Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		4.0
Audio		3.5
Extras		1.5
Overall		3.5

Gilda Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov March 1, 2014

Charles Vidor's "Gilda" (1946) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Sony Pictures Home Entertainment Italia. The only supplemental feature on the disc is a short video piece with comments from directors Martin Scorsese and Baz Luhrmann. In English, with optional English, English SDH, Italian, French, Spanish (Castilian), Spanish (Latin America), Portuguese, Portuguese (Brazil), Japanese, German, Arabic, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Icelandic, Korean, Mandarin (Traditional), Norwegian, Polish, Swedish, Thai, and Turkish subtitles for the main feature. Region-Free.

Gilda

Glenn Ford is Johnny Farrell, a petty gambler who makes ends meet by separating fools from their money on the dark and dirty streets of Buenos Aires. It is there that someone tries to kill Johnny, but the wealthy loner Ballin Mundsen (George Macready, Paths of Glory, Vera Cruz) saves his life and then hires him to manage his casino.

Soon after Johnny gets comfortable working in the casino, Ballin shows him his latest acquisition – the stunningly beautiful Gilda (Rita Hayworth, The Lady from Shanghai), who knows how to seduce men with deep pockets. What Ballin does not know is that Johnny and Gilda have a long history together.

Eventually Ballin realizes that Gilda might have had a plan when she agreed to marry him, but he has little time to question her because two German businessmen arrive in the casino and create a lot of tension after they demand that he signs some important documents. A local government agent (Joseph Calleia, Touch of Evil, Captain Carey, U.S.A.) further complicates things when he approaches Johnny and reveals to him that his boss’ interests extend far beyond his gambling business. All hell breaks loose when Ballin kills one of the Germans and then his private plane crashes in the ocean.

Charles Vidor’s classic noir film, Gilda, works because of three simple reasons. The first is the presence of the stunningly beautiful Hayworth. The camera loves her so much that it frequently feels like it has difficulty spending time with the rest of the actors. Hayworth is fully aware of her sex appeal and loves the attention. The confidence she exudes makes even casual close-ups look breathtakingly beautiful.

The second reason is the terrific script. It is one of the best done for a Hollywood film after WWII. The exchanges between the main protagonists are frequently exceptionally bold yet vague enough not to upset the watchdogs. (Years later, a similar style of writing was mastered by various screenwriters living behind the Iron Curtain, where powerful red apparatchiks would carefully scrutinize their work to make sure that it does not undermine the Party’s legitimacy).

The third reason is Jack Cole’s music numbers. There is no groundbreaking material here, but everything works to perfection. Looking indescribably sexy, Hayworth sings, dances, and flirts with her audience, and then suddenly takes off the beautiful mask she wears for everyone to see that she is a real woman who wants to be loved, cared for and protected. Indeed, the numbers and the transitions after them are wonderfully choreographed.

Ford also leaves a lasting impression as the petty gambler who gets a second chance in life. His final character transformation, however, feels a bit premature. Macready looks appropriately cold and unpredictable. Though his time in front of the camera is limited, Steven Geray is simply outstanding as the casino's washroom attendant Uncle Pio.

Gilda was lensed by legendary Polish-born cinematographer Rudolph Mate (Carl Theodor Dreyer’s Vampyr, The Passion of Joan of Arc). The many music pieces heard throughout the film were orchestrated by Hugo Friedhofer (Fritz Lang’s Cloak and Dagger, Michael Curtiz’s Casablanca).

In 2013, Gilda was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

Gilda Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.34:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Charles Vidor's Gilda arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Sony Pictures Home Entertainment Italia.

The release uses as a foundation the UCLA Film and Television Archive restoration of Gilda, which was produced in cooperation with Sony Pictures Entertainment, The Library of Congress, and The National Film and Television Archive U.K. Unsurprisingly, the basic characteristics we typically address in our reviews look solid. Generally speaking, image depth and clarity are pleasing throughout the entire film, while contrast levels remain stable. Color saturation is good - blacks are solid and there is a nice range of nuanced grays. The best news, however, is that there are no traces of problematic denoising and sharpening adjustments. Needless to say, the film has a stable organic look. This being said, the encoding is somewhat underwhelming. To be perfectly clear, there are select sequences where the grain isn't as tight as it should be. While some of the minor fluctuations are clearly inherited -- due to some light fading or even sporadic blemishes -- it is also obvious that there is room for improvement. My feeling, however, is that these minor fluctuations will likely be spotted only by viewers who view their films on large screens or use projectors. Ultimately, the restoration is competent and the Blu-ray release clearly represents a strong upgrade in quality over the R1 DVD release of Gilda from The Films of Rita Hayworth box set. (Note: This is a Region-Free Blu-ray release. Therefore, you will be able to play it on your PS3 or SA regardless of your geographical location. For the record, there is no problematic PAL or 1080/50i content preceding the disc's main menu).

Gilda Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There are seven standard audio tracks on this Blu-ray release: English Dolby Digital 2.0, French Dolby Digital 2.0, German Dolby Digital 2.0, Italian Dolby Digital 2.0, Japanese Dolby Digital 2.0, Portuguese Dolby Digital 2.0, Spanish (Castilian) Dolby Digital 2.0, and Spanish (Latin America) Dolby Digital 2.0. For the record, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment has provided optional English, English SDH, Italian, French, Spanish (Castilian), Spanish (Latin America), Portuguese, Portuguese (Brazil), Japanese, German, Arabic, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Icelandic, Korean, Mandarin (Traditional), Norwegian, Polish, Swedish, Thai, and Turkish subtitles for the main feature.

The lack of lossless audio is very surprising because both depth and clarity are very good. In other words, with a lossless track the audio quality would have been excellent. It is also easy to tell that various stabilization adjustments have been performed because there are absolutely no sudden spikes or drops in dynamic activity. Some extremely light hiss occasionally sneaks in, but it never becomes distracting. The dialog is stable and easy to follow.

Gilda Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Martin Scorsese and Baz Luhrmann on Gilda - acclaimed directors Martin Scorsese and Baz Luhrmann (Moulin Rouge!) discuss the unique qualities of Gilda and Rita Hayworth's legendary performance. In English, with optional English subtitles. (17 min, 1080p)

Gilda Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

It would be such a shame if this legendary American film isn't released on Blu-ray on this side of the Atlantic. While waiting for Sony Pictures to announce it, I have no other option but to encourage folks to consider importing it. Everything that was great about Hollywood is on display in Gilda. Truly, that's all there is to be said about it. RECOMMENDED.