GILDA

US, 1946, 109 Minutes, Black and white.
Rita Hayworth, Glenn Ford, George Macready.
Directed by Charles Vidor.

Gilda is a romantic melodrama coming from the end of World War II, reflecting a rather bleak outlook on behaviour and attitudes. The South American setting adds to this bleakness and overtone of corruption. Glenn Ford, a very young Glenn Ford, is a person on the make and encounters his former love Gilda, now married to the wealthy and neurotic owner of a casino, played by George Macready. The encounter between Gilda and Ford is one of those electric screen combinations. Rita Hayworth is at her most sensuous and impressive. George Macready is an excellent psychotic, nervous villain. Some of the music and Rita Hayworth's dances are impressive. Ford and Hayworth impressed at the box-office and were teamed in The Loves of Carmen (1949) and Affair in Trinidad (1952). It is ironic that they reappeared twenty years later in The Money Trap with Ford still as hero but Rita Hayworth well past her prime, showing every sign of age in a rather dramatic role. The poster for Gilda is a feature of de Sica's Bicycle Thieves and indicates how popular this film was in its time.

1. How enjoyable a film? Its reputation in its time? Its impact now?

2. The impact of Rita Hayworth, Glen Ford and their combination? The style of this kind of gangster thriller and romantic film in the mid-40s? After the war? The black ironic treatment? Disillusionment, pessimism?

3. The title, the focus on Rita Hayworth, her personal style, impact, sensuality? As a romantic figure, good and evil? The importance of her songs and their impact?

4. The narrative structure of the film? The introduction to the hero and the involvement with him? An atmosphere of mystery about him and his presence in South America? His first person narrative of the events? How well did this involve the audience with the events, no matter how unsavoury?

5. The atmosphere of South America in the 40s, the war and the ending of the war, money, gambling, an atmosphere of evil? A place for an insane conspiracy and its being executed unscrupulously?

6. How well did Glen Ford play the hero? A typical tough American hero? As a card sharp, fighting? His encounter with the manager of the club, the parrying verbally and with card techniques? The reason for his being employed? His skill at his work, his judgment?

7. The contrast of the owner of the club and his style? His arrogance, a gambler, his bringing Gilda to South America and his having her as his wife? His capacity for jealousy? His power and its exercise? The conspiracy and his mad dreams, his suicide plan? The importance of the cane and the sword? The irony of his threatening the hero and Gilda? The irony of his death and the man who killed him?

8. What type of a woman was Gilda? Her past, her liaison with the hero, the failure of their relationship? Her motives for marrying, money, power? Her seeing the hero and their having to be discreet? The irony of her reaction after her husband's death? Her marrying the hero and his making her his victim? Audience sympathy for the cruelty to which she was treated? Her being imprisoned? Her longings to escape, her being in Uruguay, the man tricking her and taking her back? Her response to her husband's being alive? The resolving of the love-hatred relationship with the hero? Possibilities for a future?

9. The transition in cruelty in the hero? His becoming like the owner of the club? His vengeance on Gilda and the detail of his tormenting and imprisoning her, humiliating her?

10. The importance of the observer and the audience being curious about him? His comments, his noting things? The importance of the official who came in to win by pre-arrangement etc.? The irony of his being a policeman? The revelation of the conspiracy?

11. The people in the club and their styles? The official winning the money, the men in charge of the tables, the man behind the bar and his eventual importance?

12. The irony of the lawyer proposing marriage to Gilda in Uruguay and the manner of his tricking her? His arrival back and Gilda's reaction?

13. How melodramatic was the film - appropriately so or not? The build-up to the melodramatic return, the confrontation, the sword, death? What future did Gilda and the hero have?

14. How well did the film convey an atmosphere of evil? The nature of this evil?

15. A black outlook on human beings and their potential? How much optimism? How much pervasive pessimism?