The Blue Gardenia

Despite its opening few scenes of light-hearted roommate comedy, an uncharacteristically happy ending, and even the presence of Nat King Cole smiling through the title song, The Blue Gardenia is actually one of Fritz Lang’s darker and more contemporary films, centering on the sexual assault of a drunk and despondent Norah Larkin (Anne Baxter) whose resistance seems to escalate to murder by fireplace poker (an unexpectedly common weapon in noir). Lang and acclaimed cinematographer Nicholas Musuraca create lots of dramatic shots like the whirlpool montage when Norah passes out and the gorgeous, dramatic lighting (and flashing CHRONICLE shadow) when Norah enters the newsroom at night. Also starring Richard Conte as newspaper columnist Casey Mayo, who publishes a letter encouraging the mystery killer to come clean, The Blue Gardenia is the first film in what became known as Lang’s newspaper noir trilogy along with the later While the City Sleeps (1956) and Beyond a Reasonable Doubt (1956). Incidentally, this is the second film noir after Robert Siodmak’s Christmas Holiday (1944) to feature the music of “Liebestod,” the final movement of Richard Wagner’s “Tristan und Isolde.”