That was an excellent one.

best movie i've ever seen.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

1946's "The Blue Dahlia" would be the 3rd (and final) pairing of actors, Alan Ladd & Veronica Lake in a feature film. (This time around Ladd/Lake were clearly a mismatched on-screen couple)But unlike their 2 previous films together ("This Gun For Hire" & "The Glass Key") - This decidedly mediocre crime/drama just did not measure up to its 2 classic "Noir" predecessors at all. With its screenplay penned by famed crime-fiction writer, Raymond Chandler - You'd honestly think that "The Blue Dahlia" would have really been charged with super-sizzling excitement.But, nope - Unfortunately - "The Blue Dahlia" was just a pedestrian-level "whodunnit" that was far too "clean-cut" for its own good.IMO - This film's overall inadequacy only served to undermine any hope of its story ever building at all into something with a more grittier edge to it.

Finally, the contractee's voice was heard by studio management. Given the go-ahead for an original suspense thriller, Raymond Chandler set to work on "The Blue Dahlia" (1946). In many ways vintage Chandler, with lots of atmospheric touches, cynical dialogue, a fabulous femme fatale (Doris Dowling) and an embittered hero (played with an appropriate lack of emotion by Alan Ladd), the completed script hit an unexpected snag. The Navy Department complained to the studio that portraying neurotic veterans as potential killers violated the senior service's no-no code. A compromise was reached, forcing Chandler to re-work the ending of the movie. That he did so under protest is evident by the slip-shod, utterly unconvincing way he "remedied" the situation. In fact, when he revised his last word on Blue Dahlia, he tore up his contract, vowing never to work in Hollywood again. (Available on a 10/10 Universal DVD).

George Marshall's The Blue Dahlia marked the third time leads Alan Ladd and Veronica Lake starred together in a film noir - following This Gun for Hire and The Glass Key (both 1942) - and, more notably, the first time that legendary author Raymond Chandler penned an original screenplay. Chandler's infamous struggle to finish the screenplay after the studio refused to shoot his original ending - while filming was rushed through in fear of Ladd having to return to the Army - works both in favour of the film and against it. On one hand, The Blue Dahlia is a rather scrappy, messy noir, lending it a certain ruggedness, and on the other hand the film's climax seems rather sudden and out of the blue.Three discharged Navy officers, Johnny (Ladd), Buzz (William Bendix) and George (Hugh Beaumont), arrive home after serving in the South Pacific. Before Johnny returns to his wife Helen (Doris Dowling), the three stop for a drink and almost get into a fight when Buzz, suffering from shell shock and a metal plate in his head following a war injury, demands that a fellow officer turn off the loud 'monkey music' that causes him to suffer from delusions. At his home, Johnny returns to discover his wife drunk and having a none-too-discreet affair with nightclub owner Eddie Harwood (Howard Da Silva). Livid, Johnny threatens her with a pistol before leaving and eventually hitching a ride with Joyce Harwood (Lake), who just happens to be Eddie's ex. When Helen turns up dead the next day, Johnny finds himself on the run from the law with a mystery to unravel.While it was understandably overshadowed by Howard Hawks' masterpiece The Big Sleep released the same year, The Blue Dahlia is a solid piece of film-making, bolstered by a suspenseful central murder mystery that keeps you guessing until the very end. Ladd is suitably stoic and hard-boiled as the protagonist, but the film undoubtedly belongs to Bendix as the unpredictable and somewhat tragic damaged war hero, with the film's opening scene establishing just how lovable yet threatening his character can be. Chandler didn't warm to Veronica Lake, famously dubbing her 'Moronica Lake' and suggesting she works best when she keeps her mouth shut and sits pretty. His comment was certainly unfair - Lake was an enigmatic screen presence - and Chandler punishes her with a rather slight amount of screen-time and a character who fails to offer any real impact on the plot. Still, this is a clever, engrossing noir, with special mention also going to Da Silva, one of the victims of the Hollywood blacklist.

I've watched this movie over a few times recently, not because it's a flawless noir masterpiece—it isn't—but to enjoy the characterization, the period feel and that unique Chandler dialogue. The parts add up to much more than the whole, I'd say. In discussing some key moments below, I will avoid giving away any plot details or the ending.A word in defence of Doris Dowling (as Helen). There's lots of compassion for Buzz, whose war injury and experiences cause him to act erratically, but poor Helen gets little sympathy for her own trauma. We presume a good egg like Johnny wouldn't have married her if she'd been a bad sort, but she's accidentally caused the death of her little boy through negligence by driving while drunk (his photo is evidently Alan Ladd as a child). Unable to live with the crushing guilt, and with her husband the other side of the world, she's crawled into a bottle, something Chandler could write so well from experience. She spends her time tipsy, a lush surrounding herself with good-timers and having casual affairs to drown out the memory, just to get through the days. Then war-hero Johnny suddenly turns up and she's confronted with the man whose son she's killed. That dreadful guilt resurfaces and, bitter and self-loathing, she blurts out the whole sorry tale, baiting Johnny so she can make him hurt as she does (and probably to evoke enough hatred in him to make him mete out the punishment she deep-down feels she deserves). It works almost too well, though, as he pulls a gun on her—but, moments later, regaining his self-control, he walks out, deciding she isn't worth it. Later, regretful, she unsuccessfully tries to contact him, then takes off for the hotel bar.I feel it's unfair to criticize as 'hammy' or over-dramatic Dowling's acting in the bungalow scenes—it was George Marshall's job to get it just the way he wanted it and, whether laughing hysterically, wincing, or tugging absent-mindedly on the phone wire, Doris must have been closely following his directions.She seems nicely at home once at the bar, where some of my favourite moments take place. Buzz (in a coincidence too far, to be honest) wanders in as he waits to meet Helen then, almost by accident, picks her up, unaware she's the very woman he's waiting to see. For two solid minutes, she is cool, appealing, beautiful, and they share some cute mutual wisecracking. She and Buzz head off to her bungalow so he can make a call. When he hesitates momentarily, she stands in the pouring rain in her slinky outfit and looks back at him, taunting him playfully: "What's the matter? Scared?" She flashes a winsome smile and turns on her heel, an invitation no red-blooded male could resist (just as I couldn't resist that period term, sorry!) Unfortunately, Veronica Lake never gets quite such a seductive moment in this film. Anyone who knows Chandler's bio will appreciate why he will have identified far more closely with Helen's character than with any other in the drama.A typically underplayed Chandler one-liner crops up when Eddie learns from concerned business partner Leo that his beloved ex, Joyce (Lake), has left a message saying she's quit town 'to save money on flowers' as obviously, she was receiving too many of Eddie's signature blue dahlias…Eddie (morosely): "She could have told me that herself." Leo: "Maybe she figured it would sound worse, coming from me."And Buzz's interplay down at the station house with the old cop is priceless, too.An imperfect film written by an imperfect man, sure, but with enough fine moments to satisfy any Chandler aficionado.