War veterans rarely find the return to civilian life a straightforward experience and so it is with two of the characters in "The Blue Dahlia". The aptly named Buzz Wanchek (William Bendix) has a metal plate in his head and certain sounds, such as loud music, trigger painful and noisy reverberations which cause him to become very agitated and angry. He also becomes very bewildered and frustrated from time to time as he suffers from confusing periods of memory loss. Johnny Morrison (Alan Ladd) suffers a different but also common problem when he finds that things at home have changed and not for the better.
Johnny returns from the war, traumatised from completing too many missions, only to find that his wife Helen (Doris Dowling) has become a heavy drinker and is having an affair with Eddie Harwood (Howard Da Silva) the owner of a night club called "The Blue Dahlia". Johnny's anger increases when she tells him that their son was killed in a car crash which she caused by driving when she was drunk. They quarrel so loudly that the house detective calls by to ask them to keep the noise down. Afterwards, Johnny collects his case and initially confronts Helen with a gun but then calms down and throws it in a chair before leaving.
Johnny unknowingly meets Harwood's estranged wife Joyce (Veronica Lake) when she sees him standing at the roadside in heavy rain and then drives him to a Malibu beach inn where he stays overnight. They arrange a morning walk on the beach together but this plan is quickly dropped when reports of Helen's murder are broadcast and the announcement is made that the police are looking for Johnny. He immediately leaves the inn but returns later, meets up with Joyce and tells her that he's got to find the murderer before the police find him because, if that happens, they won't bother to look anywhere else. He initially suspects Harwood but eventually when the police are able to determine the time of the murder, they are able to eliminate both Johnny and Harwood as suspects before the real culprit is identified.
"The Blue Dahlia" is a fast moving and thoroughly enjoyable thriller with a series of plot developments which propel the action along with great pace and purpose. Raymond Chandler's Oscar nominated screenplay contains typically sharp dialogue and was the only one in his career which wasn't adapted from a novel. Some entertaining devices are used, such as, the existence of two characters (Johnny & Harwood) who each use two identities and two couples (Buzz & Helen and Johnny & Joyce) where the individuals are already tenuously linked but initially meet by chance in circumstances where they don't know each other. The theme of doubles also emerges elsewhere in the story as it contains two "cheap blackmailers" (Dad Newell & Corelli), two women (Helen & Joyce) who irritate Buzz with their habits of picking petals off flowers and two men (Johnny & Harwood) who both dump Helen on the same evening.
Alan Ladd and Veronica Lake have great on-screen chemistry and deliver very good performances in their ultra-cool style. The stand out performance, however, comes from William Bendix who strongly displays all the tension, anger, confusion and erratic behaviour that he suffers as a result of his injuries.
Johnny returns from the war, traumatised from completing too many missions, only to find that his wife Helen (Doris Dowling) has become a heavy drinker and is having an affair with Eddie Harwood (Howard Da Silva) the owner of a night club called "The Blue Dahlia". Johnny's anger increases when she tells him that their son was killed in a car crash which she caused by driving when she was drunk. They quarrel so loudly that the house detective calls by to ask them to keep the noise down. Afterwards, Johnny collects his case and initially confronts Helen with a gun but then calms down and throws it in a chair before leaving.
Johnny unknowingly meets Harwood's estranged wife Joyce (Veronica Lake) when she sees him standing at the roadside in heavy rain and then drives him to a Malibu beach inn where he stays overnight. They arrange a morning walk on the beach together but this plan is quickly dropped when reports of Helen's murder are broadcast and the announcement is made that the police are looking for Johnny. He immediately leaves the inn but returns later, meets up with Joyce and tells her that he's got to find the murderer before the police find him because, if that happens, they won't bother to look anywhere else. He initially suspects Harwood but eventually when the police are able to determine the time of the murder, they are able to eliminate both Johnny and Harwood as suspects before the real culprit is identified.
"The Blue Dahlia" is a fast moving and thoroughly enjoyable thriller with a series of plot developments which propel the action along with great pace and purpose. Raymond Chandler's Oscar nominated screenplay contains typically sharp dialogue and was the only one in his career which wasn't adapted from a novel. Some entertaining devices are used, such as, the existence of two characters (Johnny & Harwood) who each use two identities and two couples (Buzz & Helen and Johnny & Joyce) where the individuals are already tenuously linked but initially meet by chance in circumstances where they don't know each other. The theme of doubles also emerges elsewhere in the story as it contains two "cheap blackmailers" (Dad Newell & Corelli), two women (Helen & Joyce) who irritate Buzz with their habits of picking petals off flowers and two men (Johnny & Harwood) who both dump Helen on the same evening.
Alan Ladd and Veronica Lake have great on-screen chemistry and deliver very good performances in their ultra-cool style. The stand out performance, however, comes from William Bendix who strongly displays all the tension, anger, confusion and erratic behaviour that he suffers as a result of his injuries.