When first released, the film earned mixed to positive reviews.
Variety liked the film and wrote, "Hayworth is photographed most beguilingly. The producers have created nothing subtle in the projection of her s.a. [sex appeal], and that's probably been wise. Glenn Ford is the vis-a-vis, in his first picture part in several years ...
Gilda is obviously an expensive production—and shows it. The direction is static, but that's more the fault of the writers." Reviewing the film for
The New York Times, Bosley Crowther gave the film a negative review, admitting he did not like or understand the movie, but praised Ford as having "a certain stamina and poise in the role of a tough young gambler."
Gilda was screened in competition at the
1946 Cannes Film Festival, the first time the
festival was held. In its release, the film earned
theatrical rentals of $3,750,000 in the United States and Canada, and $6 million worldwide. More recently, film critic
Emanuel Levy wrote a positive review: "Featuring Rita Hayworth in her best-known performance,
Gilda, released just after the end of WWII, draws much of its peculiar power from its mixture of genres and the way its characters interact with each other ...
Gilda was a cross between a hardcore noir adventure of the 1940s and the cycle of 'women's pictures.' Imbued with a modern perspective, the film is quite remarkable in the way it deals with sexual issues." Mike D'Angelo of
The A.V. Club said that "part of Gilda's fascination is the way that it complicates the idea of the
femme fatale. (...) Hayworth plays Gilda with a layer of bravado that masks deep insecurity"; however, he felt that the film's unusually happy ending for a noir compromised it.
Operation Crossroads nuclear test Attesting to its immediate success, it was widely reported that
an atomic bomb to be tested at
Bikini Atoll in the
Marshall Islands would bear the film's title above an image of Hayworth, a reference to her
bombshell status. The bomb was decorated with a photograph of Hayworth cut from the June 1946 issue of
Esquire magazine; above it was stenciled the device's nickname, "Gilda", in two-inch black letters. Although the gesture was meant as a compliment, Hayworth was deeply offended. According to
Orson Welles, her husband at the time of filming
Gilda, Hayworth believed it to be a publicity stunt from Columbia executive
Harry Cohn and was furious. Welles told biographer
Barbara Leaming: "Rita used to fly into terrible rages all the time, but the angriest was when she found out that they'd put her on the atom bomb. Rita almost went insane, she was so angry. ... She wanted to go to Washington to hold a press conference, but Harry Cohn wouldn't let her because it would be unpatriotic." Welles tried to persuade Hayworth that the whole business was not a publicity stunt on Cohn's part, that it was simply homage to her from the flight crew.
Memorabilia " nightclub sequence The two-piece costume worn by Hayworth in the "Amado Mio" nightclub sequence was offered as part of the "TCM Presents ... There's No Place Like Hollywood" auction November 24, 2014, at
Bonhams in New York. It was estimated that the costume would fetch between $40,000 and $60,000; at the event, it sold for $161,000 (). ==Home media==