Paramount is in a tizzy. It’s early in 1945 and Alan Ladd, their top earner, is headed back into the US Army in three months time and they’ve got nothing in the can. What is immediately needed is an Alan Ladd vehicle. Paramount settles on my hero, Raymond Chandler, and his half-written manuscript, The Blue Dahlia.
George Marshall starts directing from the beginnings of the script as Chandler continues to write.
The Blue Dahlia begins with a Hollywood-bound bus stopping at a corner and three war buddies getting off, each of them carrying a suitcase, each looking sheepish in their civvies. There’s Buzz who’s brain damaged and flies into rages, there’s the amiable George who has taken the responsibility as Buzz’s keeper, and there is their squad leader, Johnny, played by Alan Ladd.
The three men decide to stop for a drink before they resume life back home. Johnny is the only guy there with a wife to come home to, but he isn’t any more eager to leave the bar than his two friends. He raises a shot of whiskey and toasts his buddies, Here’s to what was.
What does he mean? Is he mourning a past that can’t be recaptured, or is he not looking forward to what’s ahead? When he arrives home, we get it. His wife, Helen, is entertaining all the people in town who didn’t go to war. And what a corrupt, disreputable bunch they are. The most corrupt of all is Helen’s new boyfriend, Eddie Harwood, the owner of a nightclub called The Blue Dahlia. The party ends when Johnny socks Eddie in the jaw, You got the wrong lipstick on, Mister, and Helen announces, Ladies and gentlemen, I think you’d better leave. My husband would like to be alone with me. He probably wants to beat me up.
I want to beat her up. So I’m not surprised when the housekeeper finds Helen dead the following morning. There are a number of people who have motive and opportunity. It’s the classic set-up used in every Perry Mason ever made: who killed the despicable victim?
There’s Johnny who has a boatload of motive. There’s Eddie Harwood, and Eddie’s boss, Leo, and there’s Buzz, Johnny’s brain-damaged buddy. But as far as the cops are concerned Johnny is their chief suspect. Johnny doesn’t trust the cops anymore than he trusts the rest of the civilian population. Enter Veronica Lake as Joyce who is eager to help Johnny. Why she is so eager to help is the unanswered story question. When she picks him up in a rainstorm he tells her, You oughta have more sense than to take chances with strangers like this. To which she replies, It’s funny, but practically all the people I know were strangers when I met them.
Joyce acts as Girl Friday while Johnny evades the police and searches for Helen’s killer. And then the shoe drops. Joyce is Joyce Harwood, Eddie Harwood’s wife. The look on Alan Ladd’s face when he’s introduced to her is what makes noir Noir. It’s that this-is-what-happens-when-you-begin-to-trust-someone look.
The most complex and interesting character in the film is Eddie Harwood, played by Howard Da Silva. He wins our sympathy (at least mine) when Johnny socks him. He looks like he could clean the floor with Johnny. Instead he reaches for a handkerchief and tells Johnny, You’re entirely right. The scene when he’s confronted by a blackmailer is worth the price of the movie. Eddie intimidates the blackmailer with a drink and a cigar. He’s uber polite and he’s dangerous as hell.
It’s a great set-up, but who killed the dame is the big question. Chandler doesn’t know. He’s leaning towards Buzz, the brain-damaged soldier. Nuh-uh says Paramount. They tell Chandler that the public won’t buy a war hero turned murderer. Chandler is in crisis. He tells the studio he’s unable to finish the script sober. The only way but he can finish on schedule is if he can write from home—drunk—since alcohol gives him the energy and confidence that he needs.
He also requires from the studio two Cadillac limousines, parked outside his house with drivers available to run errands for him at any hour of his choosing and six secretaries available at all times for dictation and typing.
Believe it or not, Paramount agrees to his demands. And Chandler delivers the ending on schedule. Does Johnny solve his wife’s murder and learn to trust the blonde? I’ll leave it to you to discover.
There’s a postscript: shortly after the film was released, a young woman, Elizabeth Short, was brutally murdered and dismembered in Los Angeles. Elizabeth was called the Black Dahlia by the kids who hung out at the soda fountain with her. The name was picked up by the press and from then on her real-life story was entwined with the fictional one.
George Marshall starts directing from the beginnings of the script as Chandler continues to write.
The Blue Dahlia begins with a Hollywood-bound bus stopping at a corner and three war buddies getting off, each of them carrying a suitcase, each looking sheepish in their civvies. There’s Buzz who’s brain damaged and flies into rages, there’s the amiable George who has taken the responsibility as Buzz’s keeper, and there is their squad leader, Johnny, played by Alan Ladd.
The three men decide to stop for a drink before they resume life back home. Johnny is the only guy there with a wife to come home to, but he isn’t any more eager to leave the bar than his two friends. He raises a shot of whiskey and toasts his buddies, Here’s to what was.
What does he mean? Is he mourning a past that can’t be recaptured, or is he not looking forward to what’s ahead? When he arrives home, we get it. His wife, Helen, is entertaining all the people in town who didn’t go to war. And what a corrupt, disreputable bunch they are. The most corrupt of all is Helen’s new boyfriend, Eddie Harwood, the owner of a nightclub called The Blue Dahlia. The party ends when Johnny socks Eddie in the jaw, You got the wrong lipstick on, Mister, and Helen announces, Ladies and gentlemen, I think you’d better leave. My husband would like to be alone with me. He probably wants to beat me up.
I want to beat her up. So I’m not surprised when the housekeeper finds Helen dead the following morning. There are a number of people who have motive and opportunity. It’s the classic set-up used in every Perry Mason ever made: who killed the despicable victim?
There’s Johnny who has a boatload of motive. There’s Eddie Harwood, and Eddie’s boss, Leo, and there’s Buzz, Johnny’s brain-damaged buddy. But as far as the cops are concerned Johnny is their chief suspect. Johnny doesn’t trust the cops anymore than he trusts the rest of the civilian population. Enter Veronica Lake as Joyce who is eager to help Johnny. Why she is so eager to help is the unanswered story question. When she picks him up in a rainstorm he tells her, You oughta have more sense than to take chances with strangers like this. To which she replies, It’s funny, but practically all the people I know were strangers when I met them.
Joyce acts as Girl Friday while Johnny evades the police and searches for Helen’s killer. And then the shoe drops. Joyce is Joyce Harwood, Eddie Harwood’s wife. The look on Alan Ladd’s face when he’s introduced to her is what makes noir Noir. It’s that this-is-what-happens-when-you-begin-to-trust-someone look.
The most complex and interesting character in the film is Eddie Harwood, played by Howard Da Silva. He wins our sympathy (at least mine) when Johnny socks him. He looks like he could clean the floor with Johnny. Instead he reaches for a handkerchief and tells Johnny, You’re entirely right. The scene when he’s confronted by a blackmailer is worth the price of the movie. Eddie intimidates the blackmailer with a drink and a cigar. He’s uber polite and he’s dangerous as hell.
It’s a great set-up, but who killed the dame is the big question. Chandler doesn’t know. He’s leaning towards Buzz, the brain-damaged soldier. Nuh-uh says Paramount. They tell Chandler that the public won’t buy a war hero turned murderer. Chandler is in crisis. He tells the studio he’s unable to finish the script sober. The only way but he can finish on schedule is if he can write from home—drunk—since alcohol gives him the energy and confidence that he needs.
He also requires from the studio two Cadillac limousines, parked outside his house with drivers available to run errands for him at any hour of his choosing and six secretaries available at all times for dictation and typing.
Believe it or not, Paramount agrees to his demands. And Chandler delivers the ending on schedule. Does Johnny solve his wife’s murder and learn to trust the blonde? I’ll leave it to you to discover.
There’s a postscript: shortly after the film was released, a young woman, Elizabeth Short, was brutally murdered and dismembered in Los Angeles. Elizabeth was called the Black Dahlia by the kids who hung out at the soda fountain with her. The name was picked up by the press and from then on her real-life story was entwined with the fictional one.