Another one I caught on tv--yay for Turner Classic Movies. Gilda is a Casablanca-esque film with Glenn Ford as Johnny Farrell (and narrator) a guy down on his luck but good at gambling (albeit via cheating) in Buenos Aires. Balin Mundson brings him into his illegal casino as a hired hand. Mundson is also in charge of an equally illegal monopoly of companies and is married to Gilda (Rita Hayworth, gorgeous and feisty) who is much younger than he and the former flame of Johnny (unbeknownst to Balin). Gilda is a bit of a spitfire--she likes to do what she wants when she wants to do it--and is a former "dancer." Apparently the relationship between her and Johnny went all sorts of wrong and both are a bit down on love--him on women entirely and she's just married to be married really. Johnny ends up in charge of all that Balin "owns" and this includes Gilda (Balin's not a very nice or stable man) and, of course, the power goes to Johnny's head. It turns out (surprise, surprise) that Balin's in a bit of trouble with the people who helped start his monopoly and so his life starts to head straight downhill while Johnny starts to gain power within the organization. Meanwhile Johnny and Gilda have a fantastic love/hate relationship that eventually comes to a head and explodes, although not really in the way I expected. The movie is a bit slow and Johnny's treatment of Gilda is annoying at points (but she manages to have a comeback for 90% of what he says/does) but I enjoyed it.
I also watched most of The Fountainhead the other night. Yick. It's like Orwell's Animal Farm but on steroids that have gone more wrong than usually after long-term use--I can take didactic, pedantic, overwrought speeches from pigs (that's funny and satiric) but from people . . .. ugh. I didn't think I wanted to read any Ayn Rand and now I'm certain (she wrote the screenplay, too).
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