RITA is a very intriguing pictorial biography of the great RITA HAYWORTH, so stunning and alive on screen, so sadly used and abused in her personal affairs--particularly by the men she married.
From her first union with a man who wanted to be her press agent to show biz celebrities like ORSON WELLES and DICK HAYMES, she made one unfortunate mistake in the direction of marriage and family, after another. Charming and sweet by nature, her smoldering screen personality playing sirens like GILDA and CARMEN fooled the men into thinking she was that sort of sexpot in real life. Such was not the case.
Career difficulties emerged when she fled Hollywood to become a princess by marrying Prince Aly Kahn, much to the distress of Columbia chief Harry Cohn. This meant an absence of a few years off screen before the marriage collapsed and she returned to resume the career in Hollywood that she interrupted at the top of her popularity.
Apart from all the photos and film clips documenting her journey to screen success, all of the personal data is given some fresh viewpoints by others who knew her well. Thus, we get to know Rita and understand how she was "used and abused" by a string of husbands who eventually failed to give her the love and security she needed. The harrowing descent into illness is depicted too, but what one is left with is a portrait of a movie star that the camera and public loved as no other.
Summing up: Well worth watching with tantalizing glimpses of some of her most famous roles.
From her first union with a man who wanted to be her press agent to show biz celebrities like ORSON WELLES and DICK HAYMES, she made one unfortunate mistake in the direction of marriage and family, after another. Charming and sweet by nature, her smoldering screen personality playing sirens like GILDA and CARMEN fooled the men into thinking she was that sort of sexpot in real life. Such was not the case.
Career difficulties emerged when she fled Hollywood to become a princess by marrying Prince Aly Kahn, much to the distress of Columbia chief Harry Cohn. This meant an absence of a few years off screen before the marriage collapsed and she returned to resume the career in Hollywood that she interrupted at the top of her popularity.
Apart from all the photos and film clips documenting her journey to screen success, all of the personal data is given some fresh viewpoints by others who knew her well. Thus, we get to know Rita and understand how she was "used and abused" by a string of husbands who eventually failed to give her the love and security she needed. The harrowing descent into illness is depicted too, but what one is left with is a portrait of a movie star that the camera and public loved as no other.
Summing up: Well worth watching with tantalizing glimpses of some of her most famous roles.