“She still didn’t believe I wasn’t coming back. Every night she got all dressed up… and waited. But a girl like Gilda couldn’t stand not knowing the why of things, so she decided to swallow her pride and came to see me. It was wonderful. “

‘Gilda’, directed by Charles Vidor in 1946, is an American film noir starring Rita Hayworth and Glenn Ford. Ford plays Johnny Farrell, a small-time gangster who gets into hot water in Buenos Aires. He loses big whilst cheating at a craps game and ends up working for an unscrupulous casino owner called Ballin Mundson, played by George Macready. Mundson’s wife, Gilda, played by Hayworth, has history with Farrell but conceal it from the boss, however soon their romantic past catched up with them. Meanwhile, the Argentine police are investigating conspiratorial goings-on involving Germans and the casino. It’s a fast paced, slick movie with a cynical edge in which none of the characters, including the police, are without flaws. The highlight of the film is Hayworth’s smoking performance, including a notable song and dance scene. It’s a film that bounced on the edges of what was allowed by the censors, cuttingly risque with hints of sadism, homosexuality and a lot of sex, all played out in a stylise and dark series of scenes.

It’s worth watching purely for Hayworth, but Macready’s sinister but magnetic villain also draws attention. It’s chilly, cool and sexy.