You Were Never Lovelier (1942) - film review

Robert Davis, an American dancer stranded in Buenos Aires without a peso to his name, is desperate to find work.  His friend, bandleader Xavier Cugat, suggests that he should try to impress hotel owner Eduardo Acuña by performing at his eldest daughter’s wedding.  At the wedding reception, Robert is taken with Acuña’s second eldest daughter, Maria, but she has idealistic notions when it comes to love and he doesn’t impress her.  Acuña is determined to marry off Maria, partly because his two youngest daughters are themselves desperate to get married.  To make Maria more predisposed to marriage, Acuña invents a fantasy lover, by sending her love letters and flowers himself.  When Robert mistakenly delivers one of the letters, Maria jumps to the conclusion that he is her mystery admirer and falls head over heels in love with him, much to her father’s annoyance.  Robert is most definitely not Acuña’s idea of a son-in-law...

After their successful pairing in the hit musical comedy You’ll Never Get Rich (1941), Fred Astaire and Rita Hayworth are reunited for another bout of high class schmaltz and frothy song and dance hijinks.  Whilst not the most obvious of dancing partners, Astaire and Hayworth complement each other perfectly and their dance routines in this film are among the most memorable in Astaire’s repertoire.  Amazingly, they would never worth together again after this film.

Jerome Kern’s uplifting music gives the film its smooth velvety charm, although it is a shame that Hayworth was not trusted to sing her own numbers (instead she was dubbed by Nan Wynn). Whilst the plot is all too predictable, there is plenty of fun to be had along the way, and the glamorous lead performers make it something special.  But who is Astaire kidding when he says Hayworth has a personality like the inside of a refrigerator?

© filmsdefrance.com 2009

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