The Blue Dahlia

Engaging Early Noir
Although riddled with improbabilities, Raymond Chandler's tough story and script is well served with a glossy look and the hard-edged performances drawn by director George Marshall from a superior cast. THE BLUE DAHLIA concerns a recently discharged military man Johnny Morrison (Alan Ladd) who returns home to find his wife Helen (Doris Dowling) has been as unfaithful as the day is long--and is presently carrying on with club owner Eddie Harwood (Howard da Silva), over whom her hold is not entirely romantic. After stomping out into the rain, Morrison learns Helen has been murdered, and must race to prove his innocence before the coppers pick him up.

Ladd would give considerably more sophistocated performances in his later years, but he strikes all the right ultra-tough chords, and although Veronica Lake is a rather wooden actress she is remarkably beautiful and as a team the pair has considerable chemistry. The standouts in the cast, however, are Da Silva, who gives the role of...

The Ladd/Lake magic continues in "The Blue Dahlia"!
This classic is one of the best examples of film noir of the 1940s, and it's also perhaps the best on-screen pairing of macho Alan Ladd and sexy Veronica Lake. This was Raymond Chandler's first screenplay, adopted from his unfinished 128 page novel, The Blue Dahlia. According to Hollywood legend, he got totally drunk while finishing the script, living up to his reputation as an alcoholic. Nevertheless, this is an excellently-crafted noir murder mystery that will have you guessing right up till the end who the real killer is!

Alan Ladd plays Johnny Morrison, a returning WW2 veteran who is eager to see his wife, Helen (Doris Dowling). He walks into his home only to discover her kissing another man, nightclub owner Eddie Harwood (Howard da Silva). As if that wasn't painful enough for him, she also tells him the truth about their child's death during the war: he was killed in a car crash in which she had been driving while drunk. This spells the end of their already troubled...

The Best Ladd-Lake Pairing
"Every guy's seen you before, somewhere." -- Johnny to Joyce

The Blue Dahlia is one the finest noir films made during the 1940s as everything is absolutely perfect in the third of four films Alan Ladd and Veronica Lake would make together. Raymond Chandler wrote the original screenplay and George Marshall turned in his finest directing job in this screen classic. This film has the perfect blend of grit and gloss, romance and female treachery, and while the outlook of its anti-hero isn't quite as jaded as it would have been had Howard Hawks filmed this, it still packs a punch.

Lt. Morrison (Ladd) returns from WWII with his two buddies only to find his wife Helen (Doris Dowling) has been unfaithful; in your face unfaithful, and responsible for his son's death while he was away. He confronts her at a party and blows out in a storm, unaware that someone kills her with his own gun only hours later. Joyce Harwood (Lake) meets him for the first time when she offers him...

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