The Blue Gardenia

"There was nothing lily-white about her -- the clinch-and-kill girl they called: The Blue Gardenia"

Mar 28 1953 Approved 1h 25m
Crime, Drama, Film-Noir

Upon waking up to the news that the man she’d gone on a date with the previous night has been murdered, a young woman with only a faint memory of the night’s events begins to suspect that she murdered him while attempting to resist his advances.

Plot

In Los Angeles, on the day of her birthday, the telephone operator Norah Larkin decides to celebrate dining alone at home, with the picture of her beloved fiancé, a soldier overseas, and reading his last letter to her. In the letter, he tells her that he met an Army nurse stationed in Japan and plans to marry her. Norah, completely upset, accepts a blind date with the Don Juan and photographer of calendar girls, Harry Prebble. They go to the Blue Gardenia Club, and Norah drinks six strong cocktails, Polynesian Pearl Divers, and gets very, very drunk. Harry takes her to his apartment and tries to force Norah to have sex, and she grabs a fireplace poker to fend off Harry. On the next morning, she wakes up in her apartment with her two roommates, but she cannot remember what happened. When she reads the newspaper, she finds that Harry is dead and the police have her handkerchief, her high heels, and her blue gardenia, and they are trying to locate the woman who killed the famous wolf Harry. When she reads in the newspaper that the journalist Casey Mayo is offering his support, as well as his newspaper's, in exchange for an exclusive interview, Norah decides to call him.

Written by

Charles Hoffman, Vera Caspary

Directed by

Fritz Lang

Production Countries

United States of America

Production Companies

Blue Gardenia Productions, Warner Bros. Pictures

Languages

English

Awards

N/A

Scores
# of Votes
6,536
Average Rating
6.8 out of 10
Metascore
NA
Popularity
NA