Johnny Farrell (Glenn Ford) is a small-time hood hired to run an illegal high-class casino in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Singer Gilda (Rita Hayworth) is the casino owner's new wife, and a former lover of Farrell’s. Ballin Mundson (George Macready), the mobster casino owner with possible ties to Nazis, initially doesn’t know about Gilda and Farrell’s past and assigns Farrell to keep an eye on his wife. Farrell keeps track of her dating men at all hours of the night. After a number of twists and turns the secrets of the three are eventually revealed.
Quotes
Gilda: I can never get a zipper to close. Maybe that stands for something, what do you think?
Johnny: Pardon me, but your husband is showing.
Det. Obregon: You two kids love each other pretty terribly, don't you? Johnny Farrell: I hate her! Det. Obregon: That's what I mean. It's the most curious love-hate pattern I've ever had the privilege of witnessing.
Johnny Farrell: Doesn't it bother you at all that you're married? Gilda: What I want to know is, does it bother you?
Gilda: Don't you know about me Gabe? If I'd been a ranch, they would have named me "The Bar None."
Gilda: Hate is an 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...darling...I think I'm going to die from it.
Ballin: Gilda, are you decent? Gilda: Me? Sure...I'm decent.
Trivia
Gilda was filmed between September and December, 1945. Hayworth was returning to film after having just given birth in August 1945 to Rebecca Welles, daughter of Orson Welles.
At the time of the film's release, Argentina's de facto president had the same surname as the male protagonist -Gen. Edelmiro J. Farrell, succeeded the following year by the constitutionally elected Juan Perón - his personal friend and formerly his Minister of Labor and Welfare.
Hayworth's introduction to the film was shot twice. While the action of her popping her head into the frame and the subsequent dialog remains the same, she is dressed in different costumes - in a striped blouse and dark skirt in one film print, and the more famous off-shoulder dressing gown in the other.
A tribute to Gilda was paid in 1981 by the famous Argentine rock band Serú Girán in their album Peperina. Their song Salir de la Melancolía [Out of Melancholy] starts with a Spanish-dubbed version of Rita Hayworth's famous line just before being slapped by Glenn Ford after performing her "glove-striptease"; the album's cover features an acknowledgement to "the unknown Mexican voice actress" who had actually spoken the line.
A short portion of Gilda is seen playing in a scene from the 1994 movie The Shawshank Redemption. The scene from The Shawshank Redemption involves Andy and Red talking to each other; The part of Gilda being projected on the cinema screen is the part just before Gilda is asked if she is decent. As this scene plays out, Morgan Freeman's character remarks "I love when she does that shit with her hair...".
While the Buenos Aires setting is generally accurate (signs, references etc.), the city is depicted as a seaside one - some lines include references to "the sea". In fact, Buenos Aires is situated on the coast of the River Plate [Río de la Plata] the widest river in the world, yet a river. In the scene where Ballin Munson fakes his death by crashing his plane into the water, the Argentine policeman implies that the runaway appears to be "headed to Cape Town", whilst the Uruguayan coast is just 33 km [less than 21 miles] away and can be seen from very tall buildings. Moreover, the River Plate had been successfully crossed by plane as early as 1910 (by then Pfc. Teodoro Fels, the Argentine aviation pioneer); there is also a project (controversial due to cost and environmental concerns, yet technically feasible) for a bridge connecting Buenos Aires to the Uruguayan city of Colonia.
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