Frank Cronenweth/Columbia/Kobal/ShutterstockA casino owner strides into his new wife’s bedroom, closely trailed by his right-hand man. “Gilda, are you decent?” he calls out. “Me?” she replies teasingly, appearing into view as she tosses her hair back in one of the most famous character introductions in cinematic history. It’s easy to understand why one of these men lost his head and married her the day after he met her, and the other, despite their estrangement, hasn’t been able to put her out of his mind for a minute. Of the pairings in this precarious love triangle, one is married but has nothing in common, and other projects a mutual hatred but are actually kindred spirits.The luminous Gilda (Rita Hayworth) swans around the Buenos Aires joint, inciting jealousy and lust in her husband Ballin Mundson (George Macready) and former lover Johnny Farrell (Glenn Ford), toying with the patrons, well aware of her effect on them. And yet Charles Vidor’s 1946 noir locates her loneliness under bright casino lights and in luxuriously furnished rooms.Finally available on a new Criterion 4K UHD + Blu-Ray, Gilda has never looked more striking.How was Gilda received upon release?So enduring is Gilda’s influence on modern pop culture, it’s surprising to discover that reviewers didn’t take to it as kindly at the time of its release. New York Times critic Bosley Crowther called it “slow, opaque, unexciting,” adding, “Indeed, one is likely to wonder whether the waters of this expensive film have not been deliberately muddied in order to disguise its shallowness.”Sure, there’s a tungsten cartel subplot that doesn’t add much to the film but Hayworth’s magnetism and her push-pull dynamics with the two men in her life are riveting. Gilda repeatedly tests the bars of her gilded cage, finally escaping only to discover she’s been caught in a trap once more. The staff reviewer at Variety, however, remained unimpressed, calling the story “a confusion,” but conceding: “Hayworth is photographed most beguilingly.”Why is Gilda important to see now?Gilda becomes the object of obsession of Glenn Ford’s Johnny Farrell. | THA/ShutterstockDecades after its release, the film’s characters are far from the only men captivated by Gilda’s beauty. “I saw this when I was 10 or 11, I had some sort of funny reaction to her, I tell you. Me and my friends didn’t know what to do about Rita Hayworth,” said Martin Scorsese, calling Gilda the “peak of film noir.” There are echoes of the film in his epic crime drama Casino (1995), in which a wealthy casino executive (Robert De Niro) is likewise aware that the showgirl he’s fallen for and married (Sharon Stone) doesn’t return his love, but settles for a mutually beneficial arrangement anyway.In the 1994 film adaptation of Stephen King’s 1982 novella Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption, the prisoners gather to watch Vidor’s film. Gazing up at the screen in adoration, eyes wide, mouth agape, contraband smuggler Ellis Redding (Morgan Freeman) forestalls his fellow inmate Andy Dufresne’s (Tim Robbins) interruption moments before Gilda’s first appearance. “This is the part I really like. This is when she does that shit with her hair,” he says. “I know. I’ve seen it three times this month,” comes the reply. The sound of hooting and hollering fills the room soon after, establishing a sighting of Gilda as synonymous with unbridled joy.The character’s voluminous curls also caught the attention of filmmaker Baz Luhrmann, who admits to having modeled his courtesan Satine’s (Nicole Kidman) hairstyle in the 2001 jukebox musical Moulin Rouge! after hers. He’s also cited the film’s heightened cinematic language as a huge influence on his own. “That intense, impossible love and the drama of that… It’s the kind of life…I tend to put myself in and am looking for, even as a filmmaker,” he said in a featurette.For every man who readily succumbed to Gilda’s charms over the years, however, the character spurred only resentment in its actress. Hayworth grew bitter about the effect her most famous role had on her public image. “Men go to bed with Gilda, but wake up with me,” she rued of the discrepancy between her partners’ fantasy and the reality, a quote referenced by Julia Roberts as the fictional Hollywood actress Anna Scott in the rom-com Notting Hill (1999).What new features does the Gilda Blu-ray have?A new 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrackOne 4K UHD disc of the film presented in Dolby Vision HDR and one Blu-ray with the film and special featuresAn audio commentary by film critic Richard SchickelAn interview with film-noir historian Eddie MullerA program featuring filmmakers Martin Scorsese and Baz Luhrmann discussing their appreciation for GildaThe Odyssey of Rita Hayworth, a 1964 episode of the television show Hollywood and the StarsThe film’s trailerEnglish subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearingAn essay by critic Sheila O’MalleyGilda Criterion 4K Blu-ray