MY FAV FILM NOIR EVER!!

I like Gilda, primarily (like most people) for the incredible sexual perfomance by Rita Hayward. However, "sunset blvd, double indemnity, the third man, touch of evil, maltese falcon, out of the past, the big sleep" are all far greater films. I would say it is more noir than not, looking at its athmosphere, shooting style, and basic situation. However, it is certainly far from a pure example of noir, particularly because of the ending. It is a far too conventional and relatively happy ending to be considered noir. (The same criticism largely applies to The Big Sleep also, though that film is far more noirish overall than Gilda). Finally, as great as Rita Hayward is in this film, she is in no way a noir femme fatale. Not only does she never connive at murder (or any other crime), she is not even close to being all bad. In fact, at the end of the film it is suggested that she is almost all good when the detective (improbably) states that Hayward never actually committed any of the many implied acts of adultery, it was all just an act to make Glenn Ford jealous. (Admittedly, this may have been required by the Hays Office; I'm amazed they allowed much of what survived in the movie.) The sine qua non od femme fatales is that they be "cold around the heart,' as Robert Mitchum memorably described Rhonda Fleming in Out of the Past (and it is one measure of that film's greatness that Fleming is only a very junor femme fatale to Jane Greer, the ultimate femme fatale). The heart of Hayward's character is not even chilly. If you want to see some femme fatales, try these: Barbara Stanwyck (Double Indemnity and, in a very different take, The Strange Love of Martha Ivers), Claire Trevor (Murder, My Sweet), Ava Gardner (The Killers), Yvonne De Carlo (Criss Cross), Jane Greer and Rhonda Fleming (Out of the Past), Audrey Totter (Tension).