L'Étoile des étoiles

It would seem only natural that the greatest of screen goddesses would be cast as one of the residents of Olympus, but Rita Hayworth more than fills the part. Something tells me that if she and Terpsichore were talking now, Terpsichore would be real happy with Rita.

I don't think she would be all that happy with the film as a whole, but the Greek Deities are a hard subject for the theater. Rodgers&Hart did well by them in By Jupiter, their last original collaboration. But Cole Porter had a misfire with them in Out Of This World. And the team of Doris Fisher and Allan Roberts aren't quite of the caliber of Porter and Rodgers&Hart. No great songs come out of the score here and that certainly would have helped the film a lot.

In Down To Earth, Terpsichore does just that when up in her celestial viewing spot she sees that performer/producer Larry Parks planning a musical comedy that is a satire of the Greek Gods. She's not happy that liberties are being taken with her relations so she comes down and of course gets the dancing lead and the leading man, sort of.

Rita Hayworth was dubbed by Anita Ellis who did her songs in a few of her Forties films. But why people were expecting the voice of Larry Parks in his one duet with Hayworth to be Al Jolson's, those Greek Gods only know. Parks was dubbed by a singer named Hal Derwin and I took a look at Mr. Derwin's credits and he dubbed at various times, Lee Bowman, Gene Nelson, and Bob Cummings in various films. It wasn't Jolson by why would anyone expect that.

Helping out in Down to Earth are three roles from Here Comes Mr. Jordan, one of Columbia's earlier comedy/fantasy hits. Stepping in for Claude Rains as the all knowing Mr. Jordan is Roland Culver. And repeating their roles from Here Comes Mr. Jordan are Edward Everett Horton as the snippy heavenly messenger and James Gleason as the good hearted, but slightly confused Max Corkle who has quit managing fighters and is now an actor's agent. I suppose the job calls for the same skills.

But this film is really Rita Hayworth's show. She's at the height of her screen fame when this was made and one look at her by young fans who might not have been alive when she was will tell you why that woman was the greatest screen sex symbol ever.

So in overcoming a mediocre musical score Rita makes this film as personally her own as Gilda in the previous year. Not as good as Gilda, but all Rita.

This 1947 film still holds its own due to gorgeous Rita Hayworth, and excellent supporting cast James Gleason and Edward Everett Horton and William Frawley. Some good dance numbers. To surmise, this film is pleasant escapism fare.

I was very surprised to have stumbled on Down To Earth on early morning television as I was recently having a discussion on Terpsichore (really!).

Anyway, it is a darned pretty film to look at for the Technicolour and Rita Hayworth alone, but it was so sad to see her so wasted on hideously mediocre musical numbers. The costumes and the sets were lovely and her fabulous red hair never looked better! What was so bizarre was this musical sequence she sings about wanting to marry two men -- who are more than eager to comply! Just watching the dancing steps of the two grooms made me uncomfortable.

Having this film based on an all-time classic was another huge error but bringing back Edward Everett Horton was the right move! He is always exceptional in his little character roles...

I suppose that Technicolour was a big selling point when this film came out (1946). The colour is beautiful to look at, but much of the rest of the film is rather slim. In this film, Rita Hayworth is a muse who becomes upset when she learns that a Broadway musical is going to portray her as a jive crazy love machine. She heads to earth to correct matters and the audience settles in for 101 minutes of unmemorable musical numbers and several poorly choreographed dance scenes.

Allow me to guess what happened here. Columbia was looking for a musical vehicle for Hayworth, then at the top of her career. They had script for a B musical ready to roll, but they needed to beef it up a bit. So what they did was steal a few of the characters from a past hit, HERE COME MR. JORDAN, added Technicolour, and hoped that it would prove enough of a draw. If you do watch this film, note how poorly the JORDAN characters are worked in - especially Max Corkle.

Elements of the Broadway musical DOWN TO EARTH also appear in Fred Astaire's THE BAND WAGON, which came out in 1953 - but the numbers in the later film were far more memorable. I had enjoyed HERE COMES MR. JORDAN, and was curious as to what the sequal would be like. My curiosity has been satisfied - yet another half-baked movie sequel.

There were many beautiful women during Hollywood's golden years, but only a small percentage would qualify as goddesses. Rita Hayworth was definitely one of that elite group, possibly never more stunningly beautiful as she appeared in "Down To Earth." As Terpsichore, goddess of music and dance, she comes to earth to star -- and correct -- a Broadway show about Terpsichore. Several characters from "Here Comes Mr. Jordan" appear, with Roland Culver taking the Claude Rains' role of Mr. Jordan. Larry Parks plays the producer-director-star, Danny Miller, who has to pay off a gambling debt with this show or die.

Though the music isn't that memorable, the story is charming, and the film contains a lovely performance and great dancing by Hayworth (whose voice is dubbed by Anita Ellis), and she's given excellent support by James Gleason, Culver, and Edward Everett Horton.

Larry Parks, fresh from his star-making role in "The Jolson Story" does a good job but one wonders, had he not been blacklisted, what would have happened to his career. He wasn't a particularly strong leading man. But we'll never know, because a few years later, he was finished.

As for Hayworth, it's a shame that someone so incredibly beautiful and vivacious, who brought so much happiness through her work, could have had such a miserable life - abuse by her father, a string of bad marriages, and finally Alzheimer's. It was her Alzheimer's that helped to bring the disease to national attention. Princess Yasmin Khan, Hayworth's daughter, has become an internationally known spokeswoman and active fund-raiser to increase awareness and finance research to find a cure for Alzheimer's disease. Besides her glorious presence, Rita had one more gift for the world.