Gilda
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Movie Reviews of Gilda
Movie Review: Intrigue in post war Argentina
Summary: 5 Stars
Rita Hayworth is at her sultry best in a role that was made for her in Charles Vidor's 1946 film noir classic "Gilda".
Glenn Ford playing gambler Johnny Farrell has a chance encounter with arrogant Buenos Aires casino owner Ballin Mundson played by scar faced George Macready. Ford eventually gains his trust and is charged with running the casino. Macready returns from a business trip and much to Ford's surprise reveals his new wife and party girl, Gilda. Little did the intensely jealous Macready know that Ford and Hayworth had been lovers and still had feelings for each other. And so began a rather sticky and tortuous love triangle, although with Ford being respectful and keeping his distance.
We later find out that Macready's business extends quite a bit further than gambling. He is the head of a cartel controlling the metal, tungsten. He apparently acquired this from German sources during the war and they wished to reclaim it.
The story proceeds with suspense and some torrid scenes featuring Hayworth performing provocative song and dance routines. The Argentine police are aware of what is transpiring and a sympathetic detective Obregon played by Maltese born Joseph Calleia assures that the story has a satisfying ending.
Director Vidor does a nice job in showcasing Hayworth who turned this role into a signature piece of her acting ability. Ford and Macready do very well in their roles but Hayworth lights up the screen with her presence. The plot while not overly dramatic does enough to plausibly tie the action together.
Movie Review: The love that dares not speak its name
Summary: 5 Stars
and how! Even steamy Gilda can't snuff the smoldering flame shared by Johnnie and Ballin.
So here's the gist: Johnnie (Glenn Ford) is a ne'er do well rolling around in Argentina when he rolls into Ballin's (George Macready) arms. I mean, hands. Johnnie becomes Ballin's right hand man, managing his casino and running his errands. One night, one of his errands becomes babysitting the Lovely Rita, I mean, Gilda. Turns out, he knew Gilda from before and I mean KNEW her from before! Something nuclear must have happened because on the rebound he went for Ballin and man alive he doesn't like Gilda. I hate every bone in your body but mine, he emotes. Things go terribly wrong all over. Turns out Ballin is somehow wrapped up with some Nazis and some tungsten and he hasn't told Johnnie. Gilda sings and taunts and smokes cigarettes. Johnnie does a lot of frustrated smoking as well. Gilda and Johnnie end up thrown together and Johnnie lets his sadomasochistic self loose on the hapless girl. It's all OK in the end, but only when Johnnie's True Love, Ballin, is completely removed from the picture.
The homoerotic tension in this movie is unbelievable. I was completely surprised by it. Rita Hayworth is almost a caricature of female lustiness but she is but a little candle compared to the blast furnace of the Johnnie/Ballin romance. As an example, when Johnnie and Gilda are discovered together by Ballin, who chases after the distraught Ballin? His wife? No! It's Johnnie running after him, begging for another chance.
I loved it. Five stars.
Movie Review: Hayworth's Second Best Film?
Summary: 5 Stars
Rita Hayworth has to be the most under appreciated actor of all time! She made two amazing films that truly showed what she could do with a few lines of dialogue and facial expressions that could a room ablaze. "Gilda" and its equal "The Lady From Shanghai" show off her talent in top form! In this Noir Hayworth is Gilda a smart, sexy and devlish woman who marries for money but seduces for kicks. The plot is a love triangle at its best due to the fact that the main characters Haywoth, Ford and Mundson all want lust and money! When the unlucky Farrell played to perfection by Glenn Ford is saved in a sedy alley by a sinister and scarred Mundson (Macready as the devil himself) Farrell soon learns that Mudson owns the hottest night club in town and the hottest woman - Gilda! But thing are not as they seem and when the film goes into Noit overdrive the viewer is rewarded with master shots of kissing, over the shoulder slaps and just plain shoot outs! Gilda is the ultimate film about greed and how it controls not you bu the people around you. The films dialouge is so slick that you might want to bring some of the slang into your everyday venacular! If "The Lady From Shanghai" turned Hayworth into the ultimate ice queen then Gilda paints her as the utlimate piece of ice sculpture! Beautiful, clear but not clear enough that the you can see clearly through it but as with ice and as with the film's heroin Gilda and its chracters have the ultimate meltdown and just our luck its for our own pleasure to watch it happen!Movie Review: Every Woman's Guilty Pleasure, Even A Feminist's
Summary: 5 Stars
I don't care what initials follow your name, JD, MD, PhD. This movie will hit you right in the solar plexus no matter how PC and "with it" you are. It was made in the '40s, starring Rita Hayworth and Glen Ford, of all people, who normally I like in nothing! I also usually despise movies where the hero and heroine hate one another until the last few minutes of the movie or book. Well, just throw the rule books out with "Gilda." This film has chemistry with a capital "C". Sex appeal and the fate of those couples "meant to be" exudes from every frame of it. Rita Hayworth as Gilda is utterly gorgeous and desirable while Glen Ford as Johnny makes all other men pale in comparison. She's married to his boss who owns a casino-nightclub in South America. However, there will be no Gilda disappearing in the night skies with her husband as there was in "Casablanca." These two lovers aren't that noble. Instead, they verge on being outright scoundrels! Frankly, I never even thought Hayworth was much of a singer and dancer until I saw her perform "Put The Blame On Mame" in this film. Wow! I ate humble pie on that one. I have this on video and I've lost count of how many times I've seen it, starting in my viewing as a pre-teenager. Now I'm seriously thinking about getting it in DVD. You can never have too much "Gilda." My advice: don't even fight it; trash out tonight in total pleasure with "Gilda." You might as well buy it as once will never be enough.Movie Review: Dazzling, perverse, wonderful
Summary: 5 Stars
Much has been made of the obvious pleasures in "Gilda" -- the stunning, idol-making performance of Rita Hayworth; the famous striptease-that-really-is-a-tease; the overripe dialogue (somebody could make a good drinking game based on how many times somebody says "Johnny" to Glenn Ford); the perversely sexual subtexts involving Gilda and Johnny, Gilda and Ballin, and certainly, Ballin and Johnny (!) But the other pleasures of this movie shouldn't be overlooked. For one thing, it's one of the best LOOKING movies ever to come out of the 1940's: stunning sets, gorgeous costumes, and most of all, eye-popping black-and-white photography, making effective use of noir conventions (everyone is forever stepping into or out of shadows) and creating Glenn Ford and Rita Hayworth as pinnacles of physical beauty; neither one ever looked this good again, although Rita came close in "You Were Never Lovelier".Maybe my favorite overlooked treat in "Gilda" is the enigmatic character of Uncle Pio, who has some of the best lines in the movie as he wittily comments on the foibles of the characters,
acting as a sort of Shakespearean Fool. Screenwriting this good is certainly part of what makes "Gilda" so special and brings its fans back to watch again and again.
One final comment: if Rita Hayworth really does her own singing during the quiet version of "Mame" in the nightclub at 5 a.m., as I've read and heard, the lady was not only gorgeous and a terrific dancer, she had quite a voice, too!