meanwhile…

Across town Stonewall tells Coudair that she might have a candidate in Maurine and they should go to Danny’s to see her.

During one of Genius’s routines Rusty comes out and Coudair is immediately struck by her beauty and her grace that rekindled the memories of his lost love Maribelle Hicks (Hayworth) some forty years ago.

A time when a younger and fresher John Coudair (Jess Barker, The Time of Their Lives, The Night Walker) tried to sweep Maribelle off her feet but she was totally in love with the piano player.

Coudair must have her as the cover girl, and she takes the job, and it is instant fame all to the distress of Danny and the rest of the review troupe.

Stonewall and Coudair invite their friend and Broadway theatre owner Noel Wheaton (Lee Bowman, There’s a Girl in My Heart) to see Rusty perform. He is smitten just like Coudair forty years earlier. He must have her in his show.

And that is your story, how will it end? You’ll just have to sit down and enjoy yourself for an hour and forty-seven minutes to find out.

“Perfect for that rainy Sunday afternoon.”

Featuring Songs:

“The Show Must Go On” (Kern – music, Gershwin – lyrics)
“Who’s Complaining?” (Kern, Gershwin)
“Sure Thing” (Kern, Gershwin)
“Make Way For Tomorrow” (Kern, Gershwin, E.Y. Harburg – lyrics)
“Put Me to the Test” (Kern, Gershwin)
“Long Ago (and Far Away)” (Kern, Gershwin)
“Poor John” (Henry E. Pether – music, Fred W. Leigh -lyrics)
“Alter-Ego Dance” (Kern)
“Cover Girl (That Girl on the Cover)” (Kern, Gershwin)