Film Review: Gilda (1946)

In today’s Hollywood, stars (or what goes for stars these days) are made by appearing in big films. In the golden age of Hollywood, films became big by having big stars. One of the most telling examples is Gilda, a 1946 crime drama directed by Charles Vidor, best known for Rita Hayworth delivering one of the most legendary performances in the history of cinema.

The plot is set in Buenos Aires near the end of the Second World War. The protagonist and narrator is Johnny Farrell (played by Glenn Ford), an American adventurer who tries to make ends meet by playing craps with loaded dice. That gets him in trouble from which he is rescued by Ballin Mundson (played by George Macready), the owner of a luxurious and illegal casino who likes Johnny so much that, after catching him cheating in his own casino, actually employs him as manager. Johnny is surprised by this, but even more surprised to find that his boss has married Gilda (played by Rita Hayworth), a beautiful lounge singer and Johnny’s former girlfriend. The relationship had ended badly, making the former lovers resent each other. While Gilda openly flirts with other men, Ballin, unaware of Johnny’s past, gives him the task of watching over her. The situation is further complicated by Ballin’s ambitious plans to build a global business empire based on a tungsten monopoly, which involves shady businessmen from Germany.

There were few stars who could elevate a single film in the manner Rita Hayworth did with Gilda. By the time of production, she was already a star, having been established in light-hearted musicals and comedies and, more importantly, having her popularity enhanced by a famous 1941 photo featuring her in a black lace nightgown, which made her the most popular pin-up girl for US servicemen in the Second World War. The role of Gilda was her first major foray into more serious dramatic roles, and it was a test Hayworth passed with flying colours. In Gilda, her acting is good, although the audience paid much more attention to her stunning looks, which made her character one of the most iconic femme fatales of 1940s Hollywood. Helped by the excellent black-and-white cinematography by veteran Rudolph Maté and innovative costumes by Jean Louis, she lights up the screen with sensuality and provides some of the most erotic moments that the notoriously puritan Hollywood censorship of its time would allow. These include her introductory scene, in which she flips her hair, and the famous “Put the Blame on Mame” song number, during which she seductively removes her glove. Hayworth’s Gilda represents the proverbial woman men want and women want to be. Her performance is also helped by great chemistry with Glenn Ford, an actor with whom she had a romance on set that would, with interruptions, continue for most of her life.

Hayworth instantly turned Gilda into a major success and quickly earned a reputation as a “love goddess” or what some would later describe as a “sex bomb”. The latter term was partially inspired by popular imagination connecting unrestrained feminine sexuality with the irresistible power of nuclear weapons in post-WW2 years. This phenomenon was linked to Operation Crossroads, the famous nuclear weapons test on Bikini Atoll which, among other things, gave its name to a new and popular form of minimalist female swimsuit. The test was conducted shortly after the premiere of Gilda, and the bomb used in it was actually named “Gilda”, much to the displeasure of Rita Hayworth. The actress, known for her colourful private life, later began to resent her most famous role, describing how “men were falling in love with Gilda only to wake up with Rita Hayworth”.

The effect of Rita Hayworth becomes even more impressive after the realisation that without her, the 1946 film actually isn’t much to write home about. Columbia had invested a large budget, but the direction of Charles Vidor, although solid, is uninspired. The Buenos Aires setting, brought into the script in order to calm the censors of the Hays Office, who were more prone to tolerate amoral “noirish” characters outside America, is almost unnoticeable in the film. While the acting is solid, especially in the case of Hungarian actor Steven Geray, who plays comic relief in the form of the casino’s washroom attendant Uncle Pio, it can’t compensate for a messy script that is often confusing and doesn’t bother explaining characters and their motives. The strange relations between Gilda, Johnny and Ballin were later explained by critics and film scholars as a bizarre “ménage à trois” that includes bisexuality, an explanation that actually amused both Vidor and Ford. The subplot involving shady business dealings and Ballin’s dreams of world domination is also undeveloped and seems more like an afterthought and an attempt to exploit the public’s anxiety about the true state of the post-WW2 world. As a result, viewers who expect to see a great Hollywood icon delivering magic on screen will probably appreciate Gilda. Those who expect true film noir will not.

RATING: 6/10 (++)

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