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Variety,
March 20, 1946
Gilda
(1946)
(SONGS)
Columbia release
of Virginia Van Epp production. Stars Rita Hayworth; features Glenn
Ford, George Macready, Joseph Callein. Directed by Charles Vidor.
Screenplay, Marion Parsonnet, from story by E.A. Ellington; adaptation,
Jo Eisinger; songs, Allan Roberts and Doris Fisher; camera, Rudolph
Mate; editor, Charles Nelson; music directors, M.W. Sioloff and
Marlin Skiles. At Radio City Music Hall, N.Y., opening March 14
’46. Running time, 110 MINS.
| Gilda |
Rita Hayworth |
 |
| Johnny
Farrell |
Glen Ford |
| Ballin
Mundson |
George
Macready |
| Obregon |
Joseph
Callein |
| Uncle
Pio |
Stephen
Gerny |
| Casey |
Joe Sawyer |
| Captain
Delgado |
Gerald
Stohr |
| Gabe
Evans |
Robert
Scott |
| German |
Ludwig
Donath |
| Thomas
Langford |
Don Douglas |
| German |
Lionel
Royce |
| Little
Man |
S.Z. Martel |
| Huerta |
George
J. Lewis |
| Maria |
Rosa Rey |
Practically
all the s.a. habiliments of the femme fatale have been mustered
for "Gilda", and when things get trite and frequently
far-fetched, somehow, at the drop of a shoulder strap, there is
always Rita Hayworth to excite the filmgoer. When story interest
lags, she’s certain to shrug a bare shoulder, toss her tawny
head in an intimately revealing close-up, or saunter teasingly through
the celluloid. She dissipates the theories, if any, that sex has
its shortcomings as popular commodity. Miss Hayworth will do business.
 The
story is a confusion of a gambling, international intrigue and a
triangle that links two gamblers and the wife of one of them. The
setting is Buenos Aires. Sneaking in somehow is the subplot of a
tungsten cartel operated by the husband, who also runs a swank gambling
casino. A couple of Nazis are thrown in also.
It seems that
the younger gambler and the wife had been sweethearts before her
rebound marriage, but now they hat each other and oh-so-much. For
some reason the scripters don’t reveal the cause of this hate.
When the husband apparently suicides in an ocean plane crash, after
his cartel machinations are found out by the police, the younger
man and the wife marry in what looks like a patchup of their feud.
But no. He’s still mad. He’s married her only to get even.
And there she is wearing gowns down to here and waiting futilely
for him every night. And looking oh-so-beautiful! And never more
beautiful than in her hapless plight. Just a lot of impractical
madness.
Of course, they
finally get together. A cop who wends his philosophical way through
the picture breaks down the guy’s resistance. That’s where
the pic really winds up on its cartel.
Miss Hayworth
is photographed most beguilingly, an undoubted envy for the femmes
and an excitement for the men. The producers have created nothing
subtle in the projection of her s.a., and that’s probably been
wise.
Glenn Ford is
the vis-à-vis, in his first picture part in several years
after his release from the service. He’s a far better actor
than the tale permits. And there are times, despite the script,
when he’s able to give a particularly creditable performance.
George Macready plays the older gambler with some plausibility,
and Stephen Geray believably portrays the casino attendant.
copyright
© 1946 Variety
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