The Blue Gardenia (1953)

[drinkanddestroy]

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0045564/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

The Blue Gardenia (1953)

Directed by Fritz lang
Cast

Anne Baxter - Norah Larkin
Richard Conte - Casey Mayo
Ann Sothern - Crystal Carpenter
Raymond Burr - Harry Prebble
George Reeves - Police Capt. Sam Haynes
Jeff Donnell - Sally Ellis
Richard Erdman - Al
Ruth Storey - Rose Miller
Ray Walker - Homer
Nat "King" Cole - Himself


PLOT: Norah Larkin's heart is broken when her boyfriend in Korea writes her a letter saying he has fallen in love with another woman. Norah decides to drink her troubles away on a date with womanizer Harry Prebble. She gets trashed, and goes to Prebbles's apartment, where he starts touching her; she resists, grabs a fireplace poker, the mirror is smashed, and she runs out of the apartment. She wakes up the next morning to find out that Prebble is dead.
Crime reporter Casey Mayo, looking for a scoop, writes an open letter to the killer, saying that it's only a matter of time before the cops catch her; he offers  to help her any way he can, including by paying for the best criminal lawyer, if only she would call him and give him an exclusive story.



The restaurant Norah and Prebble go to is called The Blue Gardenia. At the restaurant, Nat King Cole performs a song called The Blue Gardenia. Also, Prebble bought a blue gardenia for Norah at the restaurant, and that flower was found at the crime scene; in his newspaper articles, Mayo dubs the mystery murderess "The Blue Gardenia."

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Previous post by titoli: http://www.fistful-of-leone.com/forums/index.php?topic=1822.msg148934#msg148934
The Blue Gardenia (1953) A minor Lang, with a song better than Laura's and a plot with a gimmick reminding me again of Van Dine's Canary (the record)! The plot actually is very poor, but I liked the sequence of Burr's (another gay like Webb in real life) courting of Francis. 6\10
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I liked this movie a lot; I give it an 8/10.

I've always liked Anne Baxter and Richard Conte.

[dave jenkins]

Oh, yeah, I forgot Richard Erdman is in this. I'm watching it again tonight!

[drinkanddestroy]

Oh, yeah, I forgot Richard Erdman is in this. I'm watching it again tonight!

Yesterday was Erdman's 89th birthday!

His role in this one is completely useless. Basically, he's just there so that Richard Conte has a person to explain his thought process to (and therefore, to the audience). Otherwise, he hardly does anything but sleep - in back of Conte's car, in the couch in Conte's office, etc. But yeah, he's a funny face to watch!

[dave jenkins]

Yesterday was Erdman's 89th birthday!

His role in this one is completely useless. Basically, he's just there so that Richard Conte has a person to explain his thought process to (and therefore, to the audience). Otherwise, he hardly does anything but sleep - in back of Conte's car, in the couch in Conte's office, etc. But yeah, he's a funny face to watch!

Yeah, watching this again, I see you're right. No wonder I forgot about him--he has the most forgettable of forgettable parts. What a waste.

Conte is good. Baxter is cute but too hammy. Wise-crackin' Ann Sothern, of course, steals the show.

[drinkanddestroy]

Yeah, watching this again, I see you're right. No wonder I forgot about him--he has the most forgettable of forgettable parts. What a waste.

Conte is good. Baxter is cute but too hammy. Wise-crackin' Ann Sothern, of course, steals the show.

yeah, Baxter may not be the sort of actress you'd expect to win Oscars every year, but she always delivers a good performance and is just so lovely and cute, in an innocent and non-slutty/Hollywood way. She delivered a perfect Mexican accent in Walk on the Wild Side; if I didn't know it was Anne Baxter, I totally would have believed it was a Mexican woman.

Ann Sothern was indeed very good; the third roommate, Miss Jeff Donnell, was annoying, always talking in the sort of baby accent that a mother would talk to her 2-year old daughter in.

Conte is always good, though his role here doesn't allow him to demonstrate his full talents as much as, say, House of Strangers does.

As for Erdman, a memorable role that I saw him in was Cry Danger -- a very significant supporting role, where he was third-billed behind Dick Powell and Rhonda Fleming.

[dave jenkins]

Of course, among Noir-heads, his role in Cry Danger stands pretty tall. I remember him most from TV--the Stopwatch episode of Twilight Zone, the five appearances (as 5 separate characters) on Perry Mason.

[drinkanddestroy]

how many times in The Blue Gardenia did someone -- especially some Chinese guy in the restaurant -- say, "Mr. Prebble is a verrry fancy man with the ladies"? 

[drinkanddestroy]

 The Blue Gardenia for the Lux Radio Theater http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-ITiHckVbU
(unfortunately, doesn't sound like the same actors from the movie)

[moorman]

Ehhh.  The film started good then started going downhill after Prebble took her home.  The plot was weak up until the end.  Just too much contrived unbelievable stuff with the plot.  I rank this one a 5.5 out of 10...

[drinkanddestroy]

The text is pretty much the same both times. Watch whichever one has the better tie:

Eddie Muller intro April 2017 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ydx1WJxxLkU

Eddie Muller outo April 2017 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1LCXVnV1nM


Eddie Muller's intro June 2021 https://youtu.be/0cN4zRFKwQA

Eddie Muller's outro June 2021 https://youtu.be/UaLapaFiD-Q