Gilda

It's Rita Hayworth in probably her most memorable role. Her portrayal of Gilda is rightly remembered as a classic performance. But Gilda the character is much better than Gilda the movie. Hayworth may be a sensation but everything around her in this movie is not quite up to her standard. Not a bad movie by any means but no all-time classic either. It's one of those movies where a performance is remembered so fondly that perhaps people remember the movie as being somewhat better than it actually is. As good as Hayworth is she's not enough to hide the movie's flaws.

Our story unfolds in Buenos Aires. Which as you watch the movie is easy to forget because there is absolutely no South American flavor to the proceedings. The story might as well be set in Milwaukee. Anyhow small-time gambler and successful cheater Johnny Farrell somehow finds himself running a high-class casino after the casino's owner, Ballin Mundson, takes a liking to him. Everything is going swimmingly until one day, completely out of the blue, Ballin returns home from a trip with a beautiful new wife in tow. This woman is going to cause all kinds of complications. This woman of course is Gilda and right from the start, from her first memorable moment on the screen, Hayworth takes hold of the movie. Gilda's a fascinating character with so much lurking under the surface. And what's on the surface ain't so bad either. Not for nothing was Hayworth the era's most popular pinup girl. A shame then that the movie can't take full advantage of the allure and talents of its star.

Hayworth is vibrant, exciting, bursting with life. The movie is not. In playing Johnny Farrell, the character we unfortunately spend more time with than we do with Gilda, Glenn Ford comes across as being somewhat dull. And his character is rather unlikable. The story contains some elements which fall flat. There's something about a tungsten cartel which involves some angry Germans. This of course has nothing to do with Gilda. Can we just get back to Gilda? Please? Somewhere along the way the story really gets bogged down and not even Hayworth can fully rescue it. Everyone will remember Hayworth's big moments. She makes quite the impression with her famous singing and dancing. Well dancing anyway as the singing voice isn't hers. But nevertheless that famous number, "Put the Blame on Mame", is quite the spectacle. Now who to put the blame on for surrounding the fabulous Hayworth with an otherwise very ordinary movie? You'll love Rita. Love the movie? That's a stretch.

You could not have come up with a better title for this seductive thriller. GILDA is what this film is all about and Rita Hayworth is so engrossing and beautiful, you sometimes forget what is going on and just stare. "Put the Blame on Mame" is one of film history's more memorable singing sequences and we get to see it twice. Look out for the famous "hair-toss" scene the prisoners in SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION cheer at. There is a film to talk about here but the alluring Ms. Hayworth is always on the tip of your tongue.

Glenn Ford is the anti-hero of this excellent Noir portrait of double-crosses, jealousy, and forbidden love. He has many flaws, not the least being his infatuation of Gilda. Director Charles Vidor looked as though he was trying to capture a CASABLANCA-esque feel with the casino in Buenos Aires and people of all walks of life toiling within. There are even some familiar head nods at a roulette table. This is no CASABLANCA, but the end of WWII is somewhere in the backdrop and the stoic "Ballin Mundson", played by George Macready (PATHS OF GLORY), seems to have some foreign matters happening on the side, like "Victor Lazlo". The crisp black and white cinematography is effective, especially in the casino where 2/3 of the film takes place.

GILDA is all Hayworth and, whether you are a male or female viewer, you see a good performance. She is great to look at, but her dramatic scenes are equally great to see. GILDA is an all-time classic that ranks with MALTESE FALCON and DOUBLE INDEMNITY. Throughout the picture, the blame is put on Rita for most of the plot's turning points. There may just be someone as sweet as her flowing red hair inside waiting to come out. Glenn Fords' Johnny Farrel (perfect name for Noir character) cannot look past her deceiving flirtation and realize that the bad guy is right in front of him. Another triumphant film of the 1940's that works every time, GILDA is Rita Hayworth's claim to fame and sent her into the stratosphere as a star. She was more than just a pin-up.

RATING: 9 of 10

Glenn Ford and Rita Hayworth made five films together, but when they are talked of as a screen team, it's only Gilda that people are really talking about. Their first film was before World War II, The Lady in Question where both are young Columbia contract players who were in the same film and no effort was made to bill them as a team. The Loves of Carmen which was made after Gilda was a disaster for Glenn Ford, though Rita was at her sexiest. Affair in Trinidad was a good effort to recapture the magic of Gilda after Rita's storm marriage to Aly Khan and the last film The Money Trap was a Glenn Ford film where Rita has a brief role as an old girl friend. She was the best thing in that film by far.

Do you remember in Cabaret how both the Liza Minnelli and Michael York characters find out they are sex partners to the same German bi-sexual man? That's essentially what happens in Gilda though with the Code firmly in place it's not something we talk about. George MacReady, a man of many interests rescues Glenn Ford from the docks of Buenos Aires after he's won some money from sailors in a crap game. They hit it off and Ford becomes his right hand man in running the casino MacReady operates.

Then MacReady brings home a wife and lo and behold it turns out to be an old girl friend of Ford's, Rita Hayworth. Add to that some Nazi refugees have some business with MacReady over some tungsten mines.

The real emphasis in this film is sex and personified by the best embodiment of sex ever on the silver screen. This film raked in a lot of dollars for Harry Cohn and Columbia Pictures. Hayworth, voice dubbed as usual, had a big number here in Put the Blame on Mame. It became a signature tune for her the rest of her life.

One thing did disappoint me about Gilda. For a story that took place in Buenos Aires who many say is the most beautiful city in the world, it would have been nice to see some location shots, even if it was just some newsreels to establish the time and place. The film might as well have been in Albuquerque.

But when you've got Rita to look at, it could be at the South Pole.

Johnny is a small time, but talented, hustler who finds himself at the wrong end of a gun on the dark back streets of Buenos Aires. He is rescued by a mysterious and controlling stranger, Ballin Mundson, who ends up being the owner of a club/casino that operates under the radar of the law. Johnny and Ballin form a close partnership with Johnny being the "man who runs the joint" and Ballin the Master. When Ballin takes a short leave and comes back married to the gorgeous Gilda, a threesome develops that puts a strain on the partnership. There is a burning mutual dislike between Johnny and Gilda. When Gilda feigns ignorance over not remembering his name, she coyly replies, "Johnny. So hard to remember . . . and so easy to forget." Of course there's much more to their acquaintance than they are willing to acknowledge, and a fusion of sexual heat, jealousy, fear and hatred keep the tension tightly wound which fuels the film. And of course there is Rita Hayworth up front and center. All the accolades that have been showered on her sexy "striptease" interpretation of "Put the Blame on Mame" are true! And still this film has much more to offer; an economical but effective story line; a tight witty script loaded with innuendo; and superb acting all around, especially the overlooked icy performance of George Macready as Ballin Mundson.

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 his plane to explode over the ocean (although the audience and Calleia see a figure parachute before it does so). Not quite the same problem as the Loewenstein mystery, but one can see the seed of the idea was there.

I would say this was certainly one of the better film noirs. It even was somewhat thought provoking.