2. Gilda 1946 dir by Charles Vidor
Stars:
• Rita Hayworth as Gilda
• Glenn Ford as Johnny Farrell
• George Macready as Ballin Mundson
Set:
In Argentina after the War. Johnny is a down on his
luck kinda guy who begins work for Mundson.
When Mundson returns from a trip married to the
alluring Gilda the complications begin…
3. Why do we watch it?
• It’s full of post-war desperation and angst.
These people are either broken or profiteering
from post-war shortages
• Links to society at the time. It’s set in
Argentina which was a hot bed of
disenfranchised people – including ex Nazis
hiding from authorities
• It represents the American post-war paranoia
about Nazi war criminals
4. Why do we watch it
• Gilda is a fabulous Bad Girl/Good Girl. She is a
femme fatale of sorts (but comes right in the
end). She’s NOT Phyllis – and we will compare
the two
• Johnny is a flawed male with “no past and all
future”
• Ballin is a profiteer and a cruel man
5. Femme Fatale? ‘If I’d have been a ranch they’d
have called me the Bar Nothing
• Rita Hayworth’s Gilda was
alluring and manipulative,
but is driven by a love/hate
relationship with Johnny to
behave badly.
• Her first (and most famous)
scene, ‘me decent’
introduces her as a ‘vamp’
and uses typical noir visual
stylistic techniques to make
her look alluring (light
behind)
6. Good Girl/Bad “I never can seem to do a
zipper up”
Girl Gilda represents the view
of society at the time that a
woman outside of family
and traditional roles is most
dangerous – she is part of a
society where women’s
roles and behaviour were
changing and that was
challenging traditional roles
She uses men to get back at
Johnny and uses her
sexuality to get what she
wants
7. Good/Girl Bad Girl
Unlike Phyllis she doesn’t
resort to crime – but would
have been seen as amoral at
the time
She is selfish and a narcissist
like Phyllis – looks in the mirror
a bit!
She represents the
existentialist questioning of
life happening after the war -
Gilda is a lost soul, who
doesn’t know what she wants.
8. Put the blame on Mame (women)
"When they had the earthquake - in San Francisco-
back in 19`6
They said that old mother nature - was up to her
old tricks.
That's the story that went around, but here's the
real lowdown-
Put the blame on mame boys, put the blame on
mame
One night she started to - shim and shake-
that brought on the `Frisco quake
So you can, Put the blame on mame boys,
put the blame on mame.
9. “You have no idea how faithful I can Flawed Male
be for the right amount”
• Johnny is literally at rock
bottom when Ballin finds
him
• He is cruel and sadistic to
Gilda – can’t live with her,
can’t live without her
• He is re-made as the cruel
husband that Ballin has
been
• His relationship with
Gilda is fatalistic
“You'd think a bell would have rung, or
you'd think I'd have had some instinct of
warning. But I didn't. I just walked right "I hated her so, I couldn't get her out
into it”. of my mind for a minute. She was in
the air I breathed, the food I ate..."
12. The Hays Code and Gilda
• Gilda only removes one
glove
• The ending where they
are re-united was in an
attempt to keep to the
code
• The underlying
suggestion that this is a
love triangle is not
made explicit
