The Blue Dahlia directed by George Marshall 1946
Another noir featuring soldiers back from the War stumbling into a confusing amoral post war America. Raymond Chandler’s only film script with a American late 40’s cast to die for: William Bendix, Alan Ladd and Veronica Lake among them.
Variety said:
“Playing a discharged naval flier returning home from the Pacific first to find his wife unfaithful, then to find her murdered and himself in hiding as the suspect, Alan Ladd does a bangup 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. Fight scenes are stark and brutal, and tremendously effective.”[
Dennis Schwartz wrote:
“A fresh smelling film noir directed with great skill by George Marshall from the screenplay of Raymond Chandler (the only one he ever wrote for the screen, his other films were adapted from novels of others and, ironically, film adaptations of his novels were all written by other screenwriters). It eschews moral judgment in favor of a hard-boiled tale that flaunts its flowery style as its way of swimming madly along in LA’s postwar boom and decadence.”
Siglio XXX wrote on Film Noir of the Week:
Tamed by a brunette - framed by a blonde - blamed by the cops!
With a tagline like that, who needs any explanation that The Blue Dahlia is bound to be a classic? Don’t take my word for it; if you haven’t yet seen this noteworthy film, you owe it to yourself to beg, borrow or steal a copy today.
Perhaps overlooked by some, and shamefully not out as an official DVD release, The Blue Dahlia is the original Hollywood Noir Dahlia (referring to ‘a nightclub on the strip’); not to be confused with the present-day film, focusing on The Black Dahlia Murder Case in Los Angeles, Brian De Palma’s The Black Dahlia (2006), which some have indicated doesn’t quite inspire as a film.http://www.noiroftheweek.com/2006/12/blue-dahlia-1946.html
Janet Henry: You don’t like me, do you Mr. Beaumont?
Ed Beaumont: I think I do.
Janet Henry: I’m pleased, even with such qualified approval.
Ed Beaumont: Why are you pleased?
Janet Henry: For some obscure reason. I think you’re very nice.
Alan Ladd and Veronica Lake in The Blue Dahlia (1946)
This Gun for Hire (1942)
Veronica Lake and Alan Ladd in This Gun For Hire (Frank Tuttle, 1942)
This Gun for Hire (1942)
Alan Ladd in publicity still for This Gun for Hire (1942, dir. Frank Tuttle)
“Murder didn’t mean much to Philip Raven. It was just a new job. You had to be careful. You had to use your brains. It was not a question of hatred.”
-Graham Greene, A Gun for Sale
This Gun for Hire (Frank Tuttle, 1942)
