Gilda (1946)

Gilda

Director: Charles Vidor
Columbia Pictures

Reviewed by Mother of Popcorn - 5/24/05

I came across the piano sheet music for "Put the Blame on Mame." that had a picture of Rita Hayworth on it from the motion picture Gilda. I remembered the movie quite well even though I had seen it more than fifty years ago.  Wondering why it had made such an impression on me, I visited Barnes and Noble on line and found a DVD of Gilda, starring Glenn Ford and Rita Hayworth in black and white and bought it.  After viewing the film, I found the trailer of Rita dancing with Fred Astaire entertaining and was surprised at her grace and expertise.  Fred Astaire is quoted as saying that she was his favorite dance partner.

Columbia produced the Gilda in 1946.  The time setting for the picture is at the end of World War II.  At that time, change was the name of the game.  More than 12 million men had left their homes to go to this war, and more than 15.3 million civilians had moved, many in search of jobs at defense plants.

When the war ended, millions of troops came home, and the jobs in the defense plants changed back to manufacturing peacetime goods.  Rationing stopped.  Women who had worked outside the home to support the war and provide for their families were expected to stay home now, raise families again, and let the veterans have the jobs.  They were not, however, the naïve, dependent homemakers that they had been before the war.  They had functioned independently outside the home, raised their children, and kept house as well for about four years.

The men who came back from the war were not the uninitiated youths that they were at the beginning of the war either.  They had been taught to obey and to give orders in an authoritarian realm.  They had also suffered traumatic experiences and needed time to heal.  They came home to unemployment and a world that was different from what they had left.  Many personal relationships were strained as the roles of men and women shifted and the economy was transformed to the needs of peace.

Gilda, played by Rita Hayworth, and Johnny Farrell, played by Glenn Ford, personify in a unique way these strained personal relationships in this movie.  At some time before the narrative starts, they had had an emotional relationship in New York that ended badly.  As the film opens, Johnny Farrell is unemployed and out of cash while Gilda thinks she has solved her problems by marrying for money.

The locale of Gilda is an illegal gambling casino in Argentina.  Some of the wealthy Germans recognized that they were losing the war and sought an investment opportunity in Argentina whereby they could escape and recover their hidden money.  The villain in Gilda, Ballin Mundson played by George Macready, promised to provide them this opportunity while establishing an elaborate scheme that would allow him to prosper on the spoils of war.

The main characters in the movie, Gilda and Johnny Farrell, are exceptionally well acted by Hayworth and Ford.  On screen, the chemistry between the two is intense.  Their love-hate relationship has a magnetic force that sizzles.  Gilda is beautiful and alluring, giving ample evidence for Rita Hayworth’s fame as the Love Goddess.  Her clothed striptease and dance number is one of the sexiest of the era.  Johnny Farrell is the returned disciplined veteran.  He believes in obeying the chain of command and has a stubborn belief in the subordinate and high moral behavior of women although he would have trouble defining just how his belief system could work in his world.

Two supporting characters are flawlessly portrayed.  The valet, who knows everything that goes on the casino, provides comic relief and furthers the plot.  A police detective shadows and keeps a watchful eye over the casino and gives closure to the rather complex and fast paced plot.

I learned why I remembered Gilda so well.  It is a terrific movie that is unforgettable.

Mother of Popcorn

from the Popcorn Gallery