Gilda (1946)

February 14, 1946, release date

Directed by Charles Vidor

Screenplay by Jo Eisinger and Marion Parsonnet

Story by E. S. Ellington

Cinematography by Rudolph Maté

Music by Hugo Friedhofer

Edited by Charles Nelson

Rita Hayworth as Gilda Mundson Farrell

Glenn Ford as Johnny Farrell/narrator

George Macready as Ballin Mundson

Joseph Calleia as Det. Maurice Obregon

Steven Geray as Uncle Pio

Joe Sawyer as Casey

Gerald Mohr as Capt. Delgado

Mark Roberts as Gabe Evans

Ludwig Donath as German

Don Douglas as Thomas Langford

George J. Lewis as Huerta

Anita Ellis, singing voice of Rita Hayworth in all but the acoustic guitar version of “Put the Blame on Mame,” which Hayworth sang herself

Distributed by Columbia Pictures

Gilda: Film Noir with Style

In spite of this film’s two beautiful stars, Glenn Ford and Rita Hayworth, Gilda is a very dark, noir story. I suspect that if two different actors played the leading characters, categorizing the film would be even easier. I have said many times that I am not fond of categories and that many films can be placed in two or even more categories, but I think viewers can see that Gilda is a dark story about war, profiteering, and—oh, yes—tortured love.

Johnny Farrell gambles on the docks in Buenos Aires. How he ended up in Argentina is not made completely clear, but it’s obvious that the circumstances leading up to his arrival in Buenos Aires were dubious and that he is living by his wits in a foreign country. When a game of chance goes suspiciously his way and Johnny’s life is threatened, a stranger, Ballin Mundson, saves him from his attacker. Ballin eventually offers Johnny a job in his nightclub/casino, and Johnny’s fortunes improve dramatically from that point on.

But then Ballin comes home with his new wife, Gilda, and Johnny’s future suddenly takes a downward turn again. Gilda and Johnny were once in love in New York City, and they did not part amicably. The reasons for their failed romance are also not made clear, but neither one is shy about telling the other how much they hate one another. With Ballin as the link between them, and with their propensities to hurt one another, the narrative can only get darker and more complicated.

(This blog post about Gilda contains spoilers.)

During the course of the film, World War II ends and everyone celebrates, but that’s also when Nazis escape to Argentina and other countries in South America. Perhaps this was already common knowledge for moviegoers in 1946. In Gilda, two Nazis come looking for Ballin and their tungsten patents. Ballin double-crosses them, keeping the patents for himself and killing one of the Nazis in the process. Film critic Richard Schickel provides the commentary on the DVD from the Criterion Collection. He calls the tungsten subplot a MacGuffin: Something that the characters in Gilda care about but that viewers practically ignore (the term MacGuffin was coined, of course, by Alfred Hitchcock). Schickel also says that the subplot is not well developed and thus viewers can’t be expected to care much about tungsten in Gilda.

After repeat viewings of the film, I disagree that the subplot is underdeveloped. I think it’s true that viewers care more about Glenn Ford and Rita Hayworth and less about tungsten (and possibly even less about Johnny Farrell and Gilda Mundson!). It’s easy to miss the details about other plot threads when two beautiful stars are headlining. But careful attention to the dialogue of supporting characters reveals that the tungsten subplot is actually quite important. Tungsten is exceedingly important to Ballin and his plans for world domination. Perhaps the narrative in Gilda is richer and more multilayered than any viewer can appreciate after only one viewing. I certainly don’t mind seeing the film again some time to find out.

Click here to read Tungsten: The Story of an Indispensable Metal, by Mildred Gwin Andrews, a general discussion of tungsten and in particular its strategic importance. Or click here to read Strategic Metals and National Defense: Tungsten in World War II (and Beyond), by Ronald H. Limbaugh. Neither link mentions anything about the film Gilda, but they will likely prove why so many viewers paid more attention to Glenn Ford and Rita Hayworth in the film than they did to any mention of tungsten! What I wonder is how many viewers in 1946 knew about tungsten and Nazi war criminals. Perhaps a lot more than viewers today.

Ballin exuded more hate than either Gilda or Johnny. He tells Gilda: “Hate is a very exciting emotion. Hate is the only thing that has ever warmed me.” Gilda reacts with alarm to this proclamation: We can still assess her reaction, even though she is in shadow and Ballin is in the foreground, taking up about a third of the movie screen. Ballin is a very intimidating figure, and he appears particularly menacing when he waits up one night for Gilda and Johnny to arrive home. He interrogates them, and we can see their fear, especially Gilda’s, in the way both react to his questions. Most of the time Ballin stands closer to the camera, almost completely in black silhouette, which focuses our attention on Gilda’s and Johnny’s fear and adds to the tension. It also focuses our attention on the two stars, but it is Ballin who is again in the foreground, dominating the screen. Ballin Mundson is photographed this same way several times in Gilda, which serves to underscore his menace. Ballin Mundson’s threats should not be taken lightly, and his character alone adds a lot to the noir feel of the film.

Gilda admits to being afraid of Ballin and even tells Johnny that Ballin is insane. Gilda repeats Ballin’s words to Johnny, but for very different reasons: “Hate is a very exciting emotion. Haven’t you noticed? Very exciting. I hate you, too, Johnny. I hate you so much I think I’m going to die from it.” In contrast to Ballin, Johnny and Gilda are inching their way to the realization that they still love one another. Johnny won’t come around until Detective Obregon gives him the push he needs at the end, when he tells Johnny that Gilda did none of the things that he suspects her of doing, that is, cheat on her marriage.

How does Obregon know so much about Gilda? It’s never stated directly, but I think he’s had the principal participants at the nightclub tailed all along. Obregon isn’t hanging out at Ballin’s nightclub because he drinks and gambles; he states as much to Johnny, who can’t understand what he’s doing there. Ballin escapes Obregon’s investigation by faking his own death. The characters believe that Ballin died, but viewers are given a glimpse into his machinations and future plans. His escape implied to me that he is practiced at it: maybe because he escaped from Nazi Germany? Is he a Nazi, too? How else would he have known the two who come to Buenos Aires expecting Ballin to live up to his “gentlemen’s agreement” about the tungsten patents?

These questions are never answered in the film, and this ambiguity only adds to the many noir characteristics of Gilda. Ambiguity, hate, revenge, murder, double-crosses, Nazis in postwar Buenos Aires: Gilda is definitely a film noir that happens to have two distracting, beautiful, and talented stars. Rita Hayworth and Glenn Ford appear in another film noir that is similar in theme and plot: Affair in Trinidad (1952). And once again, their star power almost overshadows the dark story. I’ll have to see that one again, too.