For his next photoplay, after "The Desperadoes", Charles Vidor requested Cover Girl (1944), primarily to show off his versatility, and having no idea at the time that it would eventually lead to his being typed (and principally thought of) as a director of musicals. Actually, Vicor much preferred his horror films, gothic romances and westerns. But with the exception of his masterpiece, Gilda (1946), these were now all behind him. (Thunder in the East, The Joker Is Wild, and even A Song to Remember and The Loves of Carmen, have Gothic overtones, but I think they may be excluded here). Entrancingly designed and inventively choreographed, Cover Girl was a hit from its smash opening sequence to its rousing finale. The only conventional thing about the movie was its screenplay -- a story in which Gene Kelly, Otto Kruger and Lee Bowman vied for the affections of Rita Hayworth. (You have just one single guess as to which of these three contenders won through in the end?)

Some fun big names in this one... Charles Coburn (Jonathan) was awesome in "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes".... Anne is played by Irene Dunn, who had made a whole bunch of films with Cary Grant. Lots of talking right at the beginning, and we hear how Mayor Anne Crandall has always been the straight arrow, putting others' needs before her own. This story has quite a bit in common with "Key to the City" from 1950. Small town mayor goes traveling to the big city, makes unwanted headlines, the troubles begin... although "Key" was MGM, "Together Again" was Columbia Pictures.. AND it came first. Although, honestly, "Key" was much more zany and fun. "Together" is much more sedate, calm, and collected. Boyer and Dunn are both stealing every scene, and we don't feel the chemistry we see in "Key to the City". Directed by Charles Vidor, who would also direct "Gilda" a couple years later . "Together Again" is pretty good. If you haven't seen "Key to the City", try to see that one too!

I was a bigger fan of "The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer" before I saw this little gem. "Bachelor's" Oscar should've been for Best Adapted Screenplay, not Best Original. Shows what a short memory Hollywood had even back then, since only 4 years separated the two. Item: Irene Dunne plays a single small town mayor (very well) while Myrna Loy in "Bachelor" plays a single judge. Item: Charles Boyer plays an astonishingly well dressed artist (sculptor) while Cary Grant also plays an astonishingly well dressed artist (painter). Item: both involve faux romances between the artist and a precocious willful girl much too young for him--Dunne's daughter in "Together", Loy's sister in "Bachelor." Both have meddlesome older relatives who push the reluctant lovers together--Chas. Coburn here, Ray Collins there. Dunne and Boyer don't have the chemistry here that they had in "Love Affair" (a huge hit 5 years before and the very circumstantial reason for the title, which has no relation ay-tall with the story) but they get along believably. Dunne gets put through some fairly humorous paces that play off well against her upright public image. It's almost as much a Hollywood satire on small town life (like its DVD-mate "Theodora Goes Wild" also with Dunne) as a romance, with less snickering at the narrow-minded rural bumpkins than most (including "Theodora").

Even one of the most gifted and effervescent comediennes of Hollywood's golden era can't rescue the weak, silly (and sexist) script. Yet again Hollywood of the 1940s insists that a successful woman isn't complete, and can't be happy, unless she has a man - and invariably the plot is going to demand that she give up her career, because a relationship with a man is the only thing that matters. It's a premise that becomes increasingly hard to swallow as we get further and further away from the 1940s and 1950s. Charles Boyer plays the bohemian sculptor (who dresses like Saville Row) who she enlists to duplicate a statue of her husband, with graces the small town where she is Mayor, having succeeded her husband, who died. Charles Coburn is reliable comedic support, as her father-in-law, who relentlessly insists that her first womanly duty is to loosen up - in later years they'd say that she should get laid - and go for the man. There's a subplot about her precocious teen daughter, who falls for Boyer, and the daughter's lanky boyfriend, who then falls for Dunne. It's a duplicate set-up of an I Love Lucy episode a few years later. The film is forced, far-fetched, silly, basically unfunny. The stars struggle to bring a levity and wit that are simply missing from the dialogue, situations or premise. Dunne is so fetching, physically lovely, at the height of her beauty, and could deliver a line, arch an eyebrow, tilt her head, laugh, and make every man just fall in love with her, me included. She transcends an inferior script, not exactly enough to make the movie enjoyable, since it's mindlessly silly and predictable, and beneath the talents of the principal cast, but she is simply captivating. Charles Vidor also manages to inject some sparkle with his deft touch, to a sparkle-less script.