George Cukor was without a doubt Hollywood’s best actor director–Joseph L. Mankiewicz, director of the Oscar-winning All About Eve, told me when I researched my book, George Cukor: Master of Elegance.
My Bio of George Cukor (1994)
“My work really begins and ends through the actors, the more successfully you work through the actors, the more your own work disappears as a director”–George Cukor
Rita Hayworth:
George Cukor was also instrumental in launching or promoting the careers of many young actors en route to Hollywood stardom.
He had tested the young Rita Hayworth for the role of Katharine Hepburn’s sister in Holiday (1938), when Hayworth was still an obscure starlet at Columbia Pictures. But she was deemed too old and not suitable for the part.
Rita didn’t get the part, but Cukor promised to keep her in mind, and he did. He cast Hayworth in Susan and God (1940), a Joan Crawford melodramatic vehicle.
In one of her scenes, While she is at the house, Susan (Crawford) shows extreme fervor with her sermons alienating friends “Hutchie” and Leonora (Nigel Bruce and Rita Hayworth) by insisting Leonora leave her elderly husband and return to the stage.
The part was brief but impressive, enabling Hayworth to flaunt her sexy looks and erotic appeal.
Rita Hayworth was forever grateful to Cukor: After this film, which was released just months after Angels Have Wings, Hayworth’s rise in Hollywood was rather swift.
