The Blue Dahlia is a well-known title among noir aficionados, not just for its shadowy atmosphere and moodiness, but because it boasts the only original screenplay written entirely by Raymond Chandler. Before this solo venture, Chandler had co-written the ultimate noir classic Double Indemnity with Billy Wilder and then suffered through a less-than-harmonious collaboration with Hitchcock on Strangers on a Train. But The Blue Dahlia is pure Chandler, for better and for worse.
Written in 1946, the film centres on Johnny, Buzz, and George - three recently demobilised aviators who served in the Pacific. Johnny Morrison returns home to a wife, Helen, whose grief over their son's death has led her straight into the arms of Eddie, a nightclub owner with a slippery moral compass and a lingering fondness for his ex-wife, Joyce. Johnny walks in on one of Helen and Eddie’s little soirées, storms off into the night, only to sign up for his next mission: accidental murder suspect.
Helen, not one to take rejection lightly, is abandoned by both her husband and her lover in the same evening. This inspires a short-lived attempt at vengeance, cut very short, because someone helpfully murders her first.
Helen is the resident femme fatale: nasty, brittle, and doomed. Her foil is Joyce, the more well-meaning (if ineffectual) love interest, played by Veronica Lake, who may not have been hired for her emotional range but does wear clothes exceptionally well. Meanwhile, Buzz - played with tightly wound intensity by William Bendix - suffers from PTSD and causes more trouble than he solves, while George hovers helpfully in the background.
Chandler, never one to shy away from chaos, wrote the first two-thirds of the film with no problems. But the studio demanded a last-minute rewrite of the ending, and it shows. The final act spirals into signature Chandler territory: convoluted twists, abrupt violence, and the narrative equivalent of smoke and mirrors. As Chandler himself said, “When in doubt, have a man come through a door with a gun in his hand.” And he was often in doubt.
Still, despite some unlikely plot turns and a resolution that feels more functional than thrilling, the film succeeds, largely thanks to Chandler’s razor-edged dialogue and a first-class cast. Alan Ladd is all tightly clenched jaw as Johnny, and the nightclub scenes at the titular Blue Dahlia - where people dress up to go and bands play live, rather than from a laptop - are pure escapist nostalgia.
Sure, it may not make perfect sense, but that was not the purpose of noir.
Directed by George Marshall, described as “one of the old maestros of Hollywood” with a long, honourable and - today - mostly forgotten career.
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