Review of Gilda (1946) by Barbara O — 16 Nov 2008

So much stuff running through my head while watching this cinematic splendor. One of the best movies of the film noir age. It's dramatic but for once the drama is well-earned. At first you think Gilda is going to be the typical femme fatale and you hate her guts but secretly love her seduction but then all of a sudden layer by layer is unwrapped until all is left is the soft underbelly of vulnerability.

Sexuality oozes out of Rita Hayworth au naturale. You get the feeling some actresses try too hard to attain this but Rita has the self-assurance of a truck...she's different from Monroe's ditzy loveability, she's tough as nails but voluptuously magnetic.

Pictures don't do this woman justice because it's way she moves and glides and sings and speaks that give the real package. Seriously did people get dance training is this movie because everybody seems to have this purposeful glide even when they're being slapped around or fall down? For once it's the story that's not important and even to the actors it's somewhat of a farce.

There is some serious hot-and-heavy going on with Ford and Hayworth and I can't stay away from any scene they're in together. But I think the interspersion of the ridiculous gang story is actually quite helpful because it doesn't make the chemistry too exhaustive.

I honestly think this movie is a good blueprint for whomever wants to make a love-hate-misunderstanding film because it never shifts the focus yet doesn't focus TOO deeply.