Evening star., 1944-03-25

pOlntS tne moral that love is the
most wonderful thing of all. Having
that happen amid all the beauty and
splendor of the picture makes Cover
Girl" kind of Hans Christian An
dersen fairly tale brought up to date.
That probably accounts for it's hyp-
motto effect.
While some Is universally recog-
nlzable cover girls actually figure
in the Earle's picture, the stress
is laid heavily upon Miss Hayworth,
who bears up under it beautifully.
In costumes coming down from the
90s to the style made famous by
GYPSY Rose Lee in her burlesuue
days, Miss Hayworth sings, dances
and acts with higher skill than she
ever has shown before. The music
provided her by Jerome Kern and
Ira Gershwin is better than that
which you have heard in many pre-
vious musicals and Miss Hayworth
does 1t the credit of generally
bright performance.
The largest effect of the film upon
those who participate in 1t will be
that of increasing Kelly's stature
IN pictures. The dark young man
who has hitherto played a collection
OF heels plays modified one in
Cover GIRL" but he also is given a
lavish opportunity to prove that
Fred Astaire is not the only chap
in Hollywood who can dance. The
young couple -happily-in-love street
dance which the principals dance
with Phil Silvers is one of the more
items which the screen
has thought up in years. Even
better is the solo number in which
Kelly dances angrily with his con-
science "a shadowy Kelly who
dances through plate glass windows
when he thinks his girl has de-
serted him for the cafe society set.
Columbia has gone splendid, no
less, in the production of Cover
Girl" That, of course, is no less
than is proper considering the
amount of beauty it has to frame
IN the course of the narrative
Every set, including the sort of
Brooklyn rathskeller night club
which is the heroine's jumping-off
place. is almost defiantly lavish and
photographed in virtually epic
Technicolor tones. There are two
actually gigantic production items,
one dream sequence in which Miss
dances a solo waltz, the
other the one representing her mo-
ment of triumph in her first musi-
cal comedy.
Other people who glide and talk
their ways impressively through all
the glitter of these surroundings
are most notably Miss Arden and
Silvers. To her falls the familiar
chore of being an unillusioned,
somewhat sentimental female in the
women's magazine and beauty
trades and she does it with praise
worthy fidelity to the type. Silvers
has rarely shown so well in the
cinema as in the role of a wack
comedian who travels under the
pseudonym Genius" In straight
roles, ample performances are given
by Kruger and Lee Bowman, both
menaces.
X
BY way of demonstrating that
Cover Girl" did not use up all of
the beauty available in Hollywood,
Harry Anger has happily lured
blond Mary Healy to headline the
Earle's stage show this week. 1t is
a chore easily within Miss Healys
scope, a scope which on this occa-
sion enables her to sing some of the
current ballads more effectively
than any one else we can think of.
Providing nice balance for the
rest of the show is the acrobatic
team of Jean. Jack and Judy, which
is not merely amazing but also
comic, and Ballantype, a magician
who kicks the profession laughably
into a cooked hat.
The Roxyettes add a couple of
pretty routines to round out the pro-
oron