1946 RITA HAYWORTH FILM MOVIE
Gilda is known for its glamour and one of the greatest movie wardrobes of all time. Like Kalloch and mentor Travis Banton before him, Louis brought an elegance to Columbia that elevated the studio's image from its origins as "Poverty Row." Even in the fabric-rationed years of World War II, you could count on Louis' costumes to be glamorous. But it is his career in film that has become legendary with one celebrated design after another. He would also close his career in fashion with a successful line of his own 'Jean Louis Inc.', which was sold through his Beverly Hills boutique and better department stores. Like many costume designers, he began his career in fashion and worked at two of the best couturiers in the world-Agnes-Drecoll in France and then Hattie Carnegie in New York. Louis is responsible for some of my favorite wardrobes on film, including Doris Day in Pillow Talk (1959) and Lana Turner in Imitation of Life (1959). And of course he was a perfect partner on Gilda with director Vidor, whose unique framing often reminds me of George Stevens in later movies like A Place in the Sun(1951).īut perhaps the greatest contributions of all came from Columbia's head costume designer Jean Louis. Interestingly, he was behind the camera for Rita's screen test at Columbia and was largely responsible for head Harry Cohn seeing her potential. There is a depth to Maté's black and white that is unmatched by most in film, and for this reason he is one of my favorite cinematographers. He even directed some of the best in film noir, including the classic D.O.A. The look of Alfred Hitchcock's Foreign Correspondent (1940) , Orson Welles' The Lady from Shanghai (1947, again starring Rita), and Ernst Lubitsch's To Be or Not to Be (1942) are also due to his work. Rudolph Maté is a star in film noir, known for his lush and beautiful cinematography both in and out of the genre. These men more than any other are what allowed Rita to shine so bright. Two of its great talents were the cinematographer and costume designer-Rudolph Maté and Jean Louis. There were several planets in alignment with the making of Gilda and its team could not have been stronger. Thus "Rita Cansino" came back as "Rita Hayworth" and was signed to a contract with Columbia Pictures. And change it did-that long red hair soon became a signature, in a style that seems influenced by Veronica Lake before her. Her first husband (there were five, including Orson Welles) encouraged painful electrolysis to change her hairline and hair color to change her image. In fact, she was so lackluster that Fox decided to drop her after only a few pictures. Though Rita danced and performed in public with her father from a very early age, she was not immediately loved on screen.
Born Margarita Cansino, her mother Volga was a Ziegfeld Girl and her father Eduardo owned a dancing studio where he taught the likes of James Cagney and Jean Harlow. Rita was always talented, but it took some confidence-building and other changes over the years to bring out what was naturally in her genes. Though she had crept into our consciousness in Howard Hawks' Only Angels Have Wings (1939) and established her dancing in movies like You Were Never Lovelier (1942) with Fred Astaire and Cover Girl (1944) with Gene Kelly, it was Gilda that secured Rita's star in the heavens. Rita was-and still is-a woman who makes mere mortals swoon and this role of a femme fatale seems custom-made for her. Let's start with the obvious reason why: Rita Hayworth. Film noir is already a favorite genre of mine, but the characters in Gilda are so taut with tension and visuals so rich that there's something exceptional to experience each and every time. There are some movies that are so sexy and sizzle no matter how often you see them, and Charles Vidor's 1946 classic Gilda is definitely one.
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