The Blue Gardenia - 1953

[MissGoddess]

Fritz Lang's stylish film noir keeps getting better with each viewing. My only reservation about it has been Ann Baxter's performance which sometimes feels a little over-the-top, especially in her guilty reactions. But what never palls is the way Lang depicts the circumstances and relationship of the three female roommates. The way they live in that tiny apartment is very realistic, especially with the three beds in the "living room" (there is no bedroom) and how they unsuccessfully try to follow a schedule of taking turns with different chores. It's also interesting how each girl in her own way tries to create her own reality because the truth is so hard to deal with. "Crystal" (the most clear headed of the three, played by the wonderful, chain smoking Ann Sothern) dates her ex-husband, which is pretending in a way (she even says that while before he "had a husbands faults, now he has a boyfriend's virtues"); "Sally" (Jeff Donnell) reads and lives vicariously through her beloved, lurid "Mickey Mallet" (i.e., Spillaine) novels and then of course there's "Norah" (Ann Baxter) who plays house with a boyfriend who's in the service overseas and who soon sends her on a path that will cause her to deny "reality" in earnest.

I never noticed these character defining details until yesterday's viewing and they've made me appreciate the movie much more, quite apart from the actual murder plot. Lang is fairly ascerbic about his depiction of post-war American characters and lifestyle I see. I find it funny how he places that kitchy little ceramic knick-knack so prominently by the phone in the girls' apartment. It stands out so glaringly. And it's so 1950s, I love that detail. I bet it's worth a lot of money on Antiques Roadshow today. And even though Norah can't afford her own place she will splurge on Champagne and roasts for her solitary celebrations and on black taffeta evening gowns. So familiar......

Another thing I noticed about The Blue Gardenia, Harry Prebble's (Raymond Burr) ex-girlfriend who keeps calling him is named "Rose".

It was nice to see George Reeves as the detective. The part where he has his secretary phone Richard Conte pretending to be the "Bue Gardenia murderess" was very funny.

Conte is as always very good but his character, "Casey Mayo," needed more development I think. He was so hard boilded for most of the time and then suddenly he falls for Norah. Why? Just because she had mustard on her nose and looked cute? He seemed too cynical to fall that quickly, especially when his feelings would endanger his making a good story and that's all he seemed to live for until that moment. Hmmmm. I wonder if some scenes were deleted that might have beefed up his part?

Mirrors are prominent throughout the film and I'm still figuring out why. Maybe someone can clarify what they signify here?

Any other admirers of this film who can point to more details I may have overlooked?

[mrsl]

You've covered everything pretty 'succinctly' Miss G. I wish I could help you. As for the mirrors, could they be there for the characters to see into themselves? As you said, each character has his/her own private little fantasy life which stay hidden until something brings them to the surface.

Anne

[moira finnie]

Miss G.,
I like The Blue Gardenia, but can't say that I really enjoy it as much as some other, more loopily inspired Fritz Lang movies of the fifties, (i.e. The Big Heat, Beyond a Reasonable Doubt).

I too have a problem with Anne Baxter, but then, I usually do even when I like the movies that she appears in during her career. A very intelligent woman, Baxter's autobiography was a wonderful read, but her acting...well, every day is graduation day at the acting academy when Annie is around. That, over-the-topness and the breathiness of her intonations makes me wonder if she might have had asthma or something.

"Go ahead, have another Singapore Sling. They're small."

I honestly couldn't understand how Richard Conte's character, (you nailed it--he's terribly underwritten and a walking cliche, even though normally I find Conte one of the best), could not find Ann Sothern infinitely more engaging as a possible playmate! She's intelligent, knows the score, is funny and self-sacrificing. Oh, and she never feels sorry for herself like Anne Baxter's character, plus she's a comfy looking, warmhearted good looking woman. Also, Richard Conte, who gave life and individuality to some great characters of Mediterranean heritage on screen, notably in House of Strangers and Thieves' Highway, is not a guy named "Casey Mayo". What, they couldn't get Pat O'Brien for the part or change the character's name to something closer to the ethnic heritage of the man who won the role?

Here's what I like about the movie:
As usual with ol' Fritz Lang, he loves to show his audience the details of familiar yet esoteric jobs, especially when he can throw in some technological touches. He does a good job detailing the telephone company behind the scenes as well as the record shop.

Lang must've loved at least one thing about American life: the bars and restaurants, 'cause the attention he lavishes on that Trader Vic's type joint was a lot of fun, though who talked him into sticking the disjointed sequence with the talented Nat King Cole into the mix singing Blue Gardenia so beautifully is one of those fifties' touches that fails to thrill me, (and I love Nat King Cole normally).

Raymond Burr's bad guys are among the best. Though from what I gather, Ray was none too happy to be playing roles that might've gone to Laird Cregar (had he lived longer than his '20s), Burr's uniquely sympathetic yet repellent villains always made his appearances in film noirs special. A fine actor, and truly an oily artist here. Too bad he didn't stick around in the picture longer.

Richard Erdman, as Conte's Sancho Panza, is a wonderful actor, who can make any blandly written scene better with his inventive craftiness and humanity. I just love it whenever this guy shows up in a movie. Btw, if you ever listen to the commentary track for Stalag 17, he is one of the contributors and very funny. One minute he's describing some incident 50 years ago involving Otto Preminger's attempted hauteur on the set or a comment made by Billy Wilder during shooting, and another moment he starts cracking up over how everyone wanted to hang around William Holden on the set, 'cause all the Paramount starlets clustered around him, and he and his buds hoped to pick up a few of Holden's leftovers! Erdman rules.

Ruth Storey (aka Mrs. Richard Conte) appeared in very few movies, but her singular presence always seems quite hauntingly effective. As the lonely girl in the record shop, I thought she was just right. She seemed to be a girl who people were used to overlooking for years on end. Btw, after their marriage ended, Storey became a psychotherapist out in the real, non-showbiz world. Smart and talented, I guess.

[ken123]

I know that I am a meanie and nitpicker but Richard Conte's character in Thieves Highway was Greek - American, Nick Garcoes, which I have probably misspelled.

[moira finnie]

You're right, Ken! Okay, make that "Richard Conte, who gave life and individuality to some great characters of Mediterranean heritage on screen..."!

Naturally, A.I. Bezzerides would have an affinity for a character of Greek heritage when he wrote Thieves Highway, wouldn't he? Though of Russian-Jewish heritage himself, even before he left the U.S. for his destiny with Melina Mercouri, director Jules Dassin probably had a similar affinity, eh?

[MissGoddess]

You've covered everything pretty 'succinctly' Miss G. I wish I could help you. As for the mirrors, could they be there for the characters to see into themselves? As you said, each character has his/her own private little fantasy life which stay hidden until something brings them to the surface.

Anne

Hi Anne, I'm betting you're right. The mirror seems to show the "double life" of the character.

[MissGoddess]

Hi Moira,

Thanks for talking about some of the other players in the movie---Ergman was the funniest character so I think he actually should have looked up Ann Sothern's number. He seemed a lot like old "Al" (the ex) so she might have gone for him.

As for Conte's name, the script actually has him explaining it to Norah---if I remember correctly he said his Mother was Irish and his Father was Italian but then Mayo is Irish too or maybe the name was changed at Ellis Isle. I'll have to watch it again, but that explanation was about as deep as we ever got to see into Casey's background. Too bad. And yes, I am thinkg Ann Sothern would have been much better for him, lol.

I thought Baxter's best performance was in The Razor's Edge, where her dramatics were better showcased in the rich textures of the setting and story. In such a matter-of-fact setting as we have in The Blue Gardenia (nightclub excepted), her histrionics are more jarring.

I like the nightclub scenes, by the way, but then I have an enormous fondness for nightclub scenes in general. In one forum I used to belong to I started a thread just on scenes in movies that take place in them. It was fun. They rarely move the story along, but I've always wanted to walk right into the screen and join one of the tables.

"Trade Vic's" was a good comparison! Don't you just love the kind of shlocky "Theme" clubs and restaurants the old movies are filled with? They may bear little resemblence to the actual places they're supposed to represent, but they look like so much fun!! Real nightclubs today can't hold a candle, they're so boring and off-putting in comparison.

[moira finnie]

Okay, Miss G. I think it's time we started that nightclub thread, and here it is. Let's start one, as soon as I revisit that great prohibition watering hole that Jimmy Cagney takes over in The Roaring Twenties (1939), which is on TCM now!!

I think Anne Baxter was at her best, (and most toned down, dramatically) as the girl in Sunday Dinner for a Soldier, which we've posted about extensively here and on TCM. She's quite touching.

[MissGoddess]

I'm getting out my black taffeta and my black pumps...not suede though, how "last season" is that?

[Dewey1960]

I love THE BLUE GARDENIA and, along with THE BIG HEAT find it to be his most interesting 1950s film. I've read that Lang himself didn't think much of the film and only did it to fulfill a contractual obligation. One of my prize possessions is a purple Capitol record label 45 of Nat King Cole warbling the lilting theme song. It really sells the film.
[youtube][/youtube]

[MissGoddess]

Thank you so much for that clip of my second favorite male singer.

Cole's performance of that song is flawless.

Again with the mirror, too.

I'll take any Lang "toss off" over most other directors' chef d'oeuvre!