Rita Hayworth Movies

In this western-style musical, a rakish gaucho rides off across the Argentine pampas to Buenos Aires in search of his stolen horse. Once there, he soon engages in hot pursuit of a lovely singing señorita. Soon he discovers that her manager just may be the thief he has been looking for. Keep a sharp eye out for a young Rita Cansino (later known as Rita Hayworth) in an early performance as a dance hall girl. Songs include: "Zamba" (Arthur Wynter-Smith), The Gaucho" (Buddy De Sylva, Walter Samuels), "Querida Mia" (Paul Francis Webster, Lew Pollack), "Love Song of the Pampas," "Veredita," and "Je t'Adore" (Miguel de Zarraga, Cyril J. Mockridge). ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Eight year old Paddy O'Day (Jane Withers) arrives at Ellis Island after a long sea voyage from Ireland, to be with her mother. But her mother is nowhere to be found when the ship docks, and the authorities are notified that Mrs. O'Day has died, only a few days ago -- the little girl will have to be sent back. Paddy has only been told that her mother is ill, and manages to sneak out off the island. After encountering a group of street urchins who try to make trouble for her -- and proving that she's got what it takes to take care of herself -- she makes her way to the large mansion on Long Island where her mother works, and learns the truth. The home is owned by Roy Ford (Pinky Tomlin), a studious upper-class bird fancier who has been browbeaten into life as an eccentric collector of stuffed birds by his two overbearing aunts (Vera Lewis, Louise Carter) -- their intention is to notify the authorities if Paddy shows up. But the servants, led by kindly maid Jane Darwell and initially unwilling butler Russell Simpson, decide to hide the child in the house while the aunts are away. Paddy chances to meet Roy, who takes a liking to her and decides to try and help her as well -- and when Paddy's very pretty shipboard friend Tamara Petrovich (Rita Cansino) shows up, along with her restauranteur cousin Mischa (George Givot), he starts to really come out of his shell. Mischa and Tamara will hide the little girl, and Mischa -- with help from a beverage new to Roy, called vodka -- convinces the young millionaire that there is a future in investing in his establishment. Roy likes the loosening up effect that vodka has on him, and also likes even more being around Tamara, and he soon becomes a new man -- not only a partner in the business, but a performer in the stage show that Mischa works up for his now-expanded restaurant/night club, which includes Paddy along with Tamara. But Roy's aunts have returned home, and are as appalled by their nephew's new, joyful approach to life as they are by his apparent infatuation with an immigrant girl and her family. They hire an investigator (Clarence H. Wilson) to try to prove that Roy is mentally incompetent, and he soon discovers that the little Irish waif working in the act is in the United States illegally, a fact that, once reported to the authorities, will get not only get Paddy deported by Tamara as well. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

Rex Stout's overweight, under-exercised detective Nero Wolfe was first brought to the screen in 1936 in the portly person of Edward Arnold. As brusque and short-tempered as ever, Wolfe tackles the case of a college professor who met his doom while playing golf, a tragedy followed by the seemingly unrelated death of a young mechanic. Dispatched to do Wolfe's leg work is his acerbic aide Archie Goodwin (Lionel Stander), who manages to discover that both deaths were tied in with a new weapon which silently shoots poisoned needles. Rex Stout wasn't too pleased with the expurgated screen treatment of his fictional sleuth, whose fondness for imported beers was changed by the censors to a predilection for hot chocolate! Well directed by Broadway vet Herbert Biberman, Meet Nero Wolfe was followed in 1937 by The League of Frightened Men, with Walter Connolly as Wolfe. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Marked Woman was the most famous of the late-1930s films based on New York DA Thomas Dewey's attack on vice lord Lucky Luciano; Paid to Dance was among the least famous. All-purpose Columbia leading lady Jacqueline Wells plays Joan Bradley, a long-suffering hoofer in the seedy dime-a-dance joint controlled by racketeer Jack Miranda (Arthur Loft). Like her fellow "hostesses," Joan is expected to clip the customers for their bankrolls -- and, it is implied, offer their bodies as well as their terpsichorean skills (though we're assured that Joan is still pure of heart and every other portion of her anatomy). Crusading detective William Dennis (Don Terry) vows to save Joan and her ilk from Miranda's clutches, but it takes plenty of brains and muscle to topple the villain's criminal empire. Billed last, Ralph "Dick Tracy" Byrd has a marvelous moment when he takes on two hoodlums at once -- and wins! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A rather weak entry in producer Edward F. Finney's series of Tex Ritter Westerns, Trouble in Texas enjoyed a much longer than usual shelf life courtesy of its beautiful leading lady Rita Hayworth, then known as Rita Cansino. Ritter stars as a rodeo champion searching for the villains who killed his brother. The gang, headed by Barker (Earl Dwire), is summarily poisoning competition to Barker's own champion, Squint Harmer (Yakima Canutt). With the assistance of Carmen (Hayworth) and comedic sidekick Lucky (Horace Murphy), Ritter not only avoids being poisoned, but goes on to win the rodeo. As a sort of consolation prize, the Barker gang rob the local bank, but choose a rather unfortunate wagon filled with dynamite as the getaway vehicle. In between riding in the (stock-footage) rodeo and chasing down his brother's killers, Ritter sings his own "Song of the Rodeo" and Al Bryan's "Down the Colorado Trail," while Hayworth performs a Mexican dance. When Trouble in Texas was re-released in 1943 by Ambassador Pictures, Rita Hayworth not surprisingly earned star billing ahead of Ritter. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

In this drama, a millionaire heir finds himself in trouble deep after during a night of drunkenness he pledges his fortune to charity. To keep from having to honor his pledge--and to avoid the luscious golddigger that pursues him--the young lout disguises himself as janitor and begins working at a nearly bankrupt nursery school. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this crime drama, an evil ex-con makes his living selling cheap booze masked under expensive labels. He runs a drugstore as a front and also sponsors a girl's baseball team. The story is split between the gangster's illegal activities and the action on the baseball field where the lovely players practice. Trouble ensues when one of the dishonest ex-con's prison buddies appears. To protect his scam, the ex-con kills his friend. Later, the team catcher is poisoned during a game. A dullard cop is assigned the case as a brainless rookie reporter. The ex-con ends up attempting to sell his drugstore and illicit booze in order to escape them. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Capitalizing on the success of MGM's Thin Man series, virtually every major studio of the 1930s came up with its own husband-and-wife detective team. Columbia's entry was There's Always a Woman, starring Melvyn Douglas and Joan Blondell. Douglas and Blondell are the married proprietors of an unsuccessful private eye. On the verge of quitting the business, Douglas is given a $300 retainer by Mary Astor for a seemingly simple trackdown job. Disinterested, Douglas turns the case over to his wife--but reenters the scene when a murder occurs. Rita Hayworth appears in a 30-second bit, cut down from a full supporting role when the picture threatened to run too long. There's Always a Woman was supposed to be the first of a Douglas/Blondell series, but that notion ended with the comparative failure of their next vehicle, There's That Woman Again (39). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Who Killed Gail Preston? gets off to a rousing start with a nocturnal prison break which turns out to be the prelude for a nightclub musical number, masterminded by bandleader Traynor (Robert Paige). Gail Preston (Rita Hayworth), Traynor's vocalist, is much-despised by practically everyone, so it comes as no surprise when she's bumped off in the third reel. The most likely suspect is a weaselly hanger-on (Dwight Frye) who removes himself from consideration when he takes a header from a fourth-floor roof. This leaves such disreputable types as Marc Lawrence, Arthur Loft and John Gallaudet for detective Connolly (Gene Morgan) to choose from. Set almost entirely in Columbia's standard nightclub set, Who Killed Gail Preston? is a remake of 1934's The Crime of Helene Stanley, which took place at a movie studio. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this drama, a Mexican woman attempts to live a peaceful life in California. Unfortunately, land-grabbers kill her father and begin harassing her. Desperate, she sends an impassioned plea for help to Washington, and a special aide is sent to mediate. He and the woman fall in love, and the aide does such a good job that he is elected to be the state's first governor. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

On the verge of superstardom, Rita Hayworth played in scores of minor dramas like Homicide Bureau, an entertaining little crime story released a scant three months before her big breakthrough, Howard Hawk's Only Angels Have Wings. She plays J.G. Bliss, a girl scientist assigned to help the city's beleaguered homicide squad. When an accused murderer, Chuck Brown (Marc Lawrence), is released for lack of evidence, J.G. and Lieutenant Jim Logan (Bruce Cabot) do their best to have the decision reversed. Jim discovers that Brown is a member of a secret society hiding behind the seemingly innocent name of "the Junk Dealer's Trade Organization," which in reality is engaged in selling scrap metal to a certain enemy power (read: Germany). But with the adoring J.G. at his side, the intrepid hero not only saves his boss, Captain Haines (Moroni Olsen), from a kidnapping, but manages to catch the entire gang of crooks, including their leader, Ed Briggs (Norman Willis). ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide