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The Blue Dahlia

Play trailer Poster for The Blue Dahlia 1946 1h 36m Crime Drama Play Trailer Watchlist
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100% Tomatometer 12 Reviews 71% Popcornmeter 1,000+ Ratings
Discharged naval officer Johnny Morrison (Alan Ladd) returns to his wife, Helen (Doris Dowling), in Hollywood after fighting in the South Pacific, and with him are two military friends, George (Hugh Beaumont) and shell-shocked Buzz (William Bendix). Johnny is stunned to discover Helen's unfaithfulness with a local nightclub owner named Eddie (Howard Da Silva), who then breaks it off with her. When Helen is found murdered, everyone seems to have a motive.
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The Blue Dahlia

Critics Reviews

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Richard Brody The New Yorker 11/07/2022
The core of the drama is the torment of the debilitated Buzz—and the hell reserved at home for heroes, who often faced their traumas in silence. Go to Full Review
James Agee The Nation 06/23/2021
It knows its own weight and size perfectly and carries them gracefully and without self-importance; it is, barring occasional victories and noble accidents, about as good a movie as can be expected from the big factories. Go to Full Review
H. Viggo Andersen Hartford Courant 03/31/2021
Alan Ladd and William Bendix are in rare form, and Miss Lake is seen to best advantage in many a film. Go to Full Review
Mike Massie Gone With The Twins 08/03/2020
7/10
The finale is smartly unpredictable, though by the time the killer is revealed, some of the steam and intensity has dissipated. Go to Full Review
Thomas Delapa Boulder Weekly 11/04/2005
3/5
Matthew Turner ViewLondon 07/01/2005
4/5
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Audience Reviews

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Joel H Nov 20 The Blue Dahlia is a mediocre film noir. Alan Ladd is a fine enough leading man, and I’m always happy to see Veronica Lake on the screen, but it felt like the rest of the cast was rehearsing for a melodramatic stage play instead of a movie. Also, the plot felt forced and the twists were more befuddling than surprising. There was also almost no score whatsoever, which made the experience feel stark and empty. I read that Raymond Chandler is a renowned detective fiction writer, but I’m afraid that I’m going to need to see additional evidence of this aside from The Blue Dahlia to corroborate those claims. See more Jay B 12/13/2023 Spectacular cast and story! See more 01/28/2021 Shooting on The Blue Dahlia began without a completed screenplay. There is a lack of command over the material by the director, perhaps because script pages were being seen just days before shooting. In fact, scriptwriter Raymond Chandler was forced to re-write the ending and suffered writer's block, and dissatisfaction with the process. All of these problems - and others - show on the screen. But, there are definitely some moments But, overall, I'm not a fan. See more 07/22/2020 Good! Stylish and Classy! First rate acting to! Great Chandler dialog! See more steve d 07/22/2020 Ladd and Lake are always great together even if the story is nothing special. See more 01/17/2018 Typically stylish film noir with a hard-boiled Chandler script, but absent that amoral/non-judgmental quality that marks out the best of the genre. No anti-heroes here. Sad to find out that this was Veronica Lake's last major picture as she is great in it. Interesting also to see a sympathetic treatment of (what we now call) PTSD and brain injury. See more Read all reviews
The Blue Dahlia

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Movie Info

Synopsis Discharged naval officer Johnny Morrison (Alan Ladd) returns to his wife, Helen (Doris Dowling), in Hollywood after fighting in the South Pacific, and with him are two military friends, George (Hugh Beaumont) and shell-shocked Buzz (William Bendix). Johnny is stunned to discover Helen's unfaithfulness with a local nightclub owner named Eddie (Howard Da Silva), who then breaks it off with her. When Helen is found murdered, everyone seems to have a motive.
Director
George Marshall
Producer
John Houseman
Screenwriter
Raymond Chandler
Distributor
Paramount Pictures
Production Co
Paramount Pictures
Genre
Crime, Drama
Original Language
English
Release Date (Theaters)
Apr 18, 1946, Limited
Release Date (Streaming)
Aug 30, 2016
Runtime
1h 36m
Sound Mix
Mono
Aspect Ratio
35mm
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