Review of Gilda (1946) by Robert B — 02 Oct 2004

[font=Arial]Rita Hayworth said that, every man she ever met fell in love with Gilda .. When you watch this movie, it's not hard to see why. Ms. Hayworth can add one more to a long list of admirers.

Gilda is a tremendously complex character, unlike Farrell and Mundson, who are transparent. We're never really told why Farrell walked out on Gilda. Given his later behavior, we might believe he thought she was unfaithful.

The list of Gilda's not-so-admirable qualities is quite long. She is an ingenuous flirt, either not knowing, or not caring the effect her flirtations have on men. See above regarding why Johnny might have walked out.

She is not a woman you want to cross, because she is determined to get even. She's a big tease, spending large portions of this movie trying to make Farrell .. and by extension, the audience ..jealous. These are the best parts of this movie, in my opinion.

She can be heartlessly cruel. The entire scene where she echoes to Farrell what Mundson told her about the power of hatred is achingly poignant. Johnny Farrell is a small, bad-tempered, cynical, mean-spirited low life, who has in some inexplicable fashion captured Gilda's heart. But, knowing that, you feel for him in this moment. Gilda's words cut like a razor.

Yet, for all that, she elicits our sympathy. She is really just a girl in love, who doesn't understand .. anymore than we do .. why her lover is so cruel to her. She's a victim of circumstances and other people's bad judgments. She understands her relationships with Farrell and Mundson very differently than they do, and her understanding is the one that is ultimately determined to be closer to the truth.

The allure of Rita Hayworth has been better commented upon by others, but I have to say just a word. Gilda is a film that paradoxically makes the viewer yearn for a standards and practices division. Think about how sexually charged the ambience of this movie is in every scene where Hayworth appears .. and she did it all with .. a hair flip, those pouty, kissable lips, and a "demure" striptease, as some have called it. Not the word I would have chosen. Marilyn Monroe has given us onscreen moments like this. There are strong similiarities between Gilda and her character in the Seven Year Itch, but no other actress of the last fifty years has come close to the captivating, artless, sincerity and appeal of Gilda. We know in a moment why Farrell fell for her; what we never understand is what she sees in him.

This film would be a better representative of film noir with a different ending. I won't give it away for those who haven't seen the picture. I'll just say their sudden epiphany doesn't ring true. I would have preferred seeing Gilda walk slowly away from Johnny, as Obregon puts the cuffs on him, but .. no-o-o. I've heard film noir defined as bad people doing bad things to each other in the city, in the dark, in the rain. This movie fits that description almost perfectly.. until the last ten minutes.

A closing word on Rita. They say her career and popularity were downhill after this film, although she worked scrupulously .. with timeout for an ill-fated marriage to Aly Khan .. at trying to recapture them. Like former spouse, Orson Welles, she'd given her best performance before she was thirty, and yet lived almost four decades looking back to that moment. She might have felt sad and frustrated at that circumstance. But, what a moment! Few rise to such heights, and fewer still rise higher. Who can be disappointed finally by such a legacy?[/font].