Citizen Rules...Cinemaesque Chat-n-Review

What makes The Blue Dahlia unique is the famed novelist Raymond Chandler wrote an original screenplay for the movie. It was his first original screenplay and originally the ending was quite different but a change was forced due to concerns of the U.S. Navy. Not surprisingly then, the end scene is the weakest. But we're talking only a few minutes out of the entire film. The dialogue is classic Raymond Chandler with flippant one liners that oozes 40s film noir-ness. By far the best parts are the first 20 minutes when Ladd confronts his drunken wife about the affair.

I found the movie to be a middle of the road film noir. As much as I've liked Ladd and Lake in This Gun for Hire, here I didn't feel their characters were that compelling. By far the most interesting was Ladd's trashy wife played to nasty perfection by Doris Dowling and the cool as a cucumber, but sleazy club owner Howard DeSilva.

Reportedly Raymond Chandler didn't like the director who he thought was uninspired, nor did he like Veronica Lake. But to this reviewer I'd say the scriptwriter is mostly at fault as the characters never get flushed out so aren't that interesting.

Decoy (1946)

Woohoo! what a crazy woman Margot is! Played by British actress Jean Gillie, Margot is a one of a kind character, for any film noir. She's nearly psychopathic in how she takes joy in seducing men, only to use them, then kill them! It's pretty bold stuff for 1946.

Right after WWII, movies in America took a dark turn, most of the big studios made dark themed, crime melodramas which later would be called film noir.

Decoy, is a 'poverty row' film, which describes any of the small movie studios that made B-budget pictures on the cheap. Decoy was one such movie made by Bernhard-Brandt Productions and disturbed by Monogram Pictures, those are names most aren't familiar with.

What makes these smaller noirs interesting is they could do more daring stuff than the big studios would usually attempt. And it doesn't get much more daring than a non repentant female lead who takes joy in double crossing and killing men, so that she can get her hands on the stolen loot.

If that ain't enough to peak your interest in this cult classic noir, then how about the scene where a doctor is forced to revive a convicted killer who was just gassed in the prison's gas chamber. Who knew methylene blue could perform such miracles? I love this scene as it's reminiscent of Frankenstein ala noir.

Jean Gillie, made one helluva a wicked femme fatale. Sadly she died at 33 and her career was cut short.