Gilda (1946)

Odd that a movie with such an unusual homo-erotic subtext would be remembered for its glamour girl. Well, not so surprising since those adoring close-ups reveal a stunningly beautiful Rita Hayworth. Good thing she got a hairline lift since her bit-part days as Rita Cansino in such B-movie epics as Charlie Chan in Egypt (1935). It's all part of the star-making process, I guess. True, she may not be much of an actress, but as a face she could go nose-to-nose with the young Elizabeth Taylor any day. Those first few scenes between her, Ford and Macready crackle with scarcely veiled innuendo, and I could just see the three of them retiring warily to the bedroom together. I'm just wondering what the Code enforcement folks had to say. My guess is the censors traded those early scenes for later ones dissolving the threesome into a more conventional triangle of hetero-jealousy.

Anyway, the movie soon flattens into a rather confusing, but well photographed, narrative highlighted by Rita's sexy tussle with a shoulder-length pile of hair. I suspect the poorly integrated screenplay results from passing through the hands of three different writers headed in three different directions, with not enough supervision. In my little book, whichever scribbler did the lines for the toilet attendant should have been in charge. The movie itself may fall well short of the hoopla, but it does have its moments.

Fmovies: You're out of practice, aren't you? Dancing, I mean... I could help you get in practice again, Johnny... Dancing, I mean."

As tawdry a film noir could get in 46. Not sure if it needed narration - or if they had to to have more of it - and then it gets too much in the second half. It also helps to check out the special features on the Criterion disc, in particular the segment with Eddie Muller. I had a sense that some thing is sort of 'off' with Farril and Ball in, which is what their connection is in this love triangle.

At first you think it is just the 'employee has a thing with his employers gal who used to date the employee, what are the odds'- but the pull from Johnny to this guy who *sounds* immediately like a Nazi (the actor was later in Paths of Glory) had the air of salacious tension. That it got by the censors or Hayes people is extraordinary; it's classy and steamy at once. It's also produced and co-written by women, and that gets reflected in how Hayworth is depicted: she's powerful and sexy, But her vulnerability and conflicts are even stronger and grow in pofundity; who is Gilda to Ballin, what is he to her, how is Johnny keeping his composure not exploding as he looks at her in every scene? Its not just eye candy, it's a real performance with depth. Ford matches her beat for beat in his own, and made his breakthrough by creating a performance with a ton of subtext and pain.

But goddamn does Hayworth make an all time masterpiece of a dame here, with an intense, mostly hot but almost nasty connection. Gilda also has the added benefit of getting more twisted and (for its time) sordid in the melodrama as it goes on, and Macready as the cold-blooded husband. All three work so well together, and this coupled with the whole sensual/dangerous mood to it all, how it is photographed by the great Rudolph Mate, and those songs that are fun cinematic set pieces first, like any good dance number, and iconic for their sexy allure second (the acoustic Blame on Mame is sweet too), and you got a minor classic.

Shame the end tops Woman in the Window for 'whaaaa?'ness

This is one of my all time favourite films, much watched with all its faults. Even the best things can't be faultless but any faults can be more easily overlooked.

There is no golden age film I've seen quite like Gilda, full of strange people with highly-charged emotions saying and doing odd thought-provoking things in semi-comical ways - if you include violence and swearing you could say that's 90% of modern movies though! The subject of hate = love has been explored better since Gilda, but with me the first cut is always the deepest - I first saw this when I was a more impressionable youngster. What we have is a scintillating four way love/hate relationship between Ballin, Johnny, Ballin & Johnny's little friend with no name, & Gilda that ultimately becomes the "usual" tawdry tangle, resolved by their nightclub's toilet-attendant. Huh? When you're in the middle of this fantasy world you can swallow all of this and more.

Probably the second best B picture ever made it only starts to feel like one during the last 30 minutes down to the metaphorical walking into the sunset ending. There's so many good bits: The inventive and relentlessly snappy dialogue between the main characters throughout the film; Johnny quoting statistically that there are more insects in the world than women; Johnny waking up at 5am to the sound of Gilda singing to Pio the toilet-attendant; Pio's reaction after the midget industrialist killed himself in the toilets; Ballin describing his little friend's attributes to Johnny who claims he's just as good; Ballin asking Gilda if she was decent when she was; Johnny telling Ballin categorically that he taught Gilda ALL she knew; Gilda's little striptease - what creeps there were in that club - and fancy stopping her!

Not quite as good as, but a worthy bookend for Casablanca, THE best B picture ever made.

Gilda fmovies. Rita Hayworth positively sizzles as Gilda in this film-noir classic. From her initial hair-tossing scene to her near striptease while she sings "Put the Blame on Mame," Hayworth is captivating and more than convincing as the object of every man's desires. However, beyond the overtly heterosexual lures of Ms. Hayworth lurks a complex and ambiguous romantic triangle that provides more intrigue than the surface plot, which involves a gambling casino that is a front for shady operations that originated in a recently defeated, Fascist country.

Hayworth may either be the intruding wedge that comes between Glenn Ford and George Macready or the object of both men's romantic interests. From the initial meeting between Ford as two-bit gambler Johnny Farrell and Macready as Ballin Mundson the casino owner, an ambiguous, possibly homo-erotic, attraction is established between the two men. The lingering looks that they exchange can be read in several ways, but Bogie never looked into Cagney's eyes like Ford looks into Macready's. After Ford begins to work for Macready, his devoted care and slavish attention to his boss's needs exceed the bounds of employee and employer. When Hayworth moves into Macready's home as his new wife, Ford returns the key to the house as though he were a jilted lover. Ford's increasing jealousy becomes apparent after Hayworth's arrival on the scene, but it is unclear of whom he is jealous, Hayworth or Macready or possibly both. Perhaps Ford's character is as unsure of his own feelings as is the viewer, which makes the ambiguity even more intriguing. Macready's jealousy also grows as the heat between Ford and Hayworth intensifies, but, again, it is ambiguous of whom he is jealous.

With a dazzling performance by Hayworth, excellent black-and-white photography by Rudoph Mate, fine direction by Charles Vidor, and layers of psychological possibilities to ponder, "Gilda" is as golden as its title suggests.

This film is a great example of a very good film whose style and sense of sex appeal actually surpasses the plot. Now this isn't to say that the film has a bad plot--no, it's good enough. It's just that the wonderfully Noir-like dialog and Rita Hayworth's incredible sex appeal are what you are left with when the film is over--not the plot! Despite being a Rita Hayworth starring vehicle, she actually doesn't take up the lion's share of the screen. In fact, she doesn't even make an appearance until about 20 minutes into the film! This task of anchoring the film is given to a young and very effective Glenn Ford--who does a fine job as a street-wise but smart young punk wanting to make it to "the big leagues" and stop hustling for small change. When Ford meets up with George Macready, it's an incredibly memorable Noir moment. The crackling dialog between them and Ford's not even bothering to thank Macready for saving his life is so stylish and made the Film Noir lover within me happy! Later, in another great scene, Ford has just been worked over by a bouncer from a high class casino when he finds out this is Macready's business! Instead of being angry, both strike up a working arrangement--and Ford dispatches the bouncer is a brutal manner! Only later, after Ford has been Macready's right-hand man for some time does Hayworth enter the film. The reaction to her arrival indicates that there is SOME unfinished business between the two--but now Rita is Macready's new wife! Now this brings me to one problem about the film. It isn't an insurmountable problem, but supposedly Rita and Glenn had been lovers some time before and their meeting now was by pure chance. However, considering that they were in love in New York and the film takes place in Argentina, you are left wondering "what are the odds?". Despite this, you aren't left wondering for long because of the sparkling dialog and chemistry between Rita and Glenn. In other words, because of all the steamy moments on the screen, you tend to forget the occasional inconsistency of the plot. And, speaking of steam, there is a lot. Despite apparently being pregnant during the shoot, Miss Hayworth managed to create the sexiest portrayal on film from the era...period. Her languid singing, her amazing dresses that looked like they were glued on and the dialog between her and Ford all created an amazing atmosphere that just can't be equaled. Sure, the plot was fine, but the mood--that's what makes this an exceptional film.

By the way, it is rather fascinating to see that in many ways this film mirrored the real-life antics of Rita--especially in regard to how she had a devil of a time picking men! Both Gilda and Rita both seemed to have a lot of sex destructiveness within them.

George Macready is playing the role that most people remember him for - Balin Munson, nightclub millionaire in Argentina, and a man with pure ice in his veins. He has two friends...Johnny (Glenn Ford), who Balin rescues from some toughs, and a slick, sharp little chum hidden in his walking stick - ever ready to cut up people that Balin doesn't like. He also has bigger plans. Men like Balin are not satisfied with successful nightclub/gambling casinos (however successfully they are run). During the Second World War several German and axis industrialists found Balin a comfortable man to do business with. It seems they were not sure if Der Fuhrer would win after all, so they transferred various papers concerning their international holdings in tungsten manufacturing to Balin for him to watch. Big mistake, for Balin realizes that the documents actually put these interests into his fully capable hands. And since he has managed to bribe a local tungsten manufacturer to sell out his plant in Argentina, if Balin can leave without police interference he can put together a cartel that will control the manufacture of such things as light bulb filaments. Sounds preposterous, but that is Balin's goal. He only has two problems: Johnny and Balin's beautiful wife Gilda (Rita Hayworth) apparently know each other and can't stand each other - but he has to leave them in charge of his nightclub while he's away. The other problem is Detective Maurice Obregon (Joseph Calleia) of the Argentine Police Department. Obregon suspects Balin's involvement in this illegal cartel scheme, and is watching him like a hawk.

"Gilda" is the film that made Rita Hayworth a star, and (with "Paths of Glory") gave Macready his justifiable claims to being one of Hollywood's best villains. Ironically many people don't think of Macready as anything but a villain in movies. It is true that in films like "Lady Without a Passport" and "The Big Clock" he was a villain, but he also could play decent people. He tries to help Spencer Tracy escape recapture and execution in "The Seventh Cross", and he is the wise minister and reformer who helps thwart Ray Milland (a.k.a. the Devil) in "Alias Nick Beal". But his Balin is pure, malevolent ice. There has been some suggestion that Balin's relationship with Johnny is actually a homosexual one (the business with the knife in the cane possibly being a metaphor for a male sex organ). Perhaps, but it is a weird friendship of two cynics who (briefly) enjoy each other's cynicism.

Curiously enough the business of the tungsten cartel is rarely discussed in going over the film. Like "Notorious" which came out about the same time, "Gilda" reminded American audiences of the large numbers of Nazis and collaborators who fled to South America in this period. In "Notorious" it was Brazil, and the gang (led by Alex Sebastian - Claude Rains) was fooling around with uranium. Here the idea of such people controlling a useful metal's manufacturing was not probed as much, probably because Balin was set to double cross them. But it is worrying to think of them coming so close to it.

In a discussion of the Warner Baxter film, "Such Men Are Dangerous" I mentioned that (like that film) there is a hint here of the 1928 mysterious death of millionaire Alfred Loewenstein, who managed to fall out of his private airplane over the English Channel. Here, to evade both the Nazis and Calleia, Balin arranges h