I rarely venture into this thread because I only like to post about a DVD I got that I'm really excited for. Needless to say, the fact that I'm in this thread must mean I bought a DVD that I'm really excited for.
Gilda (1946): Columbia Classics - $10.49 at Barnes & Noble, bought January 12, 2010.
Strangely enough, despite my love for classic Hollywood films/actors/directors, I haven't had a chance to see as many of Columbia's films as I'd like to (what with TCM always showing more Warner/MGM/RKO films since they can clear those faster than licencing from other studios), and I know much less about it than other studios. This was largely due to the fact that - in addition to TCM being WB/MGM/RKO-centric - I haven't acquired as many of their DVDs, as I always had a preference for Warner & 20th Century Fox's. And in reading reviews for most of them, Columbia often had more misses than hits when they put their films on DVD, especially regarding special features, so I wasn't always keen on buying them. But after I had finally gotten around to picking up
Lost Horizon (1937) some months ago and getting
Golden Boy (1939) for Christmas from PixarFan2006, I started looking at the Columbia section of my DVDs and seeing that it was really lacking. So I decided to start building it up, even if may be a slow-and-steady process. I figured I'd start with one of their more well-known titles,
Gilda, since I was more or less aware that Rita Hayworth = Columbia's Biggest Name. I had only seen very few of her movies (I vaguely remember watching
Gilda on TCM some years ago - I want to say 2005 - but hadn't seen it since then, and I know I saw
Pal Joey some time in 2007). Since the price was right, I figured I might as well pick up
Gilda at B&N (even though a Rita Hayworth Collection -
Gilda included - will be coming out in May. I plan to get that when it comes out too). I bought the DVD, and that night (January 12), I watched
Gilda for the first time in like, 5 years.
Rita Hayworth, seriously, where have you been and why have I ignored you all my life?
Ever since I got the DVD, not only have I picked up several other Rita Hayworth movies (such as
You Were Never Lovelier,
Blood and Sand (woohoo, another for my Tyrone Power collection, though I stack it with the Rita Hayworth movies), and
Affair in Trinidad, even though the last is more or less a useless film except for her dance numbers), but I've found myself watching
Gilda at least four or five times a week. There's just something about the movie that makes me revisit it again and again. It's like my new
Laura (in 2005/2006 I did the same thing, bought the DVD and became obsessed with watching it over and over. Even going so far as to even write a one-act play inspired by a prop - the portrait of Laura - used in the movie). Of course, some may say it's just because Rita Hayworth is as hot as hell in the movie. Which of course, is true. But there's so much more to the movie than the fact that it has the original Hottie McHotHot. Just watch her flip her hair.
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In addition to that iconic moment,
Gilda also has a smartly-written script, very interesting characters, and while the story still leaves me wondering some things, it is told in a remarkably-simple-but-still-complex way and comes to a satisfying conclusion. The two songs featured are also really good, I've found myself humming "Put the Blame on Mame" more often than I expected, and I often wonder how it and "Amado Mio" would have sounded if Harry Cohn had allowed Hayworth to sing them herself (she was dubbed in the songs for all her movies). The dancing, of course, is such a turn on.
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The DVD (originally released in 1999) is pretty good, even though the supplements are rather lacking by today's standards (well, maybe even in 1999's standards). There's an 8-minute excerpt from 1999's
The Lady with the Torch documentary, focusing on Rita Hayworth's Columbia career, which is okay, but I'd have preferred something a bit more substansive (then again, since it is an excerpt from a documentary, it makes sense why it's so short). There's a trailer, which I'm sure will be missing in the forthcoming boxset, and some Vintage Advertising, as well as Cast/Crew bios. But all in all, the importance in the DVD is the film itself, and
Gilda is indeed one of those films where you could have a barebones DVD and still be satisfied. I think I'm gonna go watch it again. Or just watch this music video again...
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Anyway, if you read all this and watched the video clips, yay you! Here's hoping you check out
Gilda as well!
albert