A Masterpiece!

If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

Blistering performances.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

Let's face it. Raymond Burr was never a romantic lead, and for most of his movie career prior to going onto the little box in your living room, he played villains of all kinds. As Burr himself once said (reflecting both on the characters he played and their girth), him and William Conrad were always the ones called in the 1950's to play "the heavy". With the exception of the Americanized version of "Godzilla", I can't ever recall him playing the good guy. Even when he was on the right side of the law (like in "A Place in the Sun"), he was never really likable on film, even when he was the D.A. prosecuting Montgomery Clift for murder. But there he was just doing his job, and here, he's doing his best to take advantage of drunken birthday girl Anne Baxter, giving one of her most vulnerable and frightened portrayals as the young lady who thought that she had accidentally killed Burr in a fit of fear. "The Blue Gardenia" is a song heard throughout the film, sung onscreen by a young Nat King Cole as only he could. It's the name of the nightclub too where Burr takes Baxter on a date, a perfect gentlemen it seems, but plying her with alcohol then bringing her back to his apartment for an alleged party that only includes the two of them. The mood is frightening, and being seen now is the epitome of a "me too" moment where a seemingly nice guy is not so nice, the amoral artist who wants what he wants when he wants it and without regards to the feelings of the lovely lady he's with. As Baxter's roommates, co-workers and confidantes, both Ann Sothern and Jeff Donnell deliver excellent performances, with Donnell quite amusing as a mystery fanatic who becomes obsessed with the case of Burr's murder, unaware that Baxter may be the culprit! Then, there's Richard Conte as a hard nosed journalist, determined to uncover the real killer's identity, and placing an add in the newspaper with the promise of protecting whoever is guilty, aware that they were obviously on the verge of being raped or worse. The scenes leading up to Baxter's meeting with him are quite intense, and the cat and mouse game between homicide detective George Reeves and Conte are well written as well. The only issue I had was the sudden twist at the end which reminded me of Truman Capote's complaint about one of the detectives in the Neil Simon comedy "Murder By Death" who always added in information, clues and other characters towards the end, making it impossible for the audience to guess "who done it". Other than that, this is a truly intriguing film noir that had me riveted from start to finish.

The Blue Gardenia is directed by Fritz Lang and adapted to screenplay by Charles Hoffman from the short story "Gardenia" written by Vera Caspary. It stars Anne Baxter, Richard Conte, Ann Sothern, Raymond Burr and George Reeves. Music is by Raoul Kraushaar and cinematography by Nicholas Musuraca.Norah Larkin (Baxter), after receiving some horrible news, ends up drunk and at the mercy of a Lothario in his apartment. The next morning she wakes up with the distinct feeling she may have committed murder.More solid than anything spectacular, this minor Lang is never less than interesting. The Blue Gardenia of the title is a nightclub, one where Nat King Cole no less, sings the title song. However, it's the local newspaper that is the key element of the story, the place of work of ace journalist Casey Mayo (Conte), who gets in deep with the story and of course that means Norah as well.There's some sparky dialogue as the story ticks away, with Sothern (sadly underused) wonderfully waspish, the murder mystery element remains strong enough, while there's dark at work as well (Burr is effectively on a mission to date rape). However, the pairing of Lang and Musuraca should be a dream team, but although there's the odd flash of noir visualisations during night sequences, you can't help but lament more wasn't provided for Musuraca to weave his magic.A good show from the cast helps ease the pain of the script's inadequacies, especially as regards the not very clever final revelations. So all in all, it's more a case of a mystery melodrama with noir touches than anything thrilling, and really it's one for Lang fans to tick off their to see lists, not to be visited again. 6.5/10

Ann Baxter, never a star of the first rank, chiefly remembered for the film "All About Eve," here inaugurates her second tier status with this pedestrian role of woman in distress. Baxter plays Norah Larkin, a young naive woman, who is a romantic and overly sentimental. For Norah this is a combination of character traits that lead to the kind of complications found in dime store novels. Lurid, dime store detective pulps, the gorier the better, happen to be the passionate obsession of one of her room mates, Sally, a gawky, dim bulb played by the confusingly named actress, Jeff Donnell. Ann Sothern is the wisecracking, motherly presence, Crystal, the practical one of the trio, which doesn't stand for much in this storyline. All three share a one room LA apartment living dormitory style and when not working as switchboard operators for the telephone company, are occupied with men, dating and keeping their "honor" intact. Trouble ahead!After all this is 1953, and the world is divided among vulnerable females and predatory males on the make. Men carry little black address books with the phone numbers of hot, compliant babes, their attributes annotated by coded symbols. Hubba! Hubba! "If women killed every man who got fresh with them," Crystal wisely quips, "there'd be no men left in the world!" That's the set-up, so ladies, watch out. Trouble ahead!In comes one Harry Prebble, an artist known for drawing calendar girls, a profession which gives him convenient and abundant access to women. He's the guy whose main agenda in life is to seduce as many women as possible, females who in the end are disposable after use. Raymond Burr, TV's "Perry Mason," plays the physically large, ungainly, lumbering Prebble. As a seducer of women he's no suave, subtle operator. Only the most unworldly, and gullible would fall for his dating routine, one basically primed to get his date blind drunk, if not giddy, on exotic cocktails called Polynesian Pearl Divers. He's a deceiver all right. Trouble ahead!Another male not exactly on the up-and-up is Casey Mayo, portrayed by Richard Conte, a newspaper reporter always hungry for the big scoop, the hot copy. He's no genius either as he tries to be the first to catch a murderer at large, his main assets being a dogged stubbornness and determination that won't quit. George Reeves, TV's original "Superman," is Haynes the homicide detective with whom Mayo maintains an uneasy though companionable alliance. Richard Erdman is news photographer, Al, who serves as Mayo's devoted mascot, following him around relentlessly, hoping one day that some of Mayo's mojo with women will somehow rub off on him and that maybe, just maybe, he can get some of those phone numbers in Mayo's little black book. And so, this is a prime example of a B movie trying to pretend that it is a crime drama and not a soap opera and failing to convince the audience that it is anything but a second rate and mildly entertaining potboiler. The highlight of the movie may well be the legendary Nat King Cole sitting at the piano, his velvet voice providing his rendition of the movie's insipid, schmaltzy theme song, "Blue Gardenia."

A drunk woman (Baxter) goes to the apartment of an aggressive ladies man (Burr!) who turns up dead, but she has no memory of what happened. It is not difficult to guess the identity of the murderer, but that's not the point of this film. The pleasure comes from watching the interactions among the characters. Lang's direction is smooth but not flashy, creating a nice atmosphere. He also elicits excellent performances, especially Sothern as Baxtern's wise roommate and Conte as a newspaper columnist trying to uncover the murderer. Cole plays himself and sings the title tune. There's a nice score by Kraushaar, reminiscent of Wagner.