Rita Hayworth in "Gilda"

September 5, 2011 8:19 PM

Leonard Michaels' "The Zipper": Rita Hayworth is never seen disrobed in the movie, though it is threatened more than once. The atmosphere of dark repression and mysterious forces – the mood or feeling of the movie – might be destroyed by the revelation of her body. It scared me as she began her striptease dance in the nightclub. I didn’t want everybody to see her body, or even to see that Rita Hayworth had a body.

The iconic black strapless gown was designed by French couturier Jean Louis - who also dressed Miss Hayworth in The Lady from Shanghai.

posted by Trurl (13 comments total)

Rita Hayworth is never seen disrobed in the movie , though it is threatened more than once

This has nothing to do with Rita Hayworth, but it immediately brought to mind a rotating holographic disk I saw decades ago with a woman wearing a robe who opens it only when her back is to you.

Apparently I'm not the only person who saw this particular object.

It was a cruel tease, because if you walked around it to where she was "facing", you'd change your location relative to the holographic information so you could never get in front of her when the robe was open.

There was so much interesting cool stuff being done with holograms 20-25 years ago. It all seems to have died out now. Much sadness for that.

And now back to your scheduled Rita Hayworth / strapless gown discussion.
posted by hippybear at 8:36 PM on September 5, 2011 [2 favorites]

Rita Hayworth taking her gloves off in Gilda is sexier than almost any other peice of clothing removal--almost made me a fetishist.
posted by PinkMoose at 9:34 PM on September 5, 2011 [2 favorites]

“Beautiful, Deadly…Using all a woman’s weapons.”
posted by The Bridge on the River Kai Ryssdal at 9:37 PM on September 5, 2011 [1 favorite]

This pretty much kills me dead every time I see it. I must go now.
posted by Phlegmco(tm) at 9:53 PM on September 5, 2011 [2 favorites]

Hippybear, is this the disc you were thinking of (bottom of page)?
posted by 445supermag at 10:06 PM on September 5, 2011

Threatened is the wrong word. Rita Hayworth could never threaten to disrobe.
Courtney Love, Rosie O'Donnell, Marty Feldman, sure.
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 10:10 PM on September 5, 2011 [4 favorites]

This is a great post, if only for reminding me to dig out my copy of 1992 Best American Essays (and there can never be too many posts about Rita Hayworth!)
posted by KokuRyu at 10:17 PM on September 5, 2011

Did they ever get around to making the holographic biopic of Jenny Agutter mentioned here? I ask in a spirit of entirely technical enquiry...
posted by cromagnon at 2:51 AM on September 6, 2011 [1 favorite]

WHAAA! Oh, sorry, I was still staring at her CRAZY WITCH HANDS in the pin-up photo...
posted by Mooseli at 3:23 AM on September 6, 2011

WHAAA! Oh, sorry, I was still staring at her CRAZY WITCH HANDS in the pin-up photo...

That's odd. All the time I've spent looking at that picture and I never noticed the hands.
posted by Trurl at 5:37 AM on September 6, 2011 [1 favorite]

Wait... Rita had hands?
posted by IAmBroom at 9:18 AM on September 6, 2011

They don't make stars as incandescently beautiful as her any more. Anyhow, the story of Rita Hayworth is rather tragic. She divulged to her husband Orson Welles how she was sexually abused by her father, which probably hurt her relationships with men for the rest of her life.
posted by jonp72 at 10:42 AM on September 6, 2011

445supermag: that's exactly the disk. It's a shame there's no online video showing it in action. It's quite the tease. The holographic 3D nature of the image was outstanding, too.
posted by hippybear at 3:48 PM on September 6, 2011