The Blue Gardenia (1953)
The Blue Gardenia (1953)
DVDRip | MKV | 698x476 | x264 @ 2139 Kbps | 88 min | 1,41 Gb
Audio: English AC3 1.0 @ 96 Kbps | Subs: English, French, Spanish
Genre: Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
DVDRip | MKV | 698x476 | x264 @ 2139 Kbps | 88 min | 1,41 Gb
Audio: English AC3 1.0 @ 96 Kbps | Subs: English, French, Spanish
Genre: Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
Director: Fritz Lang
Writers: Charles Hoffman (screenplay), Vera Caspary (story)
Stars: Anne Baxter, Richard Conte, Ann Sothern
Deeply distraught that her GI ex-boyfriend plans to marry another woman, Norah Larkin (Anne Baxter) agrees to go out on a date with lothario Harry Prebble (Raymond Burr). 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. Tipped off to the breaking news, reporter Casey Mayo (Richard Conte) invites Norah to tell her side of the story.
Really excellent film, elegant, well constructed and atmospheric. Beautifully written script, directing, photography, art direction, soundtrack editing, performances, etc. A real masterpiece. I am surprised that so many people who review it here seem not to grasp it. They complain about lack of suspense because it doesn't use hackneyed noir film devices, but the film is not about that. It's about Anne Baxter, the world through her point of view. Her life is a beautiful dream of hopes of love and happiness for the future, which turns into a horrible nightmare that spirals downward with sickening realism and pathos. Snappy characters throughout, but they are not "wasted", miscast or otherwise ill-used. They are perfectly balanced in a skilled script that is not about actors chewing the scenery, but is a real film, an art film, by the master Fritz Lang, whose every decision in creating this film up to the smallest detail seems to me to be highly intentional. Highly recommended.
(click to enlarge)
The Blue Gardenia (1953)
More in My Blog