New Release: The Films of Rita Hayworth DVD

Gilda

On Dec. 21, 2010, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment released the DVD collection The Films of Rita Hayworth, including three movies that had not been issued on disc before.

The Hayworth DVD set contain the actresses’ iconic performances in Gilda and Cover Girl, as well as Tonight and Every Night, Salome and Miss Sadie Thompson, the last three of which debuted on disc.

Produced by Sony and The Film Foundation, The Films of Rita Hayworth was priced at $59.95 and offers new special features with directors Baz Luhrman (Moulin Rouge!), Martin Scorsese (Shutter Island) and actress Patricia Clarkson (Shutter Island):

• “Baz Luhrman on Cover Girl“
• “Patricia Clarkson on Tonight and Every Night“
• “Martin Scorsese and Baz Luhrman on Gilda“
• and “Introducing Miss Sadie Thompson With Patricia Clarkson.”

Also, acclaimed author and critic Richard Schickel recorded a commentary for Gilda.

Born Margarita Cansino in Brooklyn, New York, Rita Hayworth (Oct. 17, 1918 – May 14, 1987) began her career as a nighclub dancer and made her film debut with 1935’s Dante’s Inferno. Her big break came with 1939’s Only Angels Have Wings, in which Hayworth starred as Cary Grant’s hardboiled ex-girlfriend.

Musicals Cover Girl and Tonight and Every Night came in 1944 and 1945, respectively. In Cover Girl, Hayworth played a dancer who becomes a magazine cover model until her dance partner and love interest, Gene Kelly, becomes jealous. The five-time Oscar-nominated film features songs by Ira Gershwin and Jerome Kern. Tonight and Every Night finds Hayworth in a dramatic role as an American showgirl in war-time London. Nominated for two Oscars, the movie is based on a real theater troupe that didn’t miss a performance despite dangerous circumstances.

In 1946, Hayworth made the movie that turned her into a legend: Gilda, the film in which she performed the famous one-glove striptease. Playing the titular role, Hayworth is the wife of a casino owner in Buenos Aires who’s surprised to discover that her husband’s new casino manager (Glenn Ford) is a man from her past.

The biblical film Salome and musical drama Miss Sadie Thompson debuted in 1953. In Salome, Hayworth is the beautiful but wicked stepdaughter of Roman King Herod (Charles Laughton), whose lust for her leads her to make a deadly demand involving John the Baptist (Alan Badel). And Miss Sadie Thompson is the fourth screen version of the famed Somerset Maugham story about the arrival of a free-spirited woman to Samoa, where she arouses the interest of the Marines based there and the wrath of a preacher (Jose Ferrer).

The Films of Rita Hayworth DVD collection also will include original movie trailers.

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