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You Were Never Lovelier

Play trailer Poster for You Were Never Lovelier 1942 1h 37m Musical Play Trailer Watchlist
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100% Tomatometer 5 Reviews 75% Popcornmeter 1,000+ Ratings
Bob Davis (Fred Astaire), an American dancer in Buenos Aires, Argentina, 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 (Rita Hayworth).

Critics Reviews

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Emanuel Levy EmanuelLevy.Com 08/16/2012
B+
Rita Hayworth proves to be a good partner for Fred Asatire in this enjoyable, Oscar-nominated musical, with good songs and numbers (Dearly Beloved by Jerome Kern). Go to Full Review
Dennis Schwartz Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews 04/04/2009
B
A good Astaire romantic musical after life with Ginger, with a beautiful 24-year-old Rita Hayworth as Ginger's replacement. Go to Full Review
Carol Cling Las Vegas Review-Journal 01/05/2004
4/5
Ken Hanke Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC) 09/18/2003
4/5
Good, but not quite great Astaire vehicle. Go to Full Review
Jeffrey M. Anderson San Francisco Examiner 01/17/2003
4/5
Hayworth is no Rogers, but she makes a lovely partner anyway. Go to Full Review
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Audience Reviews

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Lance L @Lance77 4d The joy of dance was never on better display. Ms. Hayworth's delight in the rhythm and beat, the twirling and unfurling, matches the Master's and gives me, at least, a sense of true cameraderie between the two. And that's important. Authentic delight in the other dancer lifts the dance to a a higher plane. Moreover, this isn't superficial. The dance is a metaphor, or if you prefer, an analogue, for the joy expericenced by the three persons of the Holy Trinity. Instinctively, watching this, we sense the joy at the center of the universe and at the moment of creation and we can say with St Julia of Norwich that "all is well and all manner of things are well." See more Steve D @RT35616104 06/11/2023 Contrived nonsense with little to recommend. See more william d @acsdoug 05/26/2022 I understand that when you watch a Fred Astaire movie you have to sit theough a second rate story before you get to see Fred dance. This story was particularly insipid, however, and the dance numbers were few and cheaply staged. Rita Hayworth, however, was not just another pretty face. The woman could dance. See more Luca D @JoeCamel7 09/29/2021 "My boy, a woman's advice isn't worth listening to. But any man who doesn't take it is a fool." The beginning of this movie is a bit rocky. The actors clearly wait for their cue to begin their lines. The tap dancing is also poorly dubbed. The movie then quickly progresses into a movie worth watching. Overall it's a cute romance. The title song is probably the worst song in the movie, but all of the others songs are really good. I would recommend this if your a fan of romance. See more s r @ScottR 09/12/2020 A feel good musical romance as a rich older daughter struggles to find love in South America and an interested dancer "courts" her in order to gain work. It all works out in the end though. See more 05/31/2020 Coming at the end of the Screwball era, this film has some of the hallmark tropes: marriage and/or re-marriage, clash of social classes, a headstrong woman... and yet it's a musical with well-integrated songs (something Astaire often insisted on) bordering on classic stage farce. Astaire confessed at one point in his career that Hayworth was his favorite dancing partner, due to the sheer electricity between them and that sizzle is very apparent in this film. Despite the fairly old-school devices in the story (the sisters must marry in order), this movie and its plot comes across as extremely modern. Xavier Cugat has a supporting (speaking) role in addition to being the backup band, lending a latin, big band sensibility to the musical numbers, and some of Robert's (Astaire) characteristics are straight from Astaire's own life (race horses, wearing a necktie and/or scarf as a belt). It's a star-studded spectacle but thoroughly modern (for 1942). There's cynicism mixed with pampering people for their dreams, making for a complex dynamic of real life truths. Watch this for the electric scenes between Astair and Hayworth and fall in love with the escapism, charm, lavish production design and cynic's fairy tale qualities. The black and white cinematography is also simply stunning (Criterion issue). See more Read all reviews
You Were Never Lovelier

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Movie Info

Synopsis Bob Davis (Fred Astaire), an American dancer in Buenos Aires, Argentina, 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 (Rita Hayworth).
Director
William A. Seiter
Producer
Louis F. Edelman
Screenwriter
Delmer Daves, Michael Fessier, Carlos A. Olivari, Ernest Pagano, Sixto Pondal Ríos
Distributor
Columbia Pictures
Production Co
Columbia Pictures Corporation
Genre
Musical
Original Language
English
Release Date (Theaters)
Oct 5, 1942, Original
Release Date (DVD)
May 25, 2004
Runtime
1h 37m