Big Red

Starred review from April 18, 2022
Charyn (The Perilous Adventures of the Cowboy King) plausibly recreates another chapter in American history in this affecting and searing portrait of Silver Screen superstars Rita Hayworth and Orson Welles. Rusty Redburn, “an actress who couldn’t act, a dancer who couldn’t dance, a singer who couldn’t sing,” struggles to make ends meet in Los Angeles. She takes a job in the publicity department of Columbia Pictures, tasked with digging up dirt on directors and actors, including those employed by the studio. Her adeptness in the role leads studio head Harry Cohn to plant her in the household of Hayworth and Welles to spy on them while working as their secretary. Redburn finds the assignment challenging, especially after she becomes aware of the shy, insecure personality Hayworth’s assured exterior conceals. She sympathizes more and more with her quarry as she learns of Hayworth’s past as a victim of abuse by Hayworth’s own father and of her desire to improve herself intellectually to be a better match for Welles. Charyn offers rapid-fire dialogue and slapstick action (“So it’s a bit of blackmail,” Orson says at one point, “lunging” at an adversary though he “wasn’t much of a gladiator with his big flat feet”) along with affecting character development. It’s a rewarding paean to some of cinema’s greats. Agent: Georges Borchardt, Georges Borchardt, Inc.

June 10, 2024

When "Love Goddess" Rita Hayworth sashays away from her studio handlers and into the arms of "Boy Wonder" Orson Welles, they send in a spy in the guise of Hayworth's private secretary. Rusty Redburn has impeccable qualifications: two years' college at Kalamazoo, nuanced appreciation for Welles's work, straightforward appreciation for Hayworth's physicality, and no intention of actually ratting on her idols. Feeding the studio just enough "secrets" to keep her place by the sides of "Orsie" and "Big Red," Rusty is far less stingy with the listener, regaling listeners with their life stories and her assessment of their inimitable abilities. Charyn (The Secret Life of Emily Dickinson), whose career spans 50 years and as many publications, delivers a new fictionalization of the stars of American history and a moment in time when they shone brightest. Narrator Natalie Duke perfectly inhabits wry, self-assured Rusty, and though her Welles impersonation is lacking, that only proves his inimitability. VERDICT The tragic romance of Rita Hayworth and Orson Welles retold by a sardonic lesbian in love with Golden Age Hollywood just as it draws to a close, this Tinseltown bio-fic brings down the house in audio.--Lauren Kage

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