| Realizing that it did "no good"
to run away to a different country, Gilda returns to Buenos Aires to get
a legal annulment from her marriage to Johnny - but she is deceived by
her new, persuasive lover named Tom (one of Johnny's hired thugs who poses
as an affluent lawyer) and brought back to Argentina. As she enters their
room at the Hotel Centenario, she realizes she has been deceived - there
sits Johnny calmly smoking in an armchair as Tom backs out of the room
behind her. Johnny tells her that her interminable punishment will continue
unabated: "There's no such thing as annulment in Argentina." Becoming hysterical,
she slaps him repeatedly across the face, beats on his chest, and then
slumps to the floor in front of him. She grovels at his feet and begs for
freedom from torment: "Oh Johnny, please let me go, please let me go. I
can't stand it anymore. I don't want anything from you. But please, just
let me go." |
