Love this movie, great interplay between the three leads, and the minor characters are a hoot , but I could never understand why they used that scene where Mundson is rescued right after the plane crashes in the ocean. It totally removes any surprise/suspense re: his character (especially when Gilda and Johnny are in the casino and look up to see the blinds move)
shareI think in this case, "Alfred Hitchcock's Bomb Theory" applies:
“There is a distinct difference between "suspense" and "surprise," and yet many pictures continually confuse the two. I'll explain what I mean.
We are now having a very innocent little chat. Let's suppose that there is a bomb underneath this table between us. Nothing happens, and then all of a sudden, "Boom!" There is an explosion. The public is surprised, but prior to this surprise, it has seen an absolutely ordinary scene, of no special consequence. Now, let us take a suspense situation. The bomb is underneath the table and the public knows it, probably because they have seen the anarchist place it there. The public is aware the bomb is going to explode at one o'clock and there is a clock in the decor. The public can see that it is a quarter to one. In these conditions, the same innocuous conversation becomes fascinating because the public is participating in the scene. The audience is longing to warn the characters on the screen: "You shouldn't be talking about such trivial matters. There is a bomb beneath you and it is about to explode!"
In the first case we have given the public fifteen seconds of surprise at the moment of the explosion. In the second we have provided them with fifteen minutes of suspense. The conclusion is that whenever possible the public must be informed. Except when the surprise is a twist, that is, when the unexpected ending is, in itself, the highlight of the story.”
I read somewhere (I can't quite recall where--it may have been Melvyn Stokes' book on Gilda from the BFI Classics series) that they inserted that scene of Ballin being rescued because preview test audiences were confused by his return at the end of the movie. They didn't understand how he survived, I guess.
shareI think it was put there to keep us involved in the movie. Without it, the ending is rather predictable. Johnny will eventually go to Gilda, or vice versa, they will kiss and makeup, and they will all live happily ever after. But wait, there is this little complication. Her husband is still alive, and will surely cause trouble.
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