1946
Directed by Charles Vidor
Starring:
Rita Hayworth as Gilda
Glenn Ford as Johnny Farrell
George Macready as Ballin Mundson
They say there’s a thin line between love and hate. You need to go along with this questionable adage as you watch Gilda. The story takes place in Argentina and centers around a love triangle: a casino owner, his floor manager and Gilda. Everything is ducky between Ballin Mundson, the Nazi casino owner, and his floor manager, Johnny Farrell, so long as it’s just the two of them. “Women and gambling don’t mix,” Johnny says.
Then Ballin returns from a business trip with his new bride, Gilda. Johnny has this apprehensive look on his face as he follows Ballin into the bedroom where Gilda sits before her dressing table looking drop dead. Never did Rita Hayworth look more beautiful, more luminous. Hands down. Johnny in the voice-over says, “You’d think a bell would have rung, or you’d think I’d have had some instinct of warning. But I didn’t. I just walked right into it.” We notice the look that passes between Gilda and Johnny. They were lovers in the past. And no matter what Johnny and Ballin’s no-girls-allowed relationship has been up until this moment, Gilda changes it irretrievably.
Gilda says something dismissive to Johnny, and he gives her a look that would peel paint. At the end of the scene Johnny says in voice-over, “It was all I could do to walk away. I wanted to go back up in that room and hit her. What scared me was I wanted to hit him too. I wanted to go back and see them together with me not watching. I wanted to know.” Johnny’s torment over Gilda drives the story forward.
Power shifts around from Ballin to Gilda to Johnny throughout the story. Johnny hates Gilda and Gilda taunts Johnny by picking up men and spending the night with them. You’d think it was Johnny being cuckolded rather than Ballin. And where is Ballin when Gilda shows up after being gone all night? It’s one of the many confusions in this story. Like why is Johnny so slavishly loyal to Ballin?
Confusing unless you interpret the subtext, and conclude that Ballin and Johnny are lovers. That’s one take. My husband has a different take. He thinks Gilda is a devastating femme fatale. What red-blooded heterosexual could resist her? Johnny is down on his luck at the beginning of the story because of Gilda (again, we’re talking subtext.) Ballin rescues Johnny from the streets and gives him a good job for which Johnny is grateful. He doesn’t want Ballin to suffer as Johnny has at the hands of Gilda.
Gay—hetero, however you weigh in on that topic, there’s another interesting tension in the story. Johnny Farrell is the point of view character, but shortly after he encounters Gilda, we lose sympathy for him. He becomes the unreliable narrator, and our sympathy turns to Gilda. She’s just so damned beautiful, we forgive her slutty behavior, and believe that she would be true as true with the right man. We want to tell Johnny Farrell to get over it and run off with Gilda himself.
There are many twists and turns in this story that I won’t spoil for you, including the non-noir ending. Gilda is a highly entertaining film and I would recommend it just to see Rita Hayworth at the height of her powers.
Directed by Charles Vidor
Starring:
Rita Hayworth as Gilda
Glenn Ford as Johnny Farrell
George Macready as Ballin Mundson
They say there’s a thin line between love and hate. You need to go along with this questionable adage as you watch Gilda. The story takes place in Argentina and centers around a love triangle: a casino owner, his floor manager and Gilda. Everything is ducky between Ballin Mundson, the Nazi casino owner, and his floor manager, Johnny Farrell, so long as it’s just the two of them. “Women and gambling don’t mix,” Johnny says.
Then Ballin returns from a business trip with his new bride, Gilda. Johnny has this apprehensive look on his face as he follows Ballin into the bedroom where Gilda sits before her dressing table looking drop dead. Never did Rita Hayworth look more beautiful, more luminous. Hands down. Johnny in the voice-over says, “You’d think a bell would have rung, or you’d think I’d have had some instinct of warning. But I didn’t. I just walked right into it.” We notice the look that passes between Gilda and Johnny. They were lovers in the past. And no matter what Johnny and Ballin’s no-girls-allowed relationship has been up until this moment, Gilda changes it irretrievably.
Gilda says something dismissive to Johnny, and he gives her a look that would peel paint. At the end of the scene Johnny says in voice-over, “It was all I could do to walk away. I wanted to go back up in that room and hit her. What scared me was I wanted to hit him too. I wanted to go back and see them together with me not watching. I wanted to know.” Johnny’s torment over Gilda drives the story forward.
Power shifts around from Ballin to Gilda to Johnny throughout the story. Johnny hates Gilda and Gilda taunts Johnny by picking up men and spending the night with them. You’d think it was Johnny being cuckolded rather than Ballin. And where is Ballin when Gilda shows up after being gone all night? It’s one of the many confusions in this story. Like why is Johnny so slavishly loyal to Ballin?
Confusing unless you interpret the subtext, and conclude that Ballin and Johnny are lovers. That’s one take. My husband has a different take. He thinks Gilda is a devastating femme fatale. What red-blooded heterosexual could resist her? Johnny is down on his luck at the beginning of the story because of Gilda (again, we’re talking subtext.) Ballin rescues Johnny from the streets and gives him a good job for which Johnny is grateful. He doesn’t want Ballin to suffer as Johnny has at the hands of Gilda.
Gay—hetero, however you weigh in on that topic, there’s another interesting tension in the story. Johnny Farrell is the point of view character, but shortly after he encounters Gilda, we lose sympathy for him. He becomes the unreliable narrator, and our sympathy turns to Gilda. She’s just so damned beautiful, we forgive her slutty behavior, and believe that she would be true as true with the right man. We want to tell Johnny Farrell to get over it and run off with Gilda himself.
There are many twists and turns in this story that I won’t spoil for you, including the non-noir ending. Gilda is a highly entertaining film and I would recommend it just to see Rita Hayworth at the height of her powers.