As Captain Marvel and Shazam hit the skies from opposing sides of the DC/Marvel showdown, see how, at one point, they both had the same name.
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Title: Gilda (1946)
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| Complete credited cast: | |||
| Rita Hayworth | ... | Gilda | |
| Glenn Ford | ... | Johnny Farrell | |
| George Macready | ... | Ballin Mundson | |
| Joseph Calleia | ... | Det. Maurice Obregon | |
| Steven Geray | ... | Uncle Pio | |
| Joe Sawyer | ... | Casey | |
| Gerald Mohr | ... | Capt. Delgado | |
| Mark Roberts | ... | Gabe Evans (as Robert Scott) | |
| Ludwig Donath | ... | German Cartel Member | |
| Donald Douglas | ... | Thomas Langford (as Don Douglas) | |
Just arrived in Argentina, small-time crooked gambler Johnny Farrell is saved from a gunman by sinister Ballin Mundson, who later makes Johnny his right-hand man. But their friendship based on mutual lack of scruples is strained when Mundson returns from a trip with a wife: the supremely desirable Gilda, whom Johnny once knew and learned to hate. The relationship of Johnny and Gilda, a battlefield of warring emotions, becomes even more bizarre after Mundson disappears... Written by Rod Crawford <puffinus@u.washington.edu>
This is one of my all time favourite films, much watched with all its faults. Even the best things can't be faultless but any faults can be more easily overlooked.
There is no golden age film I've seen quite like Gilda, full of strange people with highly-charged emotions saying and doing odd thought-provoking things in semi-comical ways - if you include violence and swearing you could say that's 90% of modern movies though! The subject of hate = love has been explored better since Gilda, but with me the first cut is always the deepest - I first saw this when I was a more impressionable youngster. What we have is a scintillating four way love/hate relationship between Ballin, Johnny, Ballin & Johnny's little friend with no name, & Gilda that ultimately becomes the "usual" tawdry tangle, resolved by their nightclub's toilet-attendant. Huh? When you're in the middle of this fantasy world you can swallow all of this and more.
Probably the second best B picture ever made it only starts to feel like one during the last 30 minutes down to the metaphorical walking into the sunset ending. There's so many good bits: The inventive and relentlessly snappy dialogue between the main characters throughout the film; Johnny quoting statistically that there are more insects in the world than women; Johnny waking up at 5am to the sound of Gilda singing to Pio the toilet-attendant; Pio's reaction after the midget industrialist killed himself in the toilets; Ballin describing his little friend's attributes to Johnny who claims he's just as good; Ballin asking Gilda if she was decent when she was; Johnny telling Ballin categorically that he taught Gilda ALL she knew; Gilda's little striptease - what creeps there were in that club - and fancy stopping her!
Not quite as good as, but a worthy bookend for Casablanca, THE best B picture ever made.