The Blue Gardenia

Norah works at a telephone exchange. Her fiancé is in Korea and she is waiting for a letter. It arrives on her birthday; he writes that he has married someone else. That same evening the phone rings. The caller is Harry Prebble, an illustrator at the office; he is calling another girl, but Norah accepts. They go to a restaurant. She drinks a great deal. She does not remember what follows. The next morning Prebble is found dead. A newspaper columnist writes about it and sends an open letter to the killer. Norah believes she did it and gets in touch with him. Fritz Lang directs. Anne Baxter plays Norah, Richard Conte the journalist and Raymond Burr plays Prebble; Ann Sothern is in the cast. Nat King Cole appears as himself and sings the song that gives the film its title. The source is a story by Vera Caspary. It was made on a low budget in a short shoot; one of Lang's smaller American productions. The matter it builds is not being able to remember; Norah cannot trust her own innocence and the narrative gives the viewer no certainty either. The narrative takes the role of the press as a direct subject; the paper steers the case and raises its circulation. The exchange and the shared apartment record the life of working women in the period. Its limit is structure; the solution comes quickly and the last section is rushed. Who it is for: viewers who like film noir and Fritz Lang. Who it is not for: it is short, the plot simple, and the ending weak.