Re: the Blame
I have a question, which of the two (Gilda or Johnny) was the 'bad guy' in their previous relationship?
It seems to me they both blamed each other. Did Gilda fool around on Johnny, or did he just leave her?
The obvious answer is that Gilda was fooling around, but it could have been something as innocent as flirting (hence "Put the blame on Mame" as irony). That would justify her blaming Johnny for not trusting her. Or it could be that both were fooling around in some kind of provocative love game, in which case the blame would fall equally on both. The ending as it is provides no resolution to the question. In fact, it deadens interest in the question at all, as it has two apparently flawed characters just drifting off into the sunset with the evil Germans having been defeated in the process. Political correctness circa 1945 is then the only real winner.
A more noir ending would have been to knock off Gilda, with Johnny in a voice-over reflecting on how getting mixed up with such a fickle but "femme fatale" creature as Gilda was another of life's bitter lessons.
Lots of options here.
who is the mame in the song? what does she mean by "mame"?
a non-englsih speaker
digibeet
digibeet:
"Mame" is an ordinary girl's name that suggests a fictional licentious woman with whom Gilda apparently identifies herself. It also rhymes with "blame" so it sounds clever and witty. It is sung in an ironic manner so as to suggest that Gilda is saying perhaps that she is also being badly treated by the men in her life.
The obvious answer is that Gilda was fooling around, but it could have been something as innocent as flirting
.. or just attracting too much attention from men.. Maybe Johnny was just bitterly insecure about her overpowering femininity, which maybe sheds more light on his character, i.e. why he let Ballin dominate him - almost like a student/master relationship (I am weak, teach me to be strong), until it was time for the student to take over. Learn to 'control his woman' so to speak. -- but then, Ballin couldn't control Gilda's femininity either, like it was some force of nature.
Maybe that is "Mame.." I can't think of all the lyrics, but there is something in the song about the San Francisco earthquake not being 'mother nature's fault' but Mame's dancing, maybe the Chicago fire too? Just blame women for everything bad that ever happened.. A hyperbolic kind of sarcastic comment about how Johnny blamed her for everything bad.
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I like the "force of nature" analogy. That in turn leads to considering a whole array of psychosexual phenomena, some of which are apt and some not.
It would probably take a close reading of the entire script to decipher what the authors were either consciously or subconsciously getting at. Some aspiring graduate student in film studies ought to take a look at it.
Yeah... the only trouble is that marxist/feminist readings of texts are a little passe nowadays, or so I'm told. So while it's still interesting to me, there has to be some key to the whole thing, some fascinating elusive thread that runs all the way through and adds up to an amazing statement that's not immediately evident.. I mean,
"...in conclusion, after examining the primary symbolic identities of the three central characters in the film, tracing their symbolic journeys from the obscure, untold past into the obscure, assumed future, it is clear that Gilda was too hot to handle."
Academic journals take notice!
Although anything Marxist or Feminist one might say about Gilda would be worth a glance, you are correct in thinking there is with Gilda a more textual connection. The character came before Rita Hayworth made it her own. It sprang out of the concept first imagined by the authors, and it has a dimension both archetypal and paradoxically unique. The romantic "force of nature" (see how this phrase reappears lately in ads for Brokeback Mountain!) or Ewige Weibliche -- eternal feminine -- is accompanied by what an early 20th Century critic might call the attitude of the "sassy blonde" or wisecracking emancipated woman that lasted in film from about Mary Pickford to Eve Arden before being supplanted by rougher, tougher and more complex female persona.
Rita Hayworth as Gilda displays moments of weakness and vacillation. Otherwise she would have taken over the business herself and run Glenn Ford off after murdering the boss. Not the true task of a sex goddess. The role had to be defined as tantalizing and mischievous, but still subservient to the plot of what the guys were up to. Casting Rita Hayworth in the role was brilliant. Not only could she sing and dance, but she had as well a Latin flavor and the sex appeal of a 1940's pinup. Anything with a harder edge would have been too campy or femme fatale, and in the context of the Ford - Macready story line much too over-the-top. The real mystery is never resolved by the sappy ending. That is, what was this hot babe doing in the story in the first place, if not as a catalyst bringing resolution to the conflicted and ambiguous relationship between Ford and Macready. Is it possible she was an eponymous afterthought?
But Gilda is Cinderella. She has to go off into the sunset.
Gilda is not "Elsa Banister" or "Phyllis Dietrichson" for God's sakes!
"Disaster to the wench who did wrong by our Johnny!"
vs.
"I was true to one man once, and look what happened."
But Gilda is Cinderella. She has to go off into the sunset.
Exactly. That is why I find the character so at odds with the other parts of the storyline, and why so many reviewers have expressed dismay over the ending.
I am sure she was faithful to Johnny. Men always get angry at sexy women. Trust me. This happens all the time. Men get jealous, they get intimidated, they get attracted, it all boils down to putting the blame on the woman...
Put the blame on Mame is SO TRUE! Just blame the women!!!