Rent The Blue Dahlia (1946)

For the sake of Veronika Lake - The Blue Dahlia review by CSF

Of course the film dated, that's its charm. I watch it for the sake of Veronica Lake (poor girl, she had such a sad ending in real life!) Despite the violence the films of this period remain somehow naive and predictable. It was time for Hitchcock to turn up and change this type of films.

However I enjoyed it because it was an easy watch film and I always find it funny how women remain dressed as if going to a royal wedding whereas they are just lingering at home.

One must watch Veronica Lace in My Wife is a Witch, she is adorable.

Forties Noir. - The Blue Dahlia review by Steve

Fast, laconic thriller that is mostly remembered now for the original screenplay by hardboiled poet Raymond Chandler, two years after his co-write on Double Indemnity kicked off the whole film noir movement. There's a dusting of classic dialogue but this leaves the impression he was saving the best lines for his novels; and was never the best at plots.

Critics claim film noir reflects the alienation of returning WWII combat veterans who find everything has changed in their absence. In this case, it isn't subtext. Alan Ladd plays a navy pilot who comes home to find his wife (Doris Dowling) is playing around, and he can't find a room...When the flyer's fitted up for her murder, he must clear his name.

Maybe the real guilty party is his best pal (William Bendix) back from the Pacific with PTSD and a steel plate in his head. Or the ex-gangster (Howard Da Silva) who has been playing house in the dead dame's apartment. He runs The Blue Dahlia hotspot and is married to Veronica Lake, who picks up the accused on the highway, to see what he knows.

So it's a vehicle for Ladd and Lake... though Bendix steals the film. The ending was compromised when the US Navy refused to have a sailor guilty of the crime. And director George Marshall was more suited to light comedy than stylish noir. But there's a nice big band soundtrack and period LA feel. Maybe a let down for Chandler fans, but still a decent noir.