Tom, open up Admin/Authentication/Login.ascx and find the following line.

and add a Visible="False" to it

NOTE: You'll have to make this change everytime your upgrade your DNN install.

SSL is problematic in DNN at best, but you should be able to require SSL for the login.  I haven't done this in a long time and don't remember what I did then, we no longer use DNN on a SSL secured site.  If I recall, it wasn't a lot more than configuring IIS and the entire site for SSL, though I may have made a change to code too.

On the new login page, there isn't anything displayed if you are logged in.  Log out and you should see the login fields.  The login controls in DNN aren't as configurable as they could be, but they're getting better.

Jeff

A quick and dirty way to just hide it, is to look at the page source and find the ID for it,. then add something like

#dnn_ctr_Login_tdPassword {display:none}

to your stylesheet.

Rob