During World War II, it would have been incongruous to set a fluffy musical like this one in an American city like Los Angeles, which was enduring nightly blackouts and frequent air raid drills, a suspension of many kinds of popular entertainment, and strict rationing. Even New York City faced four years of muted social activity. The closest peacetime location retaining a kind of glamorous cosmopolitan European culture was Buenos Aires, long before it became besotted with Peronism and found itself destined to endure a social and economic tailspin out of which it has yet to recover. (History is full of ironies like this.)
Thus we see Astaire and Hayworth dancing in an elegant setting as if war did not exist, oblivious to the completely American cast, story, ambience, and tone transposed into a quasi-Hispanic country created entirely on a Hollywood soundstage. The only Spanish-speaking cast member was probably Xavier Cugat.
Clearly, the producers of the film wanted to pretend for the sake of a war-weary audience there was still a place offering hope for a postwar culture unscathed by the horrors taking place in the real world. By creating a kind of Buenos Aires of the mind, "You Were Never Lovelier" succeeded at the box office and delivered a message of optimism simultaneously.
The inimitable Adolphe Menjou in his trademark double-breasted suit lived on to become a television mainstay in the 50's, hosting a weekly drama show entitled "Adolphe Menjou Presents." Rita Hayworth stayed in her own Buenos Aires of the mind to create "Gilda" in 1946. And Fred Astaire continued for the rest of his long life to be Fred Astaire. None of these actors ever had a close match in terms of the iconic images they projected into the world. Few actors achieve that lofty height, perhaps no more than a couple of hundred out of millions.
The sound of the bandoneon is notably absent in any Buenos Aires of the mind. More's the pity. But the Kern-Mercer score tells us in any case that we are really in, say, Cincinnati or Kansas City.
Thus we see Astaire and Hayworth dancing in an elegant setting as if war did not exist, oblivious to the completely American cast, story, ambience, and tone transposed into a quasi-Hispanic country created entirely on a Hollywood soundstage. The only Spanish-speaking cast member was probably Xavier Cugat.
Clearly, the producers of the film wanted to pretend for the sake of a war-weary audience there was still a place offering hope for a postwar culture unscathed by the horrors taking place in the real world. By creating a kind of Buenos Aires of the mind, "You Were Never Lovelier" succeeded at the box office and delivered a message of optimism simultaneously.
The inimitable Adolphe Menjou in his trademark double-breasted suit lived on to become a television mainstay in the 50's, hosting a weekly drama show entitled "Adolphe Menjou Presents." Rita Hayworth stayed in her own Buenos Aires of the mind to create "Gilda" in 1946. And Fred Astaire continued for the rest of his long life to be Fred Astaire. None of these actors ever had a close match in terms of the iconic images they projected into the world. Few actors achieve that lofty height, perhaps no more than a couple of hundred out of millions.
The sound of the bandoneon is notably absent in any Buenos Aires of the mind. More's the pity. But the Kern-Mercer score tells us in any case that we are really in, say, Cincinnati or Kansas City.