Movie Monday: The Blue Dahlia

Movie Monday: The Blue Dahlia

Released April 19, 1946, The Blue Dahlia is a classic film noir and mystery, and  author Raymond Chandler’s first original screenplay. The movie was directed by George Marshall who got his start in Hollywood as an extra in silent films. Alan Ladd, Veronica Lake, and William Bendix head the cast. For those unfamiliar with the genre, film noir uses high-contrast black-and-white lighting, heavy shadows, rain-soaked streets, a cynical, hard-boiled hero, flashbacks, complex investigative plots, voice over narration, and themes of corruption, greed, and paranoia.

The plot - an ex-bomber pilot who is suspecting of murdering his unfaithful wife - features three recently demobilized U.S. Navy aviators, Johnny, Buzz, and George, who arrive in Hollywood. George and Buzz get an apartment while Johnny heads home, a hotel bungalow, to see his wife, Helen, where she is in the midst of a wild party. During their reunion, it comes out that she’s having an affair with Eddie, the owner of The Blue Dahlia nightclub on Sunset Strip. Johnny punches Eddie which brings an end to the party, and everyone leaves. In his anger, Johnny pulls a gun on Helen but eventually drops it on a chair and departs. In the bus station the following morning, he hears the radio announcement that his wife has been murdered. A variety of characters are introduced each with a motive to kill Helen. During the denouement, most end up in the Blue Dahlia which results in a shootout. The murderer is killed, and Johnny “heads into the sunset.”

Alan Ladd, primarily known for film noir and westerns, plays Johnny. “Discovered” by Paramount in

1933, he didn’t gain traction in career until nearly eight year later when he was cast in Graham Greene’s This Gun for Hire. During World War II, Ladd served in the U.S. Army Air Forces First Motion Picture Unit and appeared in a trailer promoted a war loan drive. As with many actors who left Hollywood during the war, films that he was supposed to appear in were either postponed or cast with other actors. After his discharge he joined the Hollywood Victory Committee and volunteered to tour in USO shows.

Veronica Lake, born Constance Frances Marie Ockelman, frequently played femme fatales in film noir and was often paired with Alan Ladd. She got her start in 1941 when produce Arthur Hornblow, Jr. was looking for a “new girl” to play a nightclub singer in his drama I Wanted Wings. Hornblow is the one who convinced Veronica to change her last name, saying, “her eyes were calm and clear like a blue lake.” Tragically, Veronica struggled with alcohol and career sputtered as a result.

According to several sources, Chandler originally intended for Buzz to be the murderer, but the U.S. Navy objected to a wounded veteran being portrayed as a killer, so the ending was changed. Chandler was not happy with the change noting in his diary “What the Navy Department did to the story was a little thing like making me change the murderer and hence making a routine whodunit out of a fairly original idea.”

The film was met with mixed reviews from critics, but Ladd’s performance was praised by all with Variety magazine saying, “Alan Ladd does a bang-up job. Performance has a warm appeal, while in his relentless track down of the real criminal, Ladd has a cold, steel-like quality that is potent.” Nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay, The Blue Dahlia lost to British melodrama The Seventh Veil.

Have you seen this classic?

____________________

Norwegian Nights:

Can their marriage endure a debilitating injury, a devastating loss, and a world war?

The second anniversary of Germany’s occupation of Norway has passed with no end in sight, so Gustav Westgard and his wife are still exiled on Shetland. He’s convinced Oda’s miscarriage would have been prevented back in Norway and decides he must return to his homeland to do whatever possible to rid the country of its invaders. Will he live to see liberation?

Grieving the loss of her baby, Oda turns toward her heavenly Father as Gustav retreats inside himself. Rather than try to stop him after she discovers he plans to join the Norwegian resistance, she stows away onboard the ship taking him home. Can she convince him that they are better united in a cause than apart?

Purchase Link: https://books2read.com/u/bwl5qv
__________________

Sources: 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Blue_Dahlia
https://users.pfw.edu/stapletm/BlueDahlia.html
https://robotswithcoffee.com/2024/10/10/movie-review-the-blue-dahlia-1946/
https://www.britannica.com/topic/The-Blue-Dahlia
https://www.newyorker.com/goings-on-about-town/movies/the-blue-dahlia
https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/24704
https://moviemaniamadness.wordpress.com/2015/04/11/the-blue-dahlia-starring-alan-ladd-veronica-lake/

Photo Credits:

Movie Poster: By http://www.movieposterdb.com/, Fair use.

Still with Alan Ladd and Veronica Lake: Paramount Pictures

Still with Alan Ladd and William Bendix: Paramount Pictures