The Blue Dahlia

US (1946): Mystery/Drama/Film-Noir

When Johnny Morrison (Alan Ladd) returns home at the end of the war, he expects to receive a warm welcome from his wife (Doris Dowling). Instead, he discovers that she's been unfaithful to him with the owner of the Blue Dahlia nightclub (Howard Da Silva). After a heated argument, he storms out of their house. Later that night, she's murdered -- and Johnny winds up the prime suspect. Joyce Harwood (Veronica Lake), the estranged wife of the club's proprietor, lends Johnny a hand and the two fall in love while tracking down the killer.

Though conceived as a novel, author Raymond Chandler turned The Blue Dahlia into a piece custom-made for Alan Ladd. Chandler saw his own novels filmed, and he adapted others' works, but this film-noir classic was his only original script. George Marshall directs a Paramount cast that also includes William Bendix, Tom Powers, Hugh Beaumont and Frank Faylen. (amctv.com)

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