The Blue Dahlia: George Marshall

Raymond Chandler's work defined film noir: it's look, it's tone, even it's characters.  When his novels and stories weren't being adapted to the big screen, he wrote some of the greatest noir screenplays to ever grace Hollywood: Double Indemnity and Strangers on a Train.  The Blue Dahlia is another Chandler-scripted film noir that has come to be considered a minor classic of the genre.  The plot is probably Chandler's most confusing and labyrinthine this side of The Big Sleep.  It involves Navy pilot Lieutenant Commander Johnny Morrison, a veteran coming home from the Pacific Front to find his wife is cheating on him.  He leaves her and runs off with another woman who happens to be...get ready for this...his wife's boyfriend's estranged wife.  Things are made even worse when Morrison's wife is found murdered.  And so, Morrison becomes entangled in a opaque web of lies, murder, and cheating spouses that all seem to involve the Blue Dahlia night club.  It would be wrong to punish this film for the complexity of its plot.  After all, The Big Sleep was so confusing that even Chandler famously couldn't explain all of its plot twists.  But The Big Sleep benefited from a magnificent cast including Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall.  The Blue Dahlia has it's share of fine actors, too: Alan Ladd, Veronica Lake, Doris Dowling.  But none of them have the same sparkle or chemistry as the cast in The Big Sleep.  The Blue Dahlia is a fine film...maybe even a great one.  But it just doesn't have the same kick or sinister undertones as The Big Sleep, an ultimately superior film that was released mere months after The Blue Dahlia.

7/10