The Blue Gardenia

Blue Gardenia (1953)

The likable Richard Conte makes a great news reporter here, and Anne Baxter as the woman in trouble is pitch perfect. In fact, Baxter's two sidekicks are also right on, Jeff Donnell (a woman, really sharp) and Ann Southern. It's a good story, a little forced, but with lots of atmosphere at the right times (including a scene with the real Nat King Cole playing and singing).

What holds the movie back is a mixture of basic story line, which lacks velocity and credibility equally, and direction, which doesn't heighten what is really strong here. That is, a great cast, and some great situations (including murder). Fritz Lang, the director, is accountable, of course, for some judgements that let things loosen up too much, and for the cute but abrupt ending. There are some characters that got developed in the beginning that don't get a chance to blossom. If we just focus on the two leads (no counting Raymond Burr, who has a brief and different kind of presence), there is a chemistry not quite clicking. Nice, regular guy Conte and slightly sophisticated Baxter don't quite match up, even though both are convincing individually.

There is some talent behind the scenes here worth mention, especially cinematographer Nicholas Musuraca, who has done a whole slew of great small movies with astonishing visuals. Lang uses him well, though with a studied restraint that almost implies this was a throwaway effort. It comes between two of his greatest American movies, however: Clash by Night and The Big Heat. It's worth a look, a good movie not quite a noir by usual measures, but filled with intrigue and a little touch of welcome romance.

A date with a ne'er do well named Harry Prebble (Raymond Burr of "Perry Mason" and "Ironsides" fame) leads a telephone operator into a web of deceit and murder in this 1940s-style (actually made in 1953) film-noir classic, "Blue Gardenia." Nora Larkin (Anne Baxter) gets a cruel birthday present in the form of a "Dear Jane" letter from her soldier boyfriend serving in Korea. Prebble, who draws for a living, "hits" on the telephone operators of a local company. He calls the apt. of 3 of the operators who live together in a flat. Nora Larkin answers and impulsively decides to accept Prebble's invitation to drinks and dinner at a Chinese restaurant nearby. The next thing Nora knows, she has a colossal hangover from too many "Polynesian Pearldiver" drinks and she learns her date was murdered. She doesn't remember killing him but she does recall trying to repel his sexual advances, grabbing a fireplace poker and shattering a mirror.

Assuming she did it, she because extremely testy and high strung; her 2 roommates - Crystal Carpenter (played so well by Ann Sothern) and Sally Ellis (Jeff Donnell) - try to figure out what's wrong. Finally, Crystal, a "party girl" figures it out.

An interesting plot twist is the addition of Casey Mayo (Richard Conte, who later went on to play Barzini in "The Godfather"), a hardboiled reporter for the Los Angeles Chronicle. He writes an open letter in the newspaper to the girl dubbed the "Blue Gardenia Killer" and Nora meets him at a local watering hole. She tells him it's a friend who committed the murder but Casey finds out later she is the one. But in the meantime, he has fallen in love with her and he and her roommates work to find the real killer which (unlike the OJ Simpson case) they do.

The real killer turns out to be a minor character and that was a disappointment. But Anne Baxter's portrayal as Nora, a complex character, and Ann Sothern's portrayal as the floozy with a heart of gold, make this a nice, decent little movie. I don't think I'd want to own a copy of this film but I'll watch it whenever it comes on because of the aforementioned performances and because I've always loved Raymond Burr, Nat "King" Cole and the song "Blue Gardenia."

A women whose boy friend has just jilted her (Anne Baxter) gets invited to a restaurant by a known philanderer (Raymond Burr), gets drunk and accompanies him to his apartment. When he tries to force himself on her she struggles against him but passes out and has no memory of what happened and how she got home. The next day he is found dead and she assumes she killed him. This is a well-acted and well-directed picture with great music and excellent photography. The plot is suspenseful almost to the last minute; in so far 'The Blue Gardenia' leaves nothing to be desired. If you want to spend an entertaining almost 1 1/2 hours, it is the film for you. For all that, my impression was that director Fritz Lang could easily have made more of the material. Towards the end there is a sort of romance - this is an element that could have been introduced earlier and of which more could have been made. Also, the way the actual murderer (of course not Baxter, you didn't seriously think so, did you?) is found is far too straightforward. All it takes is one clue discovered by a journalist (Richard Conte) and one visit to a record shop, and that's it. In so far, the film left me a little dissatisfied. However, all in all it is still very good.

In The Blue Gardenia, Anne Baxter's feeling low and depressed because her GI fiancé in Korea has given her the brushoff. Against her better judgment she goes out with Raymond Burr, full time artist and full time wolf. A few Polynesian Pearl Divers in the local bar which might have been spiked and Anne's not doing so good. But good enough to hit Burr with a fireplace poker and somehow make her way home like Cinderella with both shoes missing.

George Reeves taking a break from Superman plays the Los Angeles homicide detective gets a little unwanted help from Richard Conte, a Walter Winchell like newspaper columnist who's no doubt thinking of the black dahlia murders in LA a few years because a Blue Gardenia's been left at the crime scene and Nat King Cole both sang it live and on record in the film.

In the meantime Baxter's mood swings are being noticed by her roommates Ann Sothern and Jeff Donnell. And Conte's got his own investigation going into the Blue Gardenia murder. It all makes for one interesting and murky film in the tradition of Fritz Lang.

Anne in a sense does a reprise of her Oscar winning performance from The Razor's Edge as a woman being trapped in tragedy. She blamed herself for her family's death in The Razor's Edge and she may or may not have killed Burr. The only difference is that an arrest might lead to an expiation of sin of a sort.

Fritz Lang made a specialty in harassed and harried protagonists getting themselves into some real jackpots whether it was Henry Fonda in You'll Only Live Once, Edward G. Robinson in Scarlett Street and The Woman In the Window, and we can even count Peter Lorre in M. These are people who in fact were guilty. For the first time however Lang's harried protagonist is a woman and Anne gives a great performance.

One scene I really loved is one with Almira Sessions as a brain dead housekeeper who finds Burr's body and then proceeds to clean up the crime scene. After all as she explains to Reeves this is her job and what she's paid to do. The fact she's destroyed all forensic evidence doesn't seem to impress her in the slightest.

On the other hand had she done like a normal person would have and not touched anything, the forensics would have cleared the whole thing up and we wouldn't have a movie.

Norah, a young, attractive woman (played by Anne Baxter), gets a letter from her overseas boyfriend, informing her that he has found a new love. At just the moment she realizes she has been rejected, the phone rings. It's a dinner invitation from a womanizer who thinks he is talking to one of Norah's two female roommates. Depressed and vulnerable, Norah impulsively accepts the invitation, on her own behalf. This is the setup for "The Blue Gardenia", set in the early 50s, a film with a good beginning and some really high-powered Hollywood talent.

The screenplay, with its contrived plot, and director Fritz Lang's ambivalent direction render a flawed production. The film's tone, expressed both in the B&W cinematography and in the music, tends to seesaw back and forth between romance and mystery. But, the film can still be enjoyable to viewers looking for a murder-mystery/romance combo that is not overly complex. The easy to follow plot moves along unencumbered by the confusion wrought by multi-layered plot gimmicks so common in today's films.

The film's ending is one for the books. In all the mystery films I have watched, I don't recall a murder investigation being wrapped up so easily as this one. It's way too neat and too tidy to be credible. The film's 88-minute run time leaves a lot of room for additional material. Expansion of the film's final Act could have provided a more realistic and satisfying ending.

I really liked seeing Raymond Burr and Ann Sothern. The film also sports some clever dialogue. With its interesting premise, "The Blue Gardenia", despite a flawed script, will likely appeal to viewers looking for a melodramatic film with a nostalgic setting, wherein the plot is straightforward. Viewers looking for a topnotch script and/or a complex storyline with lots of plot twists and subtlety will need to look elsewhere.