The Blue Gardenia (1953)

Directed by Fritz Lang; produced by Alex Gottlieb

Norah Larkin (Anne Baxter), having just received a ‘Dear Jane’ letter from her soldier boyfriend, accepts a dinner-invitation from Harry Prebble (Raymond Burr), a man well-known as a womaniser at Norah’s work-place. Intending just to forget her sorrows, Norah drinks too much and ends up at Prebble’s apartment. Prebble, for his part, ends up dead – beaten by a fireplace poker. Norah, recovering from her unaccustomed binge of the night before, can’t recall what happened at Prebble’s home. But Captain Haynes (George Reeves) of the Los Angeles Police, and Casey Mayo (Richard Conte) of the Chronicle newspaper, make it their business to find the unknown woman who may have killed Prebble.

A number of films have started with the premise of a person waking after a forgotten night, only to find themselves enmeshed in murder, or another serious crime. It’s a good idea, but depends in its value to a movie on the story that proceeds from it. The Blue Gardenia does well enough for much of its length, but stumbles at the conclusion.

Baxter is winning and sympathetic as Norah, possibly both perpetrator and victim, and her acting is not at fault. Conte is a bit lackluster here, as if his heart wasn’t in the rôle. Burr, however, comes off very well, giving his uncaring jerk enough charm to be credible as a successful Lothario. Also in the movie are Ann Sothern and Jeff Donnell as Norah’s roommates. Ruth Storey, Conte’s wife at the time, had her first cinema rôle as Rose. Nat ‘King’ Cole sings a less than memorable song at a night-club, and fans of Star Trek should note that May, the blind flower-seller, is played by Celia Lovsky, once Peter Lorre’s wife, and later T’Pau, the Vulcan matriarch.

The direction is adequate, but no more. Lang was a director of innovative and exciting movies, such as Metropolis and M, but of his later work, less can be written. There is nothing in The Blue Gardenia that stands out. This is perhaps due to its being shot in twenty days.

The problem with The Blue Gardenia is the story and, partially, the script. Initially, it seems a light-hearted film, perhaps even a comedy-mystery. Sothern and Donnell are played largely for comic effect; that they are successful in this makes their inclusion incongruous with the serious tone of the drama that the story becomes. The script gives these two characters the best lines (eg. Crystal (Ann Sothern) is dating her former husband, a situation she excuses by saying that, when married, he had a husband’s faults; now, he had a boyfriend’s virtues.)

But the story doesn’t work itself out quite right. The ending comes rather suddenly. I believe The Blue Gardenia’s writers knew exactly what they were doing; dramatically, it is satisfactory. But this is a crime movie, a film noir, and would have benefitted from the characters solving Norah’s mystery through logic and thought. Instead, the finale comes from nowhere. It is, as mentioned, dramatically acceptable, but not really fair in this genre.

A time-filler, The Blue Gardenia will entertain to an extent, but everyone involved has done better.