YOU WERE NEVER LOVELIER
A remake of the beloved 1941 Argentine film LOS MARTES, ORQUÍDEAS [ON TUESDAYS, ORCHIDS], YOU WERE NEVER LOVELIER was a follow-up to the 1942 hit YOU'LL NEVER GET RICH and marked the second — and final — screen pairing of Fred Astaire and Rita Hayworth. In YOU WERE NEVER LOVELIER, Bob Davis (Astaire), an American dancer in Buenos Aires, finds himself desperate for work after losing all his money. He takes a gig at a wedding, hoping to impress the bride's father, Eduardo Acuña (Adolphe Menjou), a local club owner who has decreed that his daughters must marry in order of age. Eduardo eventually agrees to allow Bob to perform at his club, but only under the condition that he play suitor to his second-oldest daughter, the beautiful Maria (Hayworth). Hayworth proves once again to be a stunning dancer, especially in "Shorty George" and "I'm Old Fashioned," a romantic moonlit duet with Astaire that is the high point of the film. The score received an Academy Award® nomination, alongside nods for Best Sound and Best Song ("Dearly Beloved") by Jerome Kern and Johnny Mercer. Hayworth wanted to do her own singing, but her voice was dubbed by Nan Wynn, a well-kept secret at the time. Nevertheless, Hayworth went on record saying that YOU WERE NEVER LOVELIER was the favorite of all her films, second only to YOU'LL NEVER GET RICH. (Note adapted from Sony Pictures.) DIR William A. Seiter; SCR Michael Fessier, Ernest Pagano, Delmer Daves, based on the story by Carlos A. Olivari and Sixto Pondal Ríos; PROD Louis F. Edelman. U.S., 1942, b&w, 97 min. NOT RATED
AFI Member passes accepted.
Run Time: 97 Minutes
Opening Date: Wednesday, January 10, 2024
Genre: Musical romance