Gilda (film)

Johnny Farrell, an American newly arrived in Buenos Aires, Argentina, wins money from sailors at the city's docks by playing craps with weighted dice. He is rescued from a robbery attempt by a stranger, Ballin Mundson. Mundson tells Farrell about an illegal high-class casino in the city, but warns him not to cheat there. After winning at blackjack by card counting, he is taken to see the casino's owner, who turns out to be Mundson. Farrell talks Mundson into hiring him and soon becomes his trusted casino manager.

Mundson returns from a trip to the United States and announces he has an extremely beautiful new wife, Gilda, whom he has married after only knowing her for a day. Farrell and Gilda instantly recognise each other from the past, though both deny it when Mundson questions them. Mundson assigns Farrell to watch over Gilda. She cavorts with men at all hours in increasingly more blatant efforts to enrage Johnny, and in return he grows ever more spiteful towards her.

Mundson is visited by two German mobsters. Their organisation had financed a tungsten cartel, with everything in Mundson's name in order to hide their connection to it. They have decided that it is safe to take the cartel back since World War II has ended, but Mundson refuses to transfer ownership. Suspicious of the Germans, the Argentine police assign agent Obregón to try to obtain information from Farrell, but he knows nothing about this aspect of Mundson's operations.

The Germans return to the casino during a Carnival celebration, and Mundson shoots and kills one of them. Farrell rushes to take Gilda to safety. Alone in Mundson's house, they have another confrontation and, after declaring their undying hatred for each other, passionately kiss. After hearing the front door slam, they realize that Mundson has overheard them, and a guilt-ridden Farrell pursues him to a waiting private airplane. The plane explodes in mid-air and plummets into the ocean. Mundson parachutes to safety, but Farrell, unaware of this, concludes that he is dead.

Gilda inherits Mundson's estate, and she and Farrell immediately marry. He cannot set aside his resentment and suspicion of her, however. Leaving her to live alone, he also has her followed day and night by his men to keep her from seeing anyone else. Gilda tries to escape the tortured marriage a number of times, but Farrell thwarts every attempt.

Obregón confiscates the casino from Farrell and informs him that Gilda was never truly unfaithful to Mundson or to him, prompting Farrell to try to reconcile with her as he prepares to return to the United States. At that moment, Mundson reappears, revealing his faked suicide. He tries to kill both Gilda and Farrell but casino worker Uncle Pío fatally stabs him in the back. When Obregón arrives, Johnny tries to take the blame for the murder, but Obregón points out that Mundson was already declared legally dead. Farrell gives Obregón incriminating documents from Mundson's safe. He and Gilda finally reconcile, agreeing to go home together.

File:Gilda trailer rita hayworth2.JPG|Johnny Farrell (Glenn Ford) and Gilda (Rita Hayworth)

File:Gilda trailer hayworth1.JPG|"Gilda, are you decent?"

File:Gilda trailer rita hayworth3 crop.JPG called the black strapless gown worn by Rita Hayworth in Gilda "the most famous dress I ever made."{{cite web |url=http://www.glamamor.com/2014/10/RitaHayworth-GILDA-JeanLouis.html |title=Style Essentials—Femme Fatale Rita Hayworth Puts the Blame in 1946's Gilda |last=Truhler |first=Kimberly |date=October 17, 2014|website=GlamAmor |access-date=2017-06-02}}]]

{{cast listing|

• Rita Hayworth as Gilda Mundson
• Glenn Ford as Johnny Farrell
• George Macready as Ballin Mundson
• Joseph Calleia as Detective Mauricio Miguel Obregón
• Steven Geray as Uncle Pío
• Joe Sawyer as Casey
• Gerald Mohr as Captain Delgado
• Mark Roberts as Gabe Evans
• Ludwig Donath as German
• Don Douglas as Thomas Langford
• Lionel Royce as German
• George J. Lewis as Huerta

}}

Cast notes

• Anita Ellis dubbed the singing voice of Rita Hayworth.{{refn|group=note|There were claims made that Hayworth had sung the acoustic guitar version of "Put the Blame on Mame", but this was untrue. Ellis dubbed all of the vocal parts since both their voices could not be used, Ellis's singing voice was too unlike Hayworth's for Hayworth's voice to be used in different parts of the film.{{Cite book|last=Kobal|first=John|url=https://archive.org/details/ritahayworthtime00koba|title=Rita Hayworth : the time, the place, and the woman|date=1982|publisher=New York : Berkley Books|others=Internet Archive|isbn=978-0-425-05634-9}}}}

Gilda was developed by producer Virginia Van Upp as a vehicle for Hayworth, who had mostly been known for her roles in musical comedies at that time.{{cite web|url=https://www.afi.com/afi-movie-club-gilda/ |title=AFI Movie Club: Gilda |work=American Film Institute |publisher=AFI Catalog of Feature Films |access-date=April 16, 2020}} The story was originally set to be an American gangster film directed by Edmund Goulding.{{Cite web |title=GILDA (1946) |url=https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/24801 |access-date=March 30, 2023 |website=American Film Institute}} However, the location of the story was changed to Buenos Aires after objections from censor Joseph Breen and the replacement of Goulding with Charles Vidor.

Gilda was filmed from September 4 to December 10, 1945. During filming, Hayworth and Ford began an affair that would last until Hayworth was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease in the early 1980s.Ford, Peter (2011). Glenn Ford: A Life (Wisconsin Film Studies). Madison: University of Wisconsin Press. pp. 62, 63 {{ISBN|978-0-29928-154-0}}{{cite news|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2011-apr-11-la-et-classic-hollywood-20110411-story.html|title=A Ford fiesta|last=King|first=Susan|date=April 11, 2011|website=Los Angeles Times|language=en-US|access-date=March 14, 2021}}{{Cite web|title=Glenn Ford: A Life – Book Notes|url=http://www.glennfordbio.com/classicimagesarticle.html|website=www.glennfordbio.com|access-date=March 14, 2021}}{{cite web|date=May 2, 2006|title=Ford celebrates his 90th after 15 years of seclusion|url=https://www.deseret.com/2006/5/2/19951204/ford-celebrates-his-90th-after-15-years-of-seclusion|website=Deseret News|language=en|access-date=March 14, 2021}}

Hayworth's introductory scene was shot twice. While the action of her popping her head into the frame and the subsequent dialogue remains the same, she is dressed in different costumes—in a striped blouse and dark skirt in one film print, and the more famous off-the-shoulder dressing gown in the other.{{citation needed|date=March 2014}}

When first released, the film earned mixed to positive reviews. Variety liked the film and wrote, "Hayworth is photographed most beguilingly. The producers have created nothing subtle in the projection of her s.a. [sex appeal], and that's probably been wise. Glenn Ford is the vis-a-vis, in his first picture part in several years ... Gilda is obviously an expensive production—and shows it. The direction is static, but that's more the fault of the writers."{{cite magazine| url=https://variety.com/1945/film/reviews/gilda-1200414757/| title=Film Reviews: Gilda| magazine=Variety| date=March 20, 1946|page=8| access-date=June 8, 2020}} Reviewing the film for The New York Times, Bosley Crowther gave the film a negative review, admitting he did not like or understand the movie, but praised Ford as having "a certain stamina and poise in the role of a tough young gambler."{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1946/03/15/archives/the-screen-rita-hayworth-and-glenn-ford-stars-of-gilda-at-music.html|title=The Screen; Rita Hayworth and Glenn Ford Stars of 'Gilda' at Music Hall|work=The New York Times|last=Crowther|first=Bosley|date=March 15, 1946|access-date=August 22, 2017|archive-date=August 23, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170823023850/http://www.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9404E2DF133AEE3BBC4D52DFB566838D659EDE|url-status=live}}

Gilda was screened in competition at the 1946 Cannes Film Festival, the first time the festival was held.{{cite web |url=http://www.festival-cannes.fr/en/archives/1946/allSelections.html |title=Official Selection 1946 |website=Festival de Cannes |access-date=February 3, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150416110904/http://www.festival-cannes.fr/en/archives/1946/allSelections.html |archive-date=April 16, 2015 |url-status=dead |df=mdy-all }} In its release, the film earned theatrical rentals of $3,750,000 in the United States and Canada,{{cite magazine|url=https://archive.org/stream/variety165-1947-01#page/n54/mode/1up|title=60 Top Grossers of 1946|magazine=Variety|date=8 January 1947|page=8}} and $6 million worldwide.

In retrospect, the film has become critically acclaimed. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported that 90% of critics gave the film a positive review, based on 67 reviews.{{Cite web |title=Gilda {{!}} Rotten Tomatoes |url=https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/gilda |access-date=2024-04-21 |website=www.rottentomatoes.com |language=en}} More recently, film critic Emanuel Levy wrote a positive review: "Featuring Rita Hayworth in her best-known performance, Gilda, released just after the end of WWII, draws much of its peculiar power from its mixture of genres and the way its characters interact with each other ... Gilda was a cross between a hardcore noir adventure of the 1940s and the cycle of 'women's pictures.' Imbued with a modern perspective, the film is quite remarkable in the way it deals with sexual issues."{{Cite web |title=details.cfm - Emanuel Levy |url=https://www.emanuellevy.com/search/details.cfm?id=2295 |access-date=2024-04-21 |language=en}} Mike D'Angelo of The A.V. Club said that "part of Gilda's fascination is the way that it complicates the idea of the femme fatale. (...) Hayworth plays Gilda with a layer of bravado that masks deep insecurity"; however, he felt that the film's unusually happy ending for a noir compromised it.{{Cite web |date=2016-01-16 |title=There's more to Gilda than just an iconic hair flip by Rita Hayworth |url=https://www.avclub.com/there-s-more-to-gilda-than-just-an-iconic-hair-flip-by-1798186243 |access-date=2024-04-21 |website=The A.V. Club |language=en}}

{{Main|Operation Crossroads}}

File:Able crossroads.jpg

Attesting to its immediate success, it was widely reported that an atomic bomb to be tested at Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands would bear the film's title above an image of Hayworth, a reference to her bombshell status. The bomb was decorated with a photograph of Hayworth cut from the June 1946 issue of Esquire magazine; above it was stenciled the device's nickname, "Gilda", in two-inch black letters.{{cite web |url=http://conelrad.blogspot.com/2013/08/atomic-goddess-revisited-rita-hayworths.html |title=Atomic Goddess Revisited: Rita Hayworth's Bomb Image Found |date=August 13, 2013|publisher=CONELRAD Adjacent (blog) |access-date=March 11, 2015}}

Although the gesture was meant as a compliment, Hayworth was deeply offended.{{cite news |last=Krebs |first=Albin |title=Rita Hayworth, Movie Legend, Dies |url=https://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/bday/1017.html |newspaper=The New York Times |date=May 16, 1987 |access-date=March 11, 2015 }} According to Orson Welles, her husband at the time of filming Gilda, Hayworth believed it to be a publicity stunt from Columbia executive Harry Cohn and was furious. Welles told biographer Barbara Leaming: "Rita used to fly into terrible rages all the time, but the angriest was when she found out that they'd put her on the atom bomb. Rita almost went insane, she was so angry. ... She wanted to go to Washington to hold a press conference, but Harry Cohn wouldn't let her because it would be unpatriotic." Welles tried to persuade Hayworth that the whole business was not a publicity stunt on Cohn's part, that it was simply homage to her from the flight crew.{{cite book |last=Leaming |first=Barbara |date=1989 |title=If This Was Happiness: A Biography of Rita Hayworth |location=New York |publisher=Viking |isbn=0-670-81978-6 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/ifthiswashappine00leam }}{{Rp|129–130}}

File:Hayworth-Gilda-1946-Color.jpg" nightclub sequence]]

The two-piece costume worn by Hayworth in the "Amado Mio" nightclub sequence was offered as part of the "TCM Presents ... There's No Place Like Hollywood" auction November 24, 2014, at Bonhams in New York.{{cite web|url=http://images1.bonhams.com/original?src=Images/live/2014-10/29/S-22196-0-1.pdf |title=TCM Presents ... There's No Place Like Hollywood |publisher=Bonhams, sale 22196, lot 244, catalog for auction November 24, 2014 |access-date=November 25, 2014}} It was estimated that the costume would fetch between $40,000 and $60,000; in the event it sold for $161,000 ({{Inflation|US|161000|2014|fmt=eq|r=-3}}).{{cite web|url=http://www.bonhams.com/auctions/22196/ |title=TCM Presents ... There's No Place Like Hollywood |publisher=Bonhams, sale 22196, lot 244, November 24, 2014 |access-date=January 10, 2024}}

In January 2016 The Criterion Collection released DVD and Blu-ray Disc versions of Gilda, featuring a new 2K digital film restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray version.{{cite web |url=https://www.criterion.com/films/27909-gilda |title=Gilda |publisher=The Criterion Collection |access-date=October 18, 2015}}

{{More citations needed section|date=January 2025}}

Hayworth later came to resent the film and its effect on her image. Hayworth once said with some bitterness, "Men go to bed with Gilda, but wake up with me".{{Rp|122}} This quote was referenced by Anna Scott, the fictional actress played by Julia Roberts in the film Notting Hill.

Hayworth's performance as Gilda lent itself to the Stephen King novella Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption in the form of a poster hanging on the wall of prisoner Andy Dufresne, who used it to cover the hole in the wall he used to escape. In the novella's film adaption, the film is shown to the prisoners for movie night. The film has also been watched by characters in Hero, Girl, Interrupted, and The Thirteenth Floor, as well as episodes of Joan of Arcadia, The Blacklist, and The Penguin.

In the 2001 film Mulholland Drive, the amnesiac protagonist played by Laura Harring proclaims her name as 'Rita' after seeing a Gilda poster on the wall.

The film has been shown on Turner Classic Movies at the request of guest hosts several times. In 2015, actress Diahann Carroll chose the film and expressed admiration for Hayworth and her performance in the film.{{Cite web |date=February 19, 2016 |title=TCM Guest Programmer Diahann Carroll 3of4 Gilda (Intro) |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBb7fC587oY |access-date=March 30, 2023 |website=YouTube}} Guest hosts Joan Collins and Debra Winger have also chosen and discussed the film.

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{{reflist|group=note}}

{{Reflist}}

{{sister project links|d=Q382307|commons=category:Gilda|n=no|b=no|v=no|voy=no|mw=no|s=no|m=no|species=no|wikt=no}}

• [https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-film-preservation-board/documents/gilda.pdf Gilda] an essay by Kimberly Truhler on the National Film Registry website
• {{AFI film|24801}}
• {{IMDb title|0038559}}
• [https://www.aenigma-images.com/2016/12/gilda-rita-hayworth-bombshell/ Gilda] at [https://www.aenigma-images.com/ aenigma]
• {{TCMDb title|170}}
• {{Rotten Tomatoes|gilda}}
• [https://thenedscottarchive.com/?s=Rita+Hayworth Photos of Rita Hayworth in Gilda] by Ned Scott
• [https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/3878-the-long-shadow-of-gilda "The Long Shadow of Gilda{{-"}}] an essay by Sheila O'Malley at the Criterion Collection

{{Charles Vidor}}

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Category:1946 films

Category:1946 romantic drama films

Category:1940s American films

Category:1940s English-language films

Category:American black-and-white films

Category:American films about gambling

Category:American romantic drama films

Category:Columbia Pictures films

Category:Female characters in film

Category:Film noir

Category:Films directed by Charles Vidor

Category:Films set in Buenos Aires

Category:Films shot in Los Angeles

Category:United States National Film Registry films

Category:Films scored by Marlin Skiles

Category:English-language romantic drama films