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.

The 40s and 50s produced many alluring performances from beautiful and sexy actresses and Rita Hayworth's in Gilda is one of the most provocative of all. The film is good and quite deep, the male leads are better, but Hayworth's performance is simply stunning and unforgettable. She may not have been the most beautiful 40s actress (Gene Tierney and Veronica Lake were more classic beauties imo), but if you look closely her ability to show the sweet, the vulnerable, and especially the wanton, in women has not been bettered. Somehow her character gets under the male viewer's skin in the same way as it does to the male characters in the film.

Modern film femme fatales are a pale shadow by comparison, for example Linda Fiorentino or Sharon Stone. I'm not sure why. It could be either that nowadays allure is too much equated with sex or nudity (less tantalising than several dashes of suggestion) or maybe it's that present day equivalents are portrayed as hard as nails without the necessary mix of sadness and vulnerability.

Whatever, if you've never appreciated what the appeal of 40s noir is, this is definitely one to try.

And to think there used to be movies without graphic sex scenes that still got the point across, and how. The sexual tension between Ford and Hayworth in this movie is enough to make you run for the cold showers.

Hayworth is gorgeous and so is Ford. They are so good together and in this movie they are positively great. When great screen lovers are mentioned, I've often wondered why Ford and Hayworth aren't among them.

This is one of my absolute favorites.

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.

Gilda is directed by Charles Vidor. It sees Glenn Ford play a small time gambler Johnny Farrell. Who after cheating in a game of chance, finds himself with a gun in his back. This where George macready's Ballin Mundson comes into the picture. After fighting off the would be mugger they become friends. That is until Johnny gets caught trying his luck in another Casino. This time only to find out the casino belongs to Ballin, the two of them exchange ideas and Johnny agrees to work for him as the manager of his Casino. After a trip abroad Ballin comes back with a new wife. Johnny's Ex, Gilda played by the enigmatic Rita Hayworth.

The film is well made, and is shot in typical noir style. The story itself is fairly basic and offers no real surprises. The first half of the film is engrossing and builds up nicely, however the second half felt dull and bloated. The film would of been better off if it had twenty minutes cut out, the script would of felt a-lot tighter and better paced at ninety minutes.

The biggest strength of the film comes from the excellent performances. The three way dynamic between Johnny, Gilda and Ballin, is engrossing and fascinating to watch as the power struggle switches between the characters thought the duration of the film.

Over-all the films script was written well enough to keep me invested, and the ending makes up for the ponderous middle act. The performances are the main attraction of this film, especially the chemistry between Ford and Hayworth. The film isn't the best noir out there, but one that's still worth watching.