My film review of Gilda has a wonderful song from the film called Put The Blame On Me Mame (see below). I saw Gilda at the British Film Institute. This song is the stripped down one that would later appear in Gilda as a big show stopping number. Gilda (1946) is an exercise in art and entertainment. The first twenty minutes of the film are littered with homo erotic overtones. Glenn Ford plays Johnny Farrell who meets the boss of a casino in Buenos Aires in unlikely circumstances. Once they meet they form a threesomen with the casino boss Ballin Mundson played by George McCready in the manner of a High German. The third wheel in this relationship is Ballin's killer cane. In true noir fashion Gilda's role that Rita Hayworthy does not just play, she inhabits, lives and smokes the role. In true noir fashion she is of course Johnnys former lover. Buenos Aires is a fine place for Johnny and Gilda to be washed up. Gilda later marries casino owner Balinn and so begins a triangulated noir love story between all three. The killer cane moves aside. At times you have reason to question Johnny Farrells relationship with the high German casino owning Ballin? the script delivers dialogue between them that enhances that suspicion.The script delivered by the characters like many of the best films from the forties is sharp. Dialogue is seldom wasted just passing information to the audience. Instead it is a weapon of war to inflict emotional damage. This would some twenty five years later be very much evident in Fassbinders 'The Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant' (1972)
Gilda (1946) strives to entertain and like the scene below, Gilda strums the guitar but then in high Hollywood costume belts out the number in a more conventional stage nite club scene.The direction from Charles Vidor and camerawork Rudolf Mate make this film visually very interesting. In one scene we get casino owner Ballin threaten both Gilda and Johnny Farrell but while we see his body we do not see his head, instead we hear only his voice. Truly menacing stuff when seen on big screen.Gilda is a fine example of Hollywood at its best, combining the noir tradition with art cinema flavored with good old entertainment values.
