Die blaue Dahlie (1946)

Die blaue Dahlie: Directed by George Marshall. With Alan Ladd, Veronica Lake, William Bendix, Howard Da Silva. An ex-bomber pilot is suspected of murdering his unfaithful wife.

“The Blue Dahlia is among the dozen or so titles that movie buffs would identify instantly as film noir. Certainly, it boasts all the proper credentials: Alan Ladd and Veronica Lake reunited for their third outing together (after This Gun For Hire and The Glass Key); a sinister supporting cast including William Bendix, Howard Da Silva and Hugh Beaumont; and an original screenplay by none other than Raymond Chandler.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eIt almost lives up to its reputation. Returning Navy hero Ladd finds that the wife he left behind has turned into (or always was) a faithless party girl, who killed their young son in a drunken accident. He walks out on her, later to learn sheu0026#39;s been murdered. Hunted by the police, heu0026#39;s befriended by Lake, who turns out to be rather intimately involved in much of what happened….u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eMany noirs suffered from studio-imposed u0026quot;happyu0026quot; endings but generally kept their integrity until the closing few frames. The changes wrought on The Blue Dahlia, however, severely compromise it. Chandleru0026#39;s original killer was to be Laddu0026#39;s war-buddy Bendix, the loose cannon with a steel plate in his head, erupting in pounding headaches and blackout rages whenever he hears u0026quot;jungle musicu0026quot; — the sexually liberating beat of postwar prosperity. Rejecting this ending as an insult to the gallant men who had won the war, Paramount, pressured by the Navy, forced Chandler to resort to a lame u0026quot;the-butler-did-itu0026quot; conclusion. Unfortunately, that compromise splashes back through the length of the movie, making little sense of Bendixu0026#39; performance — even of his presence, except as the rankest of red herrings — and turning what might have been a topical and disturbing film noir into just another glossy u0026#39;40s murder mystery.”