The
Blue Dahlia is another film noir where every detail counts. Add
in the fact that Raymond Chandler wrote the screenplay, and the details seem to
count even more. Chandler has been accused of writing incomprehensible plots in
his Philip Marlowe novels. I disagree with this assessment: His plots aren’t
incomprehensible; readers of his books and viewers of this film just have to
follow the details like any good detective follows the clues, and the
screenplay for The Blue Dahlia is no exception. Of course, it helps to
see the film more than once, which is a lot easier to do today with current
technology.
You
can see The Blue Dahlia at the Internet Archive (click here). A version
dubbed in Spanish and with English subtitles is apparently in the public
domain.
The Blue Dahlia was the third film noir
collaboration for Alan Ladd and Veronica Lake (they made a fourth film, an
adventure film called Saigon). Two of the Alan Ladd/Veronica Lake films noir were
released in 1942 and one in 1946:
◊ This Gun for Hire (May 13, 1942)—Click here for my blog post about this
film.
◊ The Glass Key (October 14, 1942)—Click here for my first post about
this film. I wrote about the film a second time for the Classic Movie Blog
Association’s 2020 Fall Blogathon: Politics on Film.
◊ The Blue Dahlia (April 19, 1946)
The
Ladd/Lake chemistry was supposedly a big draw, but they don’t actually spend a
lot of time together onscreen for The Blue Dahlia. Joyce Harwood (Veronica Lake’s character) makes her first appearance about a half hour into the
film. Viewers see her photo during the first half hour because her husband
Eddie Harwood keeps one and refers to it. Lake and Ladd certainly had star
power and box office draw by this time, however, and the film was a success
when it was released in 1946.
The story starts with Johnny
Morrison, George Copeland, and Buzz Wanchek, who are back home in the United
States from World War II service in the navy. Buzz suggests a drink to say
goodbye, and they head to the nearest bar. Buzz gets into a verbal altercation with another
soldier in uniform over the music he is playing on the jukebox. Buzz was
severely injured during the war; he says that he has a plate in his head. Later
in the film, viewers learn that Buzz also suffers from memory problems. Music
seems to trigger his PTSD episodes.
Johnny Morrison was a lieutenant commander
in the navy. He flew successful missions in the South Pacific and has a hero’s
reputation. After his drink with his wartime buddies, he goes home to the Cavendish Court Hotel and Bungalows
to find his wife Helen partying and dating someone else: Eddie Harwood. Johnny
sees Eddie kissing his wife goodbye, and lands a punch before Eddie leaves,
much to the displeasure of Helen. She isn’t impressed with a hero who cannot
control his violent impulses and makes this clear to Johnny.
(This
blog post about The Blue Dahlia contains spoilers.)
Helen
told Johnny in a letter during the war that their son Dickie died of
diphtheria, but he really died in a car crash when Helen was drinking and
driving. Johnny and Helen argue when she reveals the true circumstances of his
death. The war hero is not above getting physical with his wife, and it draws
the notice of Dad Newell, the house detective for Cavendish Court. He tells
Johnny that he should draw the blinds if he plans on pushing his wife around.
(This is 1946 and film noir: Newell doesn’t tell Johnny to stop menacing
his wife.) Johnny decides to leave Helen, but before he does, he approaches her
with his service revolver. She shrinks from him, and he says, “That’s what I
oughtta do. But you’re not worth it.” Then he throws the revolver onto an
upholstered chair and leaves it behind.
Helen
calls Buzz and George. She tells Buzz that Johnny walked out on her. This upsets
Buzz, although he has never met her before, and he pays Helen a visit. While
waiting for her in the bar (apparently an amenity for residents of the
Cavendish Court), he meets her and flirts with her, but he doesn’t know yet who
she is. She invites him to her bungalow, and the next time viewers see Buzz, he
has wandered back to the apartment that he now shares with George. He cannot
account for his whereabouts thanks to a memory lapse and the confusion caused
by his wartime head injury.
Helen
calls Eddie Harwood, distraught that Johnny has left her. She threatens Eddie
with blackmail when he tells her that he wants to break it off. He made this
decision after Johnny punches him, but the following conversation with Leo
makes him more convinced of his decision:
• Leo: “You, uh, you ever know a guy named
Quinlan?”
• Eddie Harwood: “Never heard of him.”
• Leo: “Did a stretch somewhere back east. Not
interested, huh?”
• Eddie Harwood: “Don’t get cute with me, Leo.”
• Leo: “Nothing cute about it. I heard this Quinlan
spoke to you in the parking lot the other night. When you were with Mrs.
Morrison. Called you by some other name.”
• Eddie Harwood: “Did he?”
• Leo: “Not if you say he didn’t. But it doesn’t
matter now, anyway. Quinlan was bumped off a few nights ago over on East 5th.”
• Eddie Harwood: “What makes you think I’d be
interested?”
• Leo: “Just don’t get too complicated, Eddie.
When a man gets too complicated, he’s unhappy. And when he’s unhappy, his luck
runs out.”
This
conversation is antithetical to noir in general. Leo seems to imply that Eddie
Harwood can control his life and that fate plays no role whatsoever: If Harwood
can keep his life simple, he can avoid complications. Harwood is willing to cut
ties with Helen. He knows that her husband is back and has already been on the
receiving end of a punch because of it. In spite of his reservations, however, Harwood
agrees to see Helen Morrison. And, of course, Leo is wrong in the end.
Helen is
murdered on the same night that Johnny is back for the first time after his
stint in the war. He and Harwood are seen with Helen that night by many
witnesses, and Buzz drops by to talk to her after her split with Johnny. Thus,
there are plenty of suspects in the subsequent murder investigation:
◊ Eddie Harwood: Newell, the house detective, sees
Eddie Harwood enter and leave Helen Morrison’s bungalow. Harwood’s motive would
be Helen’s attempt to blackmail him (viewers learn the details of her threat
later in the film).
◊ Buzz Wanchek: Buzz cannot account for his whereabouts
around the time of Helen’s murder.
◊ Johnny Morrison: Johnny argued with his wife
over the death of their son and her drinking. Their disagreement was ugly
enough, and Newell happens to see Johnny’s more violent side.
By the time
that Johnny meets Joyce, his wife Helen is already dead. He learns of her death
and the fact that he is a suspect later because of a radio news story. Joyce Harwood’s first appearance is the same night that Helen is
murdered, when she offers Johnny a ride in the rain. She plays an odd game with
him: After seeing the initials J. M. on his suitcase, she guesses his name to
be Jimmy Morse. Even odder is the fact that she never mentions her name, and
Johnny has no idea that she is married to Eddie Harwood.
According
to Wikipedia, the murderer in Chandler’s original screenplay was Buzz: “Originally, Chandler
intended the killer to be Buzz having a blackout. However, the Navy did not
want a serviceman to be portrayed as a murderer, and Paramount told Chandler that
he had to come up with a new ending.” I found this bit of information
intriguing, as was my discovery that the film’s screenplay had been published
as a book. Chandler is one of my favorite detective/pulp novel writers. Reading
the screenplay might reveal how much the original screenplay matched the
released version of the film. And
maybe I would learn something about the enigmatic conversations between Johnny
Morrison and Joyce Harwood because their attraction to one another was one of
the mysteries of the film for me. What did they see in one another?
I wondered a bit about the
title, too. The Blue Dahlia is the name of Eddie Harwood’s nightclub. He’s not
such a minor character: He is Helen Morrison’s boyfriend while her husband
serves in the South Pacific during World War II, and he is one of the suspects
in her murder. Harwood doesn’t have a whole lot of screen time, and none of the
characters, including Harwood, spend much time in his nightclub. But he uses
blue dahlias as his calling cards, and they provide some clues during the
investigation, so the title works on more than one level, even if the clues
don’t have a direct connection to the identity of Helen Morrison’s killer.
The Blue
Dahlia is one
of those films that reveals more and more with each viewing. I’m not sure that
Alan Ladd and Veronica Lake have much chemistry in their respective roles.
Ladd’s not playing the role of homme fatale, and Lake’s not the femme fatale. No
one plays either part in this film noir. But the details of the murder mystery
keep everyone guessing, and some details can be easily overlooked with just one
viewing. We are lucky to have the technology today that allows films, including
The Blue Dahlia, to be seen again and again.
April 19,
1946, release date • Directed by George Marshall • Screenplay
by Raymond Chandler • Music by Victor Young • Edited
by Arthur P. Schmidt • Cinematography by Lionel Lindon
Alan Ladd as Johnny Morrison • Veronica
Lake as Joyce Harwood • William Bendix as Buzz Wanchek • Howard
Da Silva as Eddie Harwood • Doris Dowling as Helen Morrison • Hugh
Beaumont as George Copeland • Tom Powers as Captain Hendrickson • Charles Anthony Hughes as Lieutenant Lloyd • Howard Freeman as Corelli • Frank Faylen as the sting operator • Don Costello as Leo • Will Wright as “Dad” Newell
Distributed by Paramount Pictures
• Produced by Paramount Pictures
