You Were Never Lovelier

In Buenos Aires, a wealthy hotel owner intends to marry off his daughters in order, and by that rule it is now the middle daughter Maria's turn, except that Maria likes nobody. Her father invents a secret admirer for her and starts writing letters. When Robert, a penniless American dancer, wanders in, Maria assumes the letters are from him. William A. Seiter's film is the second pairing of Fred Astaire and Rita Hayworth, after You'll Never Get Rich the year before. Hayworth had been a professional dancer from the start of her career, and here she shows herself one of the few partners who could hold Astaire's tempo. Jerome Kern wrote the music and Johnny Mercer the lyrics, the only time the two worked together. I'm Old Fashioned left the film and became a standard. It opened on 19 November 1942. Who it's for: Viewers who like classic Hollywood musicals, Astaire's dance numbers, and Kern and Mercer songs. Who it's not for: The plot is thin and the comedy of mistaken identity is predictable. The Argentina on screen is entirely a studio invention.