FAQ

When Los Angeles telephone operator Norah Larkin (Anne Baxter) receives a 'Dear John' letter from her fiancé, an overseas soldier in Korea, she decides to accept a blind date with local lothario Harry Prebble (Raymond Burr). Following dinner (and five Polynesian pearl divers) at The Blue Gardenia Club, a very drunk Norah goes home with Prebble, where she is forced to defend her honor with a fireplace poker before passing out on the floor. The next morning, Norah awakens in her own apartment and is shocked to read in the newspaper that Harry Prebble was murdered last night with a fireplace poker. However, Norah has no memory of what happened or even how she got home. As Police Captain Sam Haynes (George Reeves) closes in on her, Norah agrees to put herself in the hands of journalist Casey Mayo (Richard Conte), the only one who has offered to help her.

The Blue Gardenia is based on a short story, 'Gardenia', by American writer Vera Caspary. The story was adapted for the screenplay by American film writer Charles Hoffman.

While having coffee with Al (Richard Erdman) at the airport, Casey notices that the piped in music is the same music the maid identified as playing on Prebble's phonograph when she found the body. Remembering that Norah reported hearing Nat King Cole's 'The Blue Gardenia', Casey realizes that the records have been switched, suggesting there might have been a third person there. Following a hunch, Casey and Haynes take the record jacket to Melrose's, the store where it was purchased. The clerk refers them to Rose Miller (Ruth Storey), another clerk who just happens to be Prebble's pregnant ex-girlfriend. Afraid that the police are on to her, Rose attempts to slit her wrists. From her bed in the prison hospital, Rose confesses that she came to Prebble's apartment to confront him about the pregnancy, but he refused to listen. Instead, he attempted to appease her by playing a record that he had bought from her. When Rose noticed Nora's handkerchief on the floor, she flew into a jealous rage and killed him with the poker. Later, as an exonerated Norah leaves the courthouse accompanied by her two roommates, Casey catches up to her, but she snubs him. She reveals to her roommates that she's playing 'hard-to-get', but she secretly hopes he will call. In the final scene, Casey tosses his 'little black book' to Al.