Shortly afterward, the police arrive and arrest Norah. Release Calendar DVD & Blu-ray Releases Top Rated Movies Most Popular Movies Browse Movies by Genre Top Box Office Showtimes & Tickets Showtimes & Tickets In Theaters Coming Soon Coming Soon Movie News India Movie Spotlight. Keep track of everything you watch; tell your friends. Making it all seem relevant is the featured song, more than just a theme, an integral part of the movie, sung by the enchanting man with the melodious voice, Nat "King" Cole, who makes a much too brief appearance as the piano man in the club called The Blue Gardenia.Besides the hypnotic melody, the interplay among the three room mates, Norah Larkin (Anne Baxter), Crystal Carpenter (Ann Sothern), and Sally Ellis (Jeff Donnell), represents the apex of this enjoyable Fritz Lang outing, not as dour as many of his films, wrapped in Sturm und Drang, tended to be. In Los Angeles, California, Norah Larkin (Anne Baxter) is a single woman who works as a switchboard operator along with her roommates, Crystal Carpenter (Ann Sothern) and Sally Ellis (Jeff Donnell). Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Randy T Super Reviewer. That same night, at her apartment, Sally reads the newspaper report that the suspect wore a black dress at the time of the murder. Menu. Bitter and confused, she mistakenly believes that Casey is the one who turned her in. A deranged writer murders a maid after she resists his advances. The Blue Gardenia is a 1953 film noir directed by Fritz Lang and starring Anne Baxter, Richard Conte, and Ann Sothern. Starring: Anne Baxter, Richard Conte, Ann Sothern. Soon. Blue Gardenia is the theme song, a place, and a flower -- as well as the center of the story. [3] Jans B. Wager stated that it is a "film that rigorously contains black masculinity within a peculiar studio set". Harry takes her to his apartment and tries to force Norah to have sex, and she uses a poker to hit Harry on the head. If so then you already know what it's like to watch The Blue Gardenia. As womanizer, woman-hater Harry Prebble, he convincingly conveys to the audience the loathsome qualities of such a creature. They go to the Blue Gardenia Club, and Norah drinks six strong cocktails Polynesian Pearl Divers and gets completely drunk. The Blue Gardenia (1953) cast and crew credits, including actors, actresses, directors, writers and more. [2], In 1965 Fritz Lang - responding to the assertion by Peter Bogdanovich that The Blue Gardenia was "a particularly venomous picture of American life" - recalled the film as "[Lang's] first picture after the McCarthy business and I had to shoot it in twenty days. The Blue Gardenia was Anne Baxter’s movie all the way. Her brother Joe fears that his love, fish cannery worker Peggy, may wind up like Mae. [3] Although Lang evidently recalled his career as being seriously hindered by the Hollywood blacklist, the interval between his being hired for The Blue Gardenia (announced October 1952) and the completion of Lang's precedent directorial assignment: Clash by Night, was not objectively an overly protracted lapse lasting only about seven or eight months (Lang would be hired by a major studio - Columbia Pictures - in January 1953 some three months before The Blue Gardenia was released). The Blue Gardenia is a 1953 film noir crime film directed by Fritz Lang and based on a novella by Vera Caspary, starring Anne Baxter, Richard Conte, Raymond Burr and Ann Sothern. It plays as an unimaginative newspaper melodrama that takes jabs at the middle-class and how neurotic and fearful they are about romance. Newspaper columnist Casey Mayo (Richard Conte) dubs the presumed killer the "Blue Gardenia murderess." What a birthday present he will have. While The Blue Gardenia is definitely overshadowed by his other noirs it has a hokey albeit endearing story. The gardenia blue color is a natural food color from the fruit of Gardenia jasminoides Ellis, obtained from biological fermentation. Soldiers of fortune will tell you—you’ve got to go where the war is. Noted cinematographer Nicholas Musuraca injects the film with some intriguing noir touches, such as those ominous rain drops on Raymond Burr's window the night of the murder ... Lang himself in interviews dismissed the film as a 'job-for-hire'. [10] Though this role was small, it was pivotal. The Blue Gardenia. The Blue Gardenia came out the same year that the Glenn Ford picture The Big Heat was released, another Lang noir. She only made 6 films. Want to share IMDb's rating on your own site? Norah agrees and returns home, where she confesses to roommate Crystal, who is sympathetic. Most of the story is rather plodding and the acting -- melodramatic. His birthday is coming up. She confides to friends that she has forgiven Casey and wants him as the new man in her life. The ending is so abrupt that it appears thrown together as if in the middle of a scene the director yells out, "Wrap it up," and leaves the set. She admits to cleaning the poker, which would have removed any fingerprints, and placing the shoes in the closet, so valuable evidence has been compromised. The Blue Gardenia Blue Gardenia is the theme song, a place, and a flower -- as well as the center of the story. Finally grasping the significance of the fact that the records on the machine had been changed, Casey realizes it's possible that Norah was not the killer. At the candlelight dinner table, she opens the latest letter from him and learns to her shock that he instead plans to marry a nurse he met in Tokyo. The Blue Gardenia. The Blue Gardenia 1953 Fritz Lang. [1] An independent production distributed by Warner Bros., The Blue Gardenia - a cynical take on press coverage of a sensational murder case - was the first installment of Lang's "newspaper noir" movie trio, being followed in 1956 by both While the City Sleeps and Beyond a Reasonable Doubt. After a drunken and disturbing evening, a woman awakens with a wretched hangover in a man’s apartment, afraid that she may have murdered him. In the letter he tells her that he met an Army nurse stationed in Japan and plans to marry her. The writer engages his brother's help in hiding the body, causing unexpected problems for both of them. You will be able to select five (5) of your favorite hit songs, and styles of music that, of your choice will be played at your special wedding reception or private event. When she reads the newspaper, she finds that Harry is dead and the police has her handkerchief, her high heels and her blue gardenia and is chasing the woman that killed the famous wolf Harry. YARN. From a hospital bed, Rose confesses that while Norah was passed out at Harry's apartment, she herself arrived, demanding that he marry her. Sunday 10 December 1961 Live No Comments. The Blue Gardenia, which Danny Kasman recently compared to Fincher's Gone Girl, deals with a character who strays from outside the world she knows into the cogs of Los Angeles. A telephone operator ends up drunk and at the mercy of a cad in his apartment. Prior to filming The Blue Gardenia, Sothern had signed with CBS to star in the sitcom Private Secretary, filming the first episodes in the latter half of December 1952 immediately after her eight days of filming on The Blue Gardenia:[9] Sothern's focus would remain focused on television roles with occasional cinematic forays, her next cinematic credit subsequent to The Blue Gardenia being the 1964 film The Best Man. (That record being Toscanini conducting Wagner's Tristan und Isolde.) It's definitely not a film noir -- it's a melodrama about a murder. Married insurance adjuster John Forbes falls for femme fatale Mona Stevens while her boyfriend is in jail and all suffer serious consequences as a result. He feels shocked, because he had begun to fall in love with her. Movies. Written by Last updated: 26 September 2012. The Blue Gardenia is a 1953 film noir directed by Fritz Lang and starring Anne Baxter, Richard Conte, and Ann Sothern. But the story itself wasn't original and the acting wasn't engaging enough to elevate it past being a mild thriller. Use the HTML below. Yes indeed, we are making a beaded silk flower shawl. Blue Gardenias Bio. Norah's drunken night out with Prebble ends in a hazily remembered confrontation and the next day a startling discovery: Harry has been murdered, and the police have found Norah's personal effects at the scene. So why was she here? (It was actually a diner employee.). Following up this hunch, Casey and Police Captain Sam Haynes (George Reeves) go to a local music shop. When a lovely woman and her new husband settle in an ancient mansion on the East coast, she discovers that he may want to kill her. The director of cinematography for The Blue Gardenia was RKO regular Nicholas Musuraca, then working at Warner Brothers. Get a sneak peek of the new version of this page. The clerk tells the police that it was Rose who sold Harry the record, and calls to her to come out and help. [3], When the film was first released, the staff at Variety magazine gave The Blue Gardenia a lukewarm review: "A stock story and handling keep The Blue Gardenia from being anything more than a regulation mystery melodrama, from a yarn by Vera Caspary. Yet, that's the only major flaw in the film. In the letter he tells her that he met an Army nurse stationed in Japan and plans to marry her. Things surrounding romance and fun was pivotal she confides to friends that she has a! 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