Tuesday Minute
No. 163 | September 21, 2010

On a First-Name Basis

Our theme this week
Film titles that are first names of women

Featured this week (theme introduction)
Monday         —   Laura (1944)

Gilda (1946)

It’s the most famous poster in movie history:

The Bicycle Thief (Ladri di Biciclette) (1948) — A man desperate for work needs a bicycle for a new job, and his wife pawns the family bedsheets for the money to get the bike.  His first day at work, a thief steals the bicycle on a street in Rome as the man hangs a movie poster on a wall—a poster of Rita Hayworth in Gilda.

The Shawshank Redemption (1994) — A prisoner in the state pen conceals evidence of an escape tunnel he’s building behind a poster of Rita Hayworth, which he had ordered during a screening of Gilda.

Mulholland Drive (2001) — A beautiful and mysterious woman survives a horrific car accident and can’t remember her name.  When asked to identify herself, she picks a name from a movie poster on an apartment wall—the poster for Gilda.  She becomes the film’s femme fatale known as Rita.

The poster’s popularity is a testament to the iconic status of Gilda and its magnetic star, Rita Hayworth.

The film stars Glenn Ford as Johnny Farrell, his first big role after returning from the war.  A craps player just arrived in Argentina, Farrell is being robbed of his winnings near the waterfront when he is rescued by a stranger named Ballin Mundson (the distinguished and always capable George Macready).  Mundson offers an invitation:

Mundson:  With your luck, why don’t you go where there’s some real gambling?
Farrell:  I thought it was illegal in Buenos Aires.
Mundson:  Oh, it is.
Farrell:  Oh, I see—just like home.

Farrell visits a casino where, against Mundson’s advice, he cheats the house.  He’s taken to the owner, who turns out to be Mundson himself.  Mundson takes a liking to the newcomer and hires him on.  Soon Farrell is on his way to becoming Mundson’s right-hand man, earning respect from everyone but the washroom attendent, Uncle Pio, who refers to him only as “Peasant.”

Poor Glenn Ford.  He gives a winning performance and in any other movie he’d be the star of the show.  But everything changes with the arrival of Mrs. Ballin Mundson.  That would be Gilda, the knockout beauty portayed by the one-and-only Rita Hayworth in the role she was born to play.  Gilda can’t help herself but flirt with every man in the room, and her husband assigns Farrell with the task of keeping her out of trouble, unaware that Farrell has a long history with Gilda.  They loved each other once, and what’s more, they came to hate each other.  As Gilda tells him later, “Hate is a very exciting emotion.”

There’s a plot to the movie somewhere, something about a tungsten cartel, a deal and a double-cross with Nazi collaborators, government agents on the prowl, and a shooting at the casino.  It’s all very Casablanca-esque, intentionally so, I presume.  The main action, though, is the intense relationships, a ménage à trois of sorts, between Gilda, Johnny, and Ballin.  It’s quite a twisted triangle, and barely within the limits of what was possible in the 1940s as they go places that the trio of Rick, Ilsa, and Victor never imagined.

Rita Hayworth was the daughter of a dancer and danced on stage from an early age.  Her dancing skills served her well on film.  Even when not performing a song-and-dance number (she has a couple in Gilda, though her voice is dubbed), she could move as few other actresses could.  She was graceful, fluid, and of course, seductive.  She had perfect comic timing, as well.  Her films didn’t always make best use of her talents, but Gilda certainly did.  It was a film and a role for the ages.

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Gilda (1946)
Charles Vidor, director
E.A. Ellington (story), Jo Eisinger (adaptation), Marion Parsonnet (screenplay), writers
Rudolph Maté, director of photography
Trailer

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Gilda (1946)
“Put the Blame on Mame”
Allan Roberts, Doris Fisher, songwriters
Jack Cole, choreography
Rita Hayworth (with the dubbed voice of Anita Kert Ellis), Glenn Ford, et al.

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Quote of note
“If I’d been a ranch, they would’ve named me ‘The Bar Nothing.’”
—Gilda (Rita Hayworth), Gilda (1946)

…58…59…60.