Columbias lush and lavish film noir Gilda offers one of the strangest romantic triangles in any 1940s film. Played by Rita Hayworth in her considerable prime, Gilda is the sexy wife of mysterious, crippled casino owner George Macready. She is also the former love of gambler Glenn Ford, who takes a job as a croupier in Macreadys Buenos Aires casino. Realizing that there is some sort of sexual tension between Hayworth and Ford, Macready goes out of his way to throw the two of them together by ordering Ford to act as Hayworths bodyguard. One has the feeling throughout that Macready lusts after both Hayworth and Ford, all the while manipulating their downfall. In the films most famous sequence, Hayworth defies both Ford and Macready by performing an overheated rendition of Put the Blame on Mame in front of the panting male casino customers. Ford continues to resists Hayworths charms, but Macready, sensing that their affair has resumed, leaves in a fit of rage and is presumably killed in an airplane crash. Hayworth and Ford marry, but theirs in an abusive relationship due to Fords inability to trust Hayworth and her supposed alley-cat behavior. At a crucial moment, Macready, who is not dead after all, returns to kill both Hayworth and Ford. But since Macready is not only a cuckold but a Nazi collaborator, it isnt hard to figure whos really going to end up sprawled on the floor. Perhaps a little too pretty and well-lit to totally succeed as melodrama, Gilda is nonetheless a superb showcase for Rita Hayworth--as well as a marvelous example of how a clever scriptwriter (Marion Parsonnet) could suggest all sorts of sexual aberrations while still remaining within the boundaries of the Production Code. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide