[okie01]

"She really was, wasn't she, a fantasticly beautiful woman?!"

Sometime in the nineties, we rented "They Came To Cordura". I had not seen a Rita Hayworth movie since, oh, probably the fifties. That is, for about 35-40 years. My wife, who was born in 1948, barely recalled her -- more by reputation than anything else.

But, when Rita made her first appearance in that movie, my jaw dropped and my wife gasped. My Gawd, she was a fantastic looker, wasn't she? I'm convinced the term "drop dead gorgeous" was coined for her.

Speaking of such things, I'm probably of the same generation as Nicholas Stix. And Rita Hayworth's Latin blood was very well known and a recognized part of her mystique -- even to us rubes in the outback of Oklahoma.

[mrustow]

They Came to Cordura was my first Rita Hayworth movie! I saw it because it starred Coop; Rita was a delicious extra. I think she looked even better than in the '40s pinups some education-oriented FReeepers were so kind as to post. IIRC, she wore a small, round, black hat at an angle, and walked, cool as a cucumber, on the tracks, as Coop was forced by rogue soldiers (including Tab Hunter, cast against type) to drag a flat railroad car (I think it was a broken relay car, the kind you normally pumped yourself), all by himself.

Since it's 30 years since I saw the flick, I won't vouch for the accuracy of the above -- excepting for the impression that R.H.'s startling beauty made on me.

And did I mention, that she was a serious actress?