You Were Never Lovelier

"You Were Never Lovelier" is the second and final pairing of Fred Astaire and Rita Hayworth in a musical format. Columbia does a nice job remaking a previous film and hits all the checkpoints of a 1940s Hollywood musical (Astaire wished they had made it in Technicolor). The sets aren't as lavish as what MGM would design for a musical, but when you have Kern doing the music and Mercer providing song lyrics, you are off to a good start. The plot is typical Hollywood: boy and girl meet, get off to a rocky start, begin to come around to each other's potential, and finally declare their love for one another in the final reel. What makes this film fun, and at times poignant, are Astaire and Hayworth. It is obvious that the two of them were smitten with each other-it just shines and glows in their scenes together. There is a 19 year age difference between them and Astaire was happily married and Hayworth was being courted by Orson Welles. It doesn't matter as Astaire and Hayworth belong together in the movies. He had perfected the Fred Astaire happy-go lucky, self deprecating charmer who happens to be the world's greatest dancer while she is blossoming like the first rose bud of a warm spring and ready for movie stardom. In one of the Hayworth books, the author describes their pairing: " she gives him her youth, her beauty, and her devotion, he gives her a trip to the stars..." I'm Old Fashioned" and "The Shorty George" are stunning examples of the art of dancing these two just naturally displayed when together. The finale is a dance number that shows the joy they felt when they worked together. It's poignant and the kiss at the end of the film display the beauty and elegance that Astaire and Hayworth had together. It's shame they didn't make more films together, but their paths never crossed again professionally. The entire cast acts with charm and humor-this is really a fun musical made special by the magnetism and magic of the two stars.

Excellent, their definition of Acceptable, is more than acceptable.

Watch Fred Astaire dance with Rita Hayworth to Latin rhythms with Jerome Kern/Johnny Mercer "I'm Old-Fashioned" tune; watch them both tap-dancing to "The Shorty George" number which was more delightful I think than the first dance; and then watch Fred Astaire perform an incredible solo tap dance where he is supposed to audition to a mule-headed impresario who refuses to hire him on account of Astaire's criticism of his daughter. This tap dance, where he moves on top of desks and chairs and even uses an umbrella is just incredible. I wonder how long it took him to rehearse all that. Besides the Astaire-Hayworth duets and Astaire's solo tap dancing, Astaire and Hayworth have their turn singing a melody each, and they are always accompanied by Xavier Cugat's Latin band, which must have been very popular back then in Hollywood. Five stars for the musical scenes and the dancing stars in this film.Plot-wise, the story does not have the qualities of Director Mark Sandrich's movies with Astaire and Rogers. One misses the flow of events in these earlier films. Nevertheless, the film turns out to be quite funny and entertaining. Astaire, who happens to play a dancer visiting Argentina, runs out of money at horse races and decides to visit an impresario for a dancing job, only to discover that he is an inaccessible, intractable negotiator. The impresario happens to be the father of the "girl" in the movie, Rita Hayworth. As often happens in screwball comedies, there is an initial dislike between the two. But once Hayworth listens to Astaire sing and accidentally receives an orchid with a romantic note from him (originally written by her own father), she starts to feel an attraction; and once Astaire ends up courting her by accident or through her father's plans, his mind and heart starts warming toward her. After this, the plot-twists get funnier (one of the funniest twists has to do with the name of Maria, Rita's name in the movie and also her aunt's name). Although missing the witty dialogues from the Astaire-Rogers movies, this film does what a good movie ought to do. At least, it did it for me. Along with Astaire and Hayworth, Adolphe Menjou does a supporting role as father of Rita's Maria.The film transfer on the DVD was quite neat and of excellent quality.

This is my favorite Rita Hayworth movie. Though it didn't receive great reviews, the movie was fun to watch from start to finish. Rita Hayworth's beauty explodes onto the screen; she was 23 at the time it was made. Not only is she exquisitely beautiful, she also exhibits her athleticism during 3 dance scenes. Stunningly graceful understates her ability to move fluidly regardless of the activity. Her costumes were magnificent; kudos to Irene who was her gown designer. Fred Astaire gets the award for most versatile--singing, dancing and comedic timing. All of the supporting cast was fabulous. After watching the movie, I would have purchased it just to see the work of Adolf Menjou. As the Patriarch of the family, his dialogue was magnificently delivered. I have never had more fun laughing at an individual who was screaming at people throughout the movie. The two younger daughters were also great fun to watch. The musical score by Jerome Kern artfully captured the ambience perfectly in every scene. The lyrics by Johnny Mercer were classy and clever. Fred Astaire and Rita Hayworth delivered the lyrics artfully in several classic songs. Whenever I want to smile from ear to ear and witness beauty in every dimension, this movie delivers time and time again. Enjoy!

DVD WILL NOT WORK ON A REGULAR USA (REGION A\1 PLAYER. i WOULD LIKE TO RETURN THE UNOPENED DVD - BOUGHT BY MISTAKE.- PLEASE SNED AUTHORIZATION TO RETURN.

Fun movie from the 1940's and sure enough, Rita was never lovlier. And she was a much better dancer than most people realize. Loved it!

The second musical comedy pairing of Astaire and Hayworth, this one from 1942; it's a remake of an Argentine film and retains the Latin setting; Jerome Kern provided songs and Xavier Cugat`s Band are featured in most of the dance/music numbers.The plot is a typical romantic comedy soufflé, mildly funny, but really just there as a framework for the dance/musical numbers; it's perhaps a better film than “You'll Never Get Rich” in modern viewer's eyes (there's no heavy-handed patriotism) but it's a classic anyway for anyone who enjoys musicals or are fans of it's stars.The UK DVD release has no extras other than trailers; English subtitles are available if required.

With a couple of beautiful songs by Jerome Kern (Oscar-nominated Dearly Beloved, I ‘m Old Fashioned, Shorty George and the title tune), this, at heart a very standard romantic comedy, comes alive with its musical/dancing numbers. In these, the later femme fatale of 1940’s cinema, Rita Hayworth, effortlessly holds her own against the brilliant dancer Astaire - just as Ginger Rogers did in the 1930s. Plot-wise, it is a play of mistaken motivations and nice misunderstandings, but the satisfying ending is of course at hand. One just wishes there were more singing/dancing in it. Yet, as your movie companion for a rainy Sunday afternoon, this will do perfectly.

I watch these films because I really enjoy watching the great dancing of Fred Astaire with Ginger Rogers and Rita Hayworth. To be honest the storyline in the films holds no attraction and I am just waiting for the dancing sequences to come along. The only Astaire film where the actual storyline held my attention was "Swing Time", due to the brilliant asides of Helen Broderick and the dance sequence to "Pick Yourself Up" which is a masterpiece. The masterpiece in this film is "The Shorty George", this is also worth seeing on YouTube when danced to the Jackie Wilson hit " Lifting Me Higher". You have to be a appreciative of Fred Astaire's skill to buy this film, as a film the storyline is feeble and predictable but the dancing is majestic.

Adolphe Menjou (Acuna) is brilliant as the man in charge of everything. He owns a hotel and is very blunt to his guests and his employees. His dialogue throughout is very funny and to be looked upon as a blueprint in life if you don’t want to spend time pussy-footing around an issue. Menjou has 4 daughters who he would like to marry off in age order. This film is concerned with him marrying off frosty second daughter Rita Hayworth (Maria) to a suitable young man. Unfortunately for Menjou, Fred Astaire gets dragged into the proceedings. Menjou can’t stand Astaire and their conversations together are very amusing. Throw in some songs and dancing and this is a good entertaining film.Rita Hayworth’s dancing was a revelation to me in this film. She keeps up with Astaire and it is these dancing sections that we are watching for. The supporting cast are all good and the film is a lightweight comedy that works well. We also get to see Lina Romay singing with Xavier Cugat’s band.

I've waited a while to review this since buying the DVD. I've watched it half a dozen times since and it still seems as fresh as when I first saw it too many years ago. I fell in love with Rita Hayworth then (as an impressionable teenager and have probably been `in love' ever since). In my view she was then, and still is now, the most beautiful woman ever to grace the silver screen and, in this film, she was `never lovelier' (and I have seen Gilda and Cover Girl - many times!). I don't like comparing - Fred had some wonderful partners and I'm not really qualified to comment on their respective abilities but Rita is my favourite - for obvious reasons. She dances sublimely and, as a reviewer below has commented, `I'm Old-fashioned' is superb amongst several dance numbers (I wonder what her singing voice actually was like - her singing was dubbed).Of the two films with Fred this is the best and, in my view, better than Cover Girl, although that is in colour and she is again beautifully photographed. I probably prefer this film because I prefer Astaire to Kelly - again I make no judgement, I just like Fred's style more than Kelly's.Yes the plot is of it's time and shouldn't be taken seriously (I doubt it really was when it was made) but just seen as a vehicle for a fantastic score, great dancing, and a chance to see a truly beautiful woman beautifully photographed.A must for Astaire fans and an absolute necessity for anyone who likes Rita Hayworth. Interestingly, I do think that he dances differently with Rita than with Ginger. Mind you, that might be because when he dances with Rita I watch her, when he dances with Ginger I watch them both!