Ever since she first stepped in front of a camera as a teenager in 1935, Rita Hayworth found herself in a number of low-budgeted movies. After years of fine-tuning her acting, Hayworth, 22, finally received a big role in an "A" listed film with top tier actors in October 1940 "Angels Over Broadway." The opportunity to play a New York City nightclub showgirl came when Jean Arthur refused the role of Nina Barona, who finds herself in the company of three men, one who is seriously contemplating suicide.
After writing a number of scripts that turned into immediate classics, journalist-turned-screenwriter Ben Hecht considered "Angels Over Broadway" one "of his most personal works." He described his script as an experiment, saying it was "reflections of life - as if a ghost were drifting in the rain." Hecht's script has a business owner discovering his employee, Charles Engle (John Qualen), embezzling $3,000 on his highfalutin wife, who has squandered all the money. Engle is told he has until the next morning to come up with the money or the police will be notified. Writing a suicide note, Charles goes uptown where he ends up in a nightclub. Steady customer Pulitzer-winning playwright Gene Gibbons (Thomas Mitchell) comes across the note and sets out to know Engle. Nina (Hayworth) and conman Bill O'Brien (Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.) join the table. The big question posed by Hecht is would ordinary people with their own self interests sacrifice a bit of themselves to save a person intent on killing himself?
The New York Times film critic Bosley Crowther loved Hecht's script, which earned an Academy Awards nomination for Best Original Screenplay, exclaiming, "If it is not the best work that Mr. Hecht has done for the screen, certainly it is the most satisfying of his work that we have seen. As the writer, director and producer, Mr. Hecht has taken the opportunity to reaffirm the fact that drama is created out of people and not out of a warehouse full of props and sets."
Harry Cohn, the boss of Columbia Pictures which produced "Angels Over Broadway," barely noticed Hayworth as she hopscotched throughout low-budgeted pictures. Her husband, Eddie Judson, encouraged her to go through painful electrolysis treatments to lift her hairline. When she did, the procedure completely changed her appearance. One of her bigger roles before "Angels Over Broadway" was Howard Hawks' 1939 "Only Angels Have Wings." Cohn twisted Hawk's arm to get Hayward assigned to a minor, but important role as Cary Grant's ex-girlfriend. Hayworth's performance in the Hecht-directed "Angels Over Broadway" gravitated towards her break-out role in 1941's "Strawberry Blonde." That movie lead to her famous photo spread in Life Magazine during the summer of 1941. Hayworth along with Bette Grable became the top pin-up girls in World War Two.
After writing a number of scripts that turned into immediate classics, journalist-turned-screenwriter Ben Hecht considered "Angels Over Broadway" one "of his most personal works." He described his script as an experiment, saying it was "reflections of life - as if a ghost were drifting in the rain." Hecht's script has a business owner discovering his employee, Charles Engle (John Qualen), embezzling $3,000 on his highfalutin wife, who has squandered all the money. Engle is told he has until the next morning to come up with the money or the police will be notified. Writing a suicide note, Charles goes uptown where he ends up in a nightclub. Steady customer Pulitzer-winning playwright Gene Gibbons (Thomas Mitchell) comes across the note and sets out to know Engle. Nina (Hayworth) and conman Bill O'Brien (Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.) join the table. The big question posed by Hecht is would ordinary people with their own self interests sacrifice a bit of themselves to save a person intent on killing himself?
The New York Times film critic Bosley Crowther loved Hecht's script, which earned an Academy Awards nomination for Best Original Screenplay, exclaiming, "If it is not the best work that Mr. Hecht has done for the screen, certainly it is the most satisfying of his work that we have seen. As the writer, director and producer, Mr. Hecht has taken the opportunity to reaffirm the fact that drama is created out of people and not out of a warehouse full of props and sets."
Harry Cohn, the boss of Columbia Pictures which produced "Angels Over Broadway," barely noticed Hayworth as she hopscotched throughout low-budgeted pictures. Her husband, Eddie Judson, encouraged her to go through painful electrolysis treatments to lift her hairline. When she did, the procedure completely changed her appearance. One of her bigger roles before "Angels Over Broadway" was Howard Hawks' 1939 "Only Angels Have Wings." Cohn twisted Hawk's arm to get Hayward assigned to a minor, but important role as Cary Grant's ex-girlfriend. Hayworth's performance in the Hecht-directed "Angels Over Broadway" gravitated towards her break-out role in 1941's "Strawberry Blonde." That movie lead to her famous photo spread in Life Magazine during the summer of 1941. Hayworth along with Bette Grable became the top pin-up girls in World War Two.
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