Review of Gilda (1946) by Kristine N — 20 Aug 2007

Rita Hayworth is the symbol of freedom in Stephen King's novella from which this review's title is taken. However, it is not that novella--nor even the movie based on it!--that we'll be reviewing tonight. Instead, we're taking a look at the movie the pinup is taken from.

In [i]Gilda[/i], Rita Hayworth is the kind of woman who brought King's Andy Dufresne to his fate, with one major difference--this woman feels some sense of shame about who and what she is. She has married for money, and she's fairly honest about it; probably even her husband knows, whether he'll admit it to himself or not. She knows that she's bad for the men around her. She knows that she's bad at being married. She is, so far as we are left to suppose, loyal enough so that she's not actually sleeping with anyone else.

The documentary about Rita Hayworth that comes with the DVD refers to the plot as melodramatic and almost impossible to follow, but I'm not sure that's true. Certainly not if you look at it as a character study. Or a dual one, really, because we are certainly as involved in Johnny Farrell. It's the portrait of two people, people who both love and hate each other. What happens around them is largely irrelevant.

Actually, my grandmother looked not unlike Rita Hayworth herself, when she was younger. She was a lovely woman--they both were. This predisposes me to like Rita Hayworth movies, though I admit I haven't seen many of them. She's definitely sexy, and she's a talented actress as well. It's a shame that so many people care more about the former than the latter--even today.