Gilda

Rita Hayworth is at her most iconic in filmmaker Charles Vidor's Gilda, a 1946 film noir classic costarring Glenn Ford as Johnny Farrell, an American tough guy in Buenos Aires, and George Macready as the owner of a nightclub and illegal casino who hires Johnny as his club manager. Hayworth is the titular glamorous new wife of the owner and her entrance is pure Hollywood star-making: a stunning close-up as she whips her head into frame, her hair lashing back and revealing her bright face, and wide, mischievous grin. Gilda has a plot involving a monopoly on tungsten and German investors who may be Nazi criminals in hiding (although apart from a headline reading "Germany Surrenders," no mention is made of the war), but the real drama revolves around the sexual tension and vicious punishments that former lovers Johnny and Gilda inflict on one another. Hayworth plays the prowling sex kitten and even performs a symbolic striptease on the nightclub floor while singing "Put the Blame on Mame." Sexual indiscretions are suggested but ultimately denied in a contrived happy ending that contradicts everything leading up to it. It was not uncommon for Hollywood films of the era to placate the production code and the abrupt close was a hint to some audiences that it was not to be believed. Gilda was one of the most suggestive films of its time and the emotional violence here still draws symbolic blood. Sure to appeal to fans of film noir, classic melodramas, and Hollywood glamour, this newly restored edition is presented with extras including audio commentary by film critic Richard Schickel, a 1964 episode of TV's Hollywood and the Stars devoted to Hayworth, a new interview with film noir historian Eddie Muller, and a 2010 discussion of the film by filmmakers Martin Scorsese and Baz Luhrmann. Recommended. (S. Axmaker)