GILDA. (1946) DIRECTED BY CHARLES VIDOR. STARRING RITA HAYWORTH, GLENN FORD AND GEORGE MACREADY. REVIEW BY SANDRA HARRIS. ©
What a film! What a woman! Was there
ever a woman like Gilda before? The original movie poster certainly
didn't seem to think so and you know what? Neither do I. I don't
think there's ever been such a blazing, smouldering display
of female sexuality committed to celluloid either before or since.
Rita
Hayworth as Gilda is the ultimate woman. She's sex on two long lissom
legs and it would take a real man
to hold her attention. Are you man
enough for the job? If so, please read on. Well sure, read on anyway.
I don't mind if you're a man or a mouse as long as you can read,
haha.
Now, I
need to ask you this. Do you like film noir? In
other words, do you like dames with gams that won't quit and guys who
speak in clipped, terse sentences before they whip a gun out of their
inside pocket and point it right in your kisser? If you do, then you
most likely dig film noir.
I do
like film noir, but
being a chick I always prefer the romantic element to the business or
political storyline. GILDA, one
of the most iconic examples of film noir ever
made, is no exception to this, my self-made rule. The
love story in it far surpasses the sub-plot, in my humble opinion.
Anyway, who could
think of anything else when there's Gilda to look at? From her
legendary first appearance on screen, her hair flying and that
mischievous smile on her beautiful face, the camera is captivated by
her. She's utterly gorgeous. Ravishing, in fact.
Her hair
would most likely have had its own choreographer. It has a life of
its own in this film. It bounces and swirls and dances and it crackles with life
and vitality every time Rita Hayworth moves her lovely head. It's
long and lustrous and infinitely touchable-looking and I can't
remember a female movie star, either before or since, ever having
such marvellously feminine hair.
Her
outfits too are more than worthy of a paragraph to themselves. They
were designed by Jean Louis and every single one of them makes Gilda
look dazzlingly, achingly sexy.
She's a sex-bomb. A hottie. A bombshell. A sex kitten. A
screen goddess with a riotous crown of tumbling curls and a face that
would quite easily launch a thousand ships any
day of the week. Quite
honestly, she makes some of the famous sex symbols who came along
later look like a sack of crap. No offence, ladies...!
From
her extraordinary sheath of an evening gown to her glittering
sequinned coat through to her belted dressing-gown and back again,
everything she wears simply oozes glamour and sex appeal. People who
bemoan the passing of Tinseltown's 'golden era'
are really mourning the lack of any real glamour in the films that
came later. That's because the glamour, sadly, is mostly gone.
I'll
probably be lynched for saying this, but which would you rather have?
One of the fake-tanned, selfie-snapping ass-revealing skanks who pass
for 'celebrities' nowadays
or a genuine 'Forties bombshell? If I were a guy, I know which I'd
prefer. Okay, rant over. Let's
take a quick squint at the plot, shall we? Before I get myself in
trouble, I mean...!
The gorgeous
Gilda turns up in Buenos Aires married to wealthy businessman and
casino-owner Ballin Mundson, much to the surprise of Johnny Farrell,
Mundson's henchman and casino-manager. Johnny, played by a
devastatingly handsome Glenn Ford, is Gilda's ex-boyfriend. They
obviously had a turbulent relationship that ended badly, because the
sparks fly the second they meet again.
The quickfire
dialogue is witty and razor-sharp. Gilda's and Johnny's conversations
positively crackle with energy and electricity.
'Pardon
me, but your husband is showing...!'
There's
a sub-plot involving tungsten, of all things, some German gangsters
and a faked death, but I mostly was glued to the relationship between
Gilda and her husband's petty thug of a henchman. It simmers along for a bit, like
water in a pot coming to the boil and then bam!
The whole freakin' kit 'n' kaboodle explodes all over everybody.
Who'll survive the fallout? Watch the film and see, film fans.
Just to add, I know that smoking is terribly politically incorrect these days but those old films from the 'Forties really do make smoking sexy. Is
there anything more glamorous than a gold cigarette case or any
gesture sexier than a beautiful woman with great cheekbones cupping a
man's hand while he lights her cigarette?
It's not hard
to guess what a guy is thinking about when he sees those smoky
eyes raised to his and those ruby lips
wrapped suggestively around the old cancer stick. Oh dear. If I wasn't in trouble
before, I certainly will be now for glamorising and sexing up smoking, heh-heh-heh.
Best
scenes? Well, for me, it's got to be the two renditions of PUT
THE BLAME ON MAME. Yes, I know
that it's not Rita Hayworth's own voice singing in the version that Gilda's belting out for a drunken audience, but what does that
matter when she's so drop-dead sexy in her dress?
The
first version of the song, the acoustic version in the empty
nightclub at five in the morning, is so sexy that it's hard to
describe. It's sexy but it's also achingly, painfully bleak and you
get the feeling that the woman behind the guitar has a lot of secrets
and a long and tumultuous past behind her. Check out the carnival too
if you want to see what real Hollywood
glamour looked like.
The
wonderful people at THE CRITERION COLLECTION are
teaming up with SONY PICTURES HOME ENTERTAINMENT to
bring you this marvellous film on Blu-Ray this June.
It comes with a
host of extra goodies including an interesting appreciation of the
movie from 2010 featuring Martin Scorsese and Baz Luhrmann. I never
actually knew what Baz Luhrmann looked like before I watched this
extra feature. He's kind of cute...!
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY OF SANDRA
HARRIS.
Sandra Harris is a Dublin-based novelist, film blogger and movie reviewer. She has studied Creative Writing and Film-Making. She has published a number of e-books on the following topics: horror film reviews, multi-genre film reviews, womens' fiction, erotic fiction, erotic horror fiction and erotic poetry. Several new books are currently in the pipeline. You can browse or buy any of Sandra's books by following the link below straight to her Amazon Author Page:
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B015GDE5RO
You can contact Sandra at:
http://sandrafirstruleoffilmclubharris.wordpress.com
Loved this film myself, Rita Heyworth the original 'Love Goddess' she's probably who Jessica Rabbit in who framed Roger Rabbit is based on. That song she plays is very catchy
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