Rita Hayworth (born Margarita Carmen Cansino; October 17, 1918 – May 14, 1987) was an American dancer and film actress who garnered fame during the 1940s as one of the era's top stars. Appearing first as Rita Cansino, she agreed to change her name to Rita Hayworth and her hair color to dark red to attract a greater range in roles. Her appeal led to her being featured on the cover of Life magazine five times, beginning in 1940.
The first dancer featured on film as a partner of both the stars Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly, Hayworth appeared in a total of 61 films over 37 years. She is listed by the American Film Institute as one of the 100 Greatest Stars of All Time.
Hayworth was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1918 as Margarita Carmen Cansino, the oldest child of two dancers, Eduardo Cansino, Sr., from Castilleja de la Cuesta, a little town near Seville, Spain, and Volga Hayworth, an American of Irish-English descent who had performed with the Ziegfeld Follies. The Catholic couple had married in 1917. They also had two sons: Eduardo, Jr. and Vernon.
Plot
Struggling private investigator Louis Simo treats his work more as a means to make a living than a want to do right by what few clients he has. Through connections with the investigation firm for which he used to work, Simo is hired by Helen Bessolo to investigate the death of her son, actor 'George Reeves (I)' (qv). Reeves was best known for his title role in _"Adventures of Superman" (1952)_ (qv), a role which he always despised, in part since it typecast him as a "cartoon", despite it bringing him a certain fame. His June 16, 1959 death by a single gunshot wound while in his bedroom in his Los Angeles home was ruled a suicide by the police, the death which occurred when the house was filled with people. Reeves' story is told in part in flashback as Simo, who is trying to make a name for himself with this case, talks to or tries to talk to some of the players involved, most specifically the wife of MGM General Manager 'E.J. Mannix' (qv), Toni Mannix, with who Reeves was having a relatively open and gift-lucrative affair (she bought him that house), and Reeves' fiancée at the time of his death, Lenore Lemmon, an aspiring actress who some felt didn't love Reeves (or visa versa). As Simo proceeds with his high-profile investigation, he learns that someone doesn't want him snooping around. Through the process, Simo evaluates his own professional and personal life, the latter which includes a somewhat strained relationship with his wife and son.
Keywords: 1950s, accidental-shooting, actor, actress, adultery, ambush, apartment-building, audition, barbecue-grill, bare-breasts
Living in Holly wood can make you famous. Dying in Hollywood can make you a legend.
Based on the true story of Hollywood's most notorious unsolved mystery
In a town full of fiction, everyone has a version of the truth.
Everyone has secrets. Everyone has motives.
Louis Simo: I can see the pieces. How they should fit. How I want them to fit.
George Reeves: You can't see my penis, can you?
Eddie Mannix: I'm in the picture business.
Chuck: You're not invited, Simo.::Louis Simo: Were you?::Chuck: We're working.::Louis Simo: Why don't you lay off? Mister Harris!::Rick Harris: Hello, Louis.::Louis Simo: You come up from Palos Verdes just to see me?::Rick Harris: I came here to celebrate my friends' anniversary. You've met Mister Mannix.::Louis Simo: No. But we've got people in common. Ain't that right, Eddie?::Eddie Mannix: I've got nothin' in common with you.::Louis Simo: Bernice, the first missus. You like that car crash gimmick, huh?::Eddie Mannix: Rick...::Louis Simo: Riva Watson. She get all clingy? How'd it feel, pounding her face in? Happy times, huh, Ed?::Eddie Mannix: Richard, please.::Louis Simo: George Reeves...::Rick Harris: That's enough, Louis.::Louis Simo: Am I being indiscreet? Bad for business, huh?::Rick Harris: Louis, your problems are your own.::Louis Simo: Ricky, you cover for this prick?::Rick Harris: Whatever you're pursuing here, whatever fantasy... you've constructed will not alter your past.::Louis Simo: You had a bullet put in Reeves' head! He used the studio and the cops - [Chuck punches him in the stomach] You're gonna burn in hell, you sonofabitch!::Eddie Mannix: Come here. You don't know me. You don't know what I think. What I do. I don't let you.::Louis Simo: You're an old man, Eddie. Who's gonna wipe the blood off your hands?::Eddie Mannix: My hands? I'm in the picture business.::Louis Simo: No, you're a murderer.::Eddie Mannix: Prove it. You hear me? Go on, I'm ready. Prove one fuckin' thing.
Toni Mannix: [Reeves steps in to get a photograph with Rita Hayworth] Just made it.::George Reeves: Beg your pardon?::Toni Mannix: Into the picture.::George Reeves: Was someone taking a picture? I hadn't noticed. [Reeves lights Mannix' cigarette]::Toni Mannix: My, we're awfully well-trained, Mister...::George Reeves: George Reeves. [Mannix laughs] Was it the line or the delivery?::Toni Mannix: I laugh when I'm happy.::George Reeves: I see. Well, who is it I'm making so happy?::Toni Mannix: I'm Toni.::George Reeves: Just a poor girl with no last name. [Mannix laughs again] I had no idea I could spread this much joy!::Toni Mannix: Who knows what you might be spreading? [Reeves grins] Your turn.::George Reeves: I'm afraid you've got me!
Louis Simo: Excuse me. You the Times?::Times Reporter: I'm the Times.::Louis Simo: You're the Times? What do you think about Superman offing himself and cutting his beloved fiancee out of the picture, leaving the green to Eddie Mannix's wife? Huh? Like she needs the dough? "Hell hath no fury," huh! I mean, people get killed for less than that.::Times Reporter: You saying George Reeves was murdered?::Louis Simo: It's a heck of a question.::Times Reporter: What's your name?::Louis Simo: Louis Simo. S-I-M-O.
Louis Simo: [about the bullet holes in George Reeves' floor] Since when do suicides miss twice and start over?
George Reeves: [looks at himself in the mirror after putting on Superman costume for the first time] I look like a damned fool!
Louis Simo: Why are you telling me now?::Leonore Lemmon: I'm... I'm just a little blotto, sugar. Kind of horny. And pretty goddamn all alone.::Louis Simo: So...?::Leonore Lemmon: I don't know. And I thought maybe we had something in common.
Detective Doug Johnson: The deceased woke up, joined his guests for approximately half an hour, returned to bed. No sign of forced entry or physical struggle. The Luger, found there, on the floor. Heavily oiled, no prints. He kept it in the nightstand. The slug, there. [Points at the hole in the roof] . And the casing on the bed, underneath the body.::Louis Simo: You want to explain to me how a man can shoot himself and end up on top of the shell?::James Engelman: Is this your strategy, Mister Simo? To impune the laws of physics?::Louis Simo: There are no prints on the gun. What, did he wipe it clean after putting that hole in his head?::Detective Doug Johnson: Fingerprints aren't automatic. Certain conditions have to be present.::Louis Simo: Did you question the people in the house?::Detective Doug Johnson: They all signed sworn statements.::Louis Simo: Forty-five minutes to call the cops, that's plenty of time to come up with some bogus story. But you got sworn statements!::Detective Doug Johnson: Are you accusing me of something?::Louis Simo: Was Reeves checked for powder burns? It's a suicide shot to the temple - where's the burn?::Detective Doug Johnson: When a gun is discharged directly against the ...::Louis Simo: The coroner never checked! He didn't notice the bruises on the body either - which, by the way, aren't automatic, OK? Certain conditions have to be present. Like, maybe a fight with a guy who's about to... cause your expiration. [Jack Paterson notices two more gunshot holes in the floor] Since when do suicides miss twice, lay down a rug, and start over? Is that normal? Just asking.
Plot
Based on the life and times of silverscreen goddess, Rita Hayworth. This film shows in detail her happiest and saddest moments, the men she dated and her successful career as an actress as well as many other aspects of her life.
Keywords: actress, based-on-book, dance, film-camera, sex-symbol, showbiz, star