The Film: 4/5

NOTE: The text of this review was taken mostly from my November 2012 review of the Twilight Time Blu-ray, with the appropriate updates made to reflect any changes in this new release from Eureka! Entertainment.

Rusty Parker (Rita Hayworth) works as a performer at a Brooklyn nightclub owned by her boyfriend Danny McGuire (Gene Kelly) and seems to enjoy her life as it is, but deep down she’s always wanted more. Her big chance comes when she’s selected from scores of fashionable young women in New York to be the cover girl for the 50th anniversary issue of the magazine Vanity by its published John Coudair (Otto Kruger). As a result Rusty becomes an overnight sensation whose sudden popularity begins drawing larger audiences to Danny’s club.

The increase in business seems to please everyone, including Danny and Rusty’s friend and fellow performer Genius (Phil Silvers) but Danny can’t help but feel jealous at Rusty’s newfound fame because it means that inevitably she’ll depart his small venue for the big time on Broadway. That is exactly what happens when theater owner Noel Wheaton (Lee Bowman) lures Rusty away from Danny to headline her own show on the Great White Way, and once he becomes infatuated with her proposes marriage to the city’s favorite cover model. Will Rusty abandon Danny forever for a man who will give her anything she could ever want in life except love, or will the embittered Danny win back the heart of his best dancer and love of his life? This is a mid-1940’s WWII-era Hollywood musical in Technicolor - I’ll give you one guess.

No matter how many musical Blu-rays I may get sent for review it’s a genre of cinema I will probably never warm to. I just can’t get into them much. But that doesn’t stop me from appreciating the masterful craft that went into how these movies were produced, from the meticulous dance choreography to the often stunning set design, especially when it comes to those old-fashioned numbers that never shied from letting moviegoers know they had been filmed on a studio back lot. Realism isn’t exactly a necessary component to making a musical; when you have your characters randomly breaking out in song and dance verisimilitude is about as welcome in that universe as Brett Ratner is at the San Diego Comic-Con.

During the Great Depression people across the U.S. flocked to practically every extravagant musical Hollywood was offering up as a means of escape from the oppressive reality of everyday life, much as modern audiences seek a few hours’ respite from the nation’s current employment situation by watching the latest superhero blockbuster or reading the latest page-turner from James Patterson or J.K. Rowling. I may not be a rabid fan of musicals, but I can certainly understand their universal appeal. Otherwise I would be a gigantic hypocrite as I’m lining up next summer to see the new Superman movie.

Cover Girl is one of the better musicals I have seen. It has an unexceptional storyline that offers virtually no surprises and few of the songs leave a lasting impact. But it does have something most big screen musicals didn’t and that’s the incomparable pairing of silver screen goddess Rita Hayworth and legendary song-and-dance man Gene Kelly in one of his earliest lead roles. Columbia Pictures had developed Cover Girl as a vehicle for Hayworth’s many considerable talents and would become one of her most beloved films. She was one of those rare movie stars who could actually do it all, from acting to singing and dancing to even inadvertently helping Andy Dufresne escape from Shawshank Prison (with a little extra help from Raquel Welch). As the gifted but insecure Rusty Hayworth makes for a convincing heroine in a typical rags-to-riches saga, never becoming spoiled and always appreciating what truly matters most in life.

Kelly matches her in every aspect except being a timeless hottie (but of course I would think that because I’m a dude) and helps ground the melodrama by expressing his inner torment through body language, and obviously the thrill of a great dance number. Both Hayworth and Kelly get a few real corkers with Hayworth’s big number coming as Rusty makes her major Broadway debut, but Kelly tops that with a dance sequence where he is paired off with his own conscience - visualized on screen as a ghostly mirror image of himself. According to the liner notes included with the Blu-ray Kelly said that this number was “the most difficult thing I’ve ever done - a technical torture”. Perhaps it was Gene, but it made for great cinema all the same.

The great film and television comedian Phil Silvers is on hand to infuse the drama with much levity and even gets to show off his own skills when it comes to song and dance. I always knew Sgt. Bilko was a great funnyman but I was amazed at how well he held his own with Hayworth and Kelly in a playful musical number that has our star trio gaily making their way down a city sidewalk, feeling on top of the world even as they reside in the gutter of the New York entertainment scene. Charles Vidor, who would later direct Hayworth in another of her best-known films, Gilda, brings a rousing energy to the production numbers but never gives short shrift to the integral dramatic scenes, all beautifully shot by Allen M. Davey and Rudolph Mate. Even when the pacing sags during the second act the movie rarely looks less than gorgeous.

Audio/Video: 4/5

Newly released to Region B Blu-ray as part of its rewarding Masters of Cinema series, Eureka’s dual format edition touts a high-definition presentation of Cover Girl from a new 4K restoration. The transfer is encoded in MPEG-4 video and accurately framed in the film’s original 1.33:1 full frame theatrical aspect ratio. Compared to Twilight Time’s 2012 Region A Blu-ray, which offered fine picture quality that left room for improvement, this lavish Technicolor spectacle looks its absolute best. The color timing is vibrant and pops off the television screen, grain content is well-balanced and consistent throughout the entire film, and practically every remaining trace of dirt, dust, and print damage has been removed. The result is a stellar transfer that Cover Girl deserves and will doubtlessly ever be topped with today’s restoration technology. Eureka has also improved on previous home video releases in the audio department with two 16-bit linear PCM 2.0 mono audio tracks. First off, we have the full English sound mix presented with astounding clarity and depth and without echoing or other instances of distortion. The songs and music sound terrific being piped through your TV speakers free of damage and dialogue can be heard clearly. The second is an isolated music and effects track. English subtitles have also been provided.

Extras: 2/5

Supplements are slight but there are more to be found on the Eureka disc than past releases and include a short interview (4 minutes) with Moulin Rouge/The Great Gatsby filmmaker Baz Luhrmann that was produced for Sony’s 2010 Rita Hayworth DVD box set in which he discusses Cover Girl in as much detail as the brief running time allows, and a “Masters of Cinema Exclusive Trailer” (2 minutes) created to promote the new Blu-ray release. Eureka has also provided a 28-page collector’s booklet featuring a new essay on the film written by Farran Smith Nehme and a poster gallery. A Region 2 DVD copy featuring the film and accompanying supplements is the final addition to this set.

Overall:

A sweet and colorful musical that never fails to juice up some otherwise stiff proceedings with a host of jaunty show stoppers, Cover Girl is very entertaining for what it is. The snappy dialogue and dancing can’t always help quicken the movie’s occasionally glacial pacing however. Recommended to all lovers of delightfully old-fashioned Hollywood musicals, and as far as Blu-ray releases, Eureka’s Masters of Cinema edition is the way to go.