Mar 081946
 
two reels

Johnny Morrison (Alan Ladd) returns from the war with his two buddies (William Bendix & Hugh Beaumont), one of whom has a brain injury. His sleazy drunken wife, Helen (Doris Dowling) has been carrying on an open affair with Eddie Harwood (Howard Da Silva) a wealthy criminal, and admits to killing their child in a drunken crash. Johnny leaves her, and happens to be picked up by Joyce (Veronica Lake), Eddie’s wife. When Helen is found dead, the police search for Johnny, who intends to find the murderer on his own.

Thought of as a major Film Noir, The Blue Dahlia lacks the stylish cinematography of the best of the movement. It’s shot like an earlier crime drama. It also lacks the wit of top Noirs. It does have the grimy worldview. These are some nasty people. Johnny is unpleasant. He has plenty of reason to be unpleasant, but that doesn’t change the fact. Alan Ladd plays him switching between mean and blank. His wife has no redeeming qualities and her friends are empty. The house detective is a blackmailer and the hotel manager is connected to the mob. Pretty much anyone that pops up on the street is a crook. At least the guy with the shrapnel in his head has reason to be a bad date. The exceptions to the dark world are Johnny’s other buddy and Joyce, both of whom are saints. It’s hard to see what she sees in Johnny, since nothing on screen tells us.

Actually, it’s hard to see a lot of the things in The Blue Dahlia. The plot is based on a series of coincidences, with people just happening to run into each other all over the city. By the third time it happens, the film has lost any dramatic power and can only be taken as a romp—a romp with a lot of scummy people. Raymond Chandler, who authored the screenplay, knows how to put together a story, but this one was rushed. Worse, the ending is a mess, and not his fault. He wrote a workable (if obvious) final act, but the War Department objected, so Chandler did the best he could, which wasn’t all that good. Besides the pointless identity of the killer, the film completely ignores three dead bodies. It makes the nice chat with the unknowing widow feel rather strange.

OK, so the story is horrible, but it does move along at a nice clip. The secondary cast are all excellent and fun when allowed to be. And then there is Veronica Lake. This is one of her better performances. If you are not a fan, take a half star away from my rating. I am a fan, so I’m happy to watch this on an afternoon with a very cheaply priced ticket.

Lake and Ladd co-starred in two other Noirs, This Gun for Hire (1942) and The Glass Key (1942).

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