Film Review
A torrid tale of desire, revenge and frustrated sexuality is the
essence of this distinctive and highly provocative film noir, which
features Rita Hayworth in a role that would transform her into a screen
goddess. It is hard to believe the film could have been
made in Hollywood in the mid-1940s (when rigorous self-censorship was
in force), such is the overt sexuality that Hayworth brings to the film
in her startling portrayal of a guiltless, thoroughly liberated
temptress. Here, Hayworth stars alongside Glenn Ford, with whom
she had previously worked on
The Lady in Question (1940);
they would form an effective duo in a further four films.
The film's most memorable sequence is the one in which Hayworth, at her
sensual best in a stunning low-cut black gown, sings
Put the blame on Mame whilst
performing a dance that is suggestive of a striptease.
You have to go back to Greta Garbo's infamous dance in the pre-Production Code
Mata Hari (1931) to find
anything quite so flagrantly erotic as this in American cinema.
One of the defining features of the classic American film noir drama is
an obsession with the darker side of human sexuality.
Gilda goes further than most and
presents what is possibly the genre's most twisted, complex and
downright sultry portrayal of a destructive male-female
relationship. The characters played by Hayworth and Ford
live out a grotesque sadomasochistic ritual, in which love and hate are
blurred to such an extent that the two passions become
indistinguishable. Matters are complicated further by the obvious
homoerotic tensions between Ford's character and that played by George
Macready, making this a decidedly bizarre ménage-à-trois
in which each of the participants is more than willing to destroy the
other two. Although the film appears to end happily, you wonder
what kind of future the two survivors of this Freudian angst-ridden nightmare could
possibly look forward to. One involving a swordstick and an awful
lot of sticking plasters, presumably...
© James Travers 2008
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.
Film Synopsis
Not long after his arrival in Buenos Aires, crooked gambler Johnny
Farrell is hired by the wealthy entrepreneur Ballin Mundson to work in
his illicit casino. When Mundson returns from a business trip,
Johnny is surprised when he learns that his employer has married his
former lover, Gilda. Johnny still hasn't forgiven Gilda for
walking out on him, so he uses his position to torment her. She,
in turn, provokes him by flirting with any eligible young man she
meets. When two Nazis appear unexpectedly and demand the return
of the money they gave him during the war, Mundson kills one of them and stages his own
suicide to evade arrest. Johnny wastes no time in marrying Gilda, but soon
realises he has made a terrible mistake...
© James Travers
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.