Gilda [DVD]

A gorgeous Rita Hayworth, a sword cane and enough hate for all, 18 Jun 2007

By 

C. O. DeRiemer (San Antonio, Texas, USA) –

  

  

  

Gilda is Rita Hayworth’s movie down to the last frame. It’s also one of the oddest and most enjoyable combinations of misogyny, love, hate, implied homosexuality, tungsten cartels, Nazi conspiracies and megalomania. The movie also features an intriguing menage a trois. No, not the one with Gilda, Johnny and Ballin, but the one with Ballin and his two “little friends,” his sword cane and Johnny. Note that elements of the plot are discussed.

Johnny Farrell (Glenn Ford) is a down-on-his-luck gambler who is saved from being robbed in a rough part of Buenos Aires by an elegant guy in formal attire and a sword cane. He’s Ballin Mundson (George Macready). Mundson is intrigued by Johnny’s competence, his willingness to make his own luck and…who knows? He offers Johnny a job in the elegant night club he owns, actually in the casino. Although gambling is against the law, Mundson has obviously made all kinds of accommodations and arrangements. In short order he moves Johnny up to manager and junior partner, but when he returns from a trip with a wife, tensions and suspicions emerge like worms from a rotten apple. Mundson’s new wife is Gilda (Rita Hayworth), a lush sexpot whom Mundson actually loves. Unknown to him, Gilda and Johnny have a history. We don’t know what happened exactly, but Gilda hates Johnny and Johnny detests Gilda. But something’s going on besides hate. “I hated her so, I couldn’t get her out of my mind for a minute,” Johnny tells us. It works both ways. One night Gilda asks Johnny, “You do hate me, don’t you, Johnny?” “I don’t think you have any idea of how much,” he says. Gilda looks at him with half-closed eyes. “Hate is a very exciting emotion. Haven’t you noticed? Very exciting. I hate you too, Johnny. I hate you so much I think I’m going to die from it.” Even Mundson, when his suspicions are aroused, starts talking about hate. “If you’re worried about Johnny Farrell, don’t be. I hate him!,” Gilda tells her husband. “And he hates you,” Ballin says. “That’s very apparent. But hate can be a very exciting emotion. Very exciting. Haven’t you noticed that? There is a heat in it, that one can feel. Didn’t you feel it tonight?” “No,” Gilda says. “I did,” Ballin replies. “It warmed me. Hate is the only thing that has ever warmed me.”

Johnny is loyal to Mundson. Even though he obsessively fails to recognize Gilda’s love for him, he tries to keep Mundson from learning about Gilda’s apparent affairs with others. When Mundson is implicated in a murder, flees and appears to die in a plane crash, Johnny is named trustee in Mundson’s will, which leaves everything to Gilda. He marries Gilda out of hatred, resentment and guilt. There is no reconciliation on the marriage bed; Johnny keeps her watched day and night. He also learns about Mundson’s single-minded ambition to control the world’s tungsten, of his dealings with Nazis toward the end of the war, and of the determination of an Argentinean detective to blow apart Mundson’s criminal business dealings. And at the end, when Johnny does the right thing, when he realizes he’s been wrong about Gilda…Ballin Mundson comes back, determined to use his one “little friend” to kill his other “little friend,” and Gilda as well.

If any movie could be said to be deliberately constructed to boost an actor to super stardom, this is it. The camera loves Hayworth, and she is photographed with exquisite care. Whether she’s doing a non-strip strip to “Put the Blame on Mame” or just looking teary-eyed and vulnerable, she’s gorgeous. Glenn Ford, or any other actor who would have played Johnny, has a tough job competing. He’s supposed to be tough, competent, yet hurt so deeply that he obsessively hates Gilda until the last ten minutes of the movie. His attitude, to me, gets tiresome after awhile. Ford also looks boyish, a look that stayed with him until the mid-Fifties. He’s not completely convincing as the kind of guy that a full-blown woman like Gilda would fall for so completely. George Macready, as the third person in the menage, had probably the best role of his career. He’s a cool, sophisticated smoothie, a little condescending, and the real-life scar he had on his cheek adds to his menace. It’s believable that his Ballin Mundson might be partly attracted to Johnny Farrell for a reason that dare not speak its name. On the other hand, it’s also believable his Mundson might truly, at least at first, be besotted by Gilda. There are two other nice performances by Steven Geray as an impertinent but wise washroom attendant and by Joseph Calleia as a patient Argentinean cop.

The DVD transfer is excellent. The most interesting extra is a feature on Hayworth called “Rita Hayworth: The Columbia Lady.” She comes across as a sympathetic, good-natured woman with a sense of humor and little ego. She died of Alzheimer’s, cared for by one of her daughters, after years of being thought a drunk and emotionally unstable. She had lousy luck with…

Read more

Help other customers find the most helpful reviews 

Was this review helpful to you? 

|

 Comment