The Blue Gardenia (1953)

Director:

Fritz Lang

Writers:

Charles Hoffman (screenplay)
Vera Caspary (story)

Release Date:

23 March 1953 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Film-Noir | Mystery | Thriller

Plot:

A telephone operator ends up drunk and at the mercy of a cad in his apartment. The next morning she wakes up with a hangover and the terrible fear she may be a murderess.

Plot Keywords:

Letter | Telephone | Telephone Operator | Birthday | Police

Cast

Anne Baxter	...	Norah Larkin
Richard Conte	...	Casey Mayo
Ann Sothern	...	Crystal Carpenter
Raymond Burr	...	Harry Prebble
Jeff Donnell	...	Sally Ellis
Richard Erdman	...	Al
George Reeves	...	Police Capt. Sam Haynes
Ruth Storey	...	Rose Miller
Ray Walker	...	Homer
Nat 'King' Cole	...	Himself
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Fay Baker	...	Switchboard Monitor (uncredited)
Robert Bice	...	Policeman (uncredited)
Larry J. Blake	...	Music Shop Clerk (uncredited)
Lela Bliss	...	Miss Stanley (uncredited)
Gail Bonney	...	Policewoman (uncredited)
Edward Clark	...	News Stand Dealer (uncredited)
Mike Donovan	...	Fingerprint Officer (uncredited)
Frank Ferguson	...	Drunk Reporter (uncredited)
Sammy Finn	...	Photographer (uncredited)
Elizabeth Flournoy	...	Assistant Switchboard Monitor (uncredited)
Dolores Fuller	...	Woman At Bar (uncredited)
Alex Gottlieb	...	Man (uncredited)
William Haade	...	Patrolman Hopper (uncredited)
Sam Harris	...	Nightclub Extra at Blue Gardenia (uncredited)
Victoria Horne	...	Disturbed Woman (uncredited)
Kenner G. Kemp	...	Nightclub Extra (uncredited)
Jess Kirkpatrick	...	Detective (uncredited)
Norman Leavitt	...	Bill (uncredited)
Tommy Lee	...	Waiter (uncredited)
Celia Lovsky	...	May - the Flower Woman (uncredited)
Peggy McKim	...	Sneezing Girl (uncredited)
Frank O'Connor	...	Passerby (uncredited)
Lee Phelps	...	Information Desk Guard (uncredited)
William Phipps	...	Lt. George Foster (voice) (uncredited)
Hugh Sanders	...	'Chronicle' Managing Editor (uncredited)
Jeffrey Sayre	...	Police Recorder (uncredited)
Almira Sessions	...	Cleaning Woman (uncredited)
Robert Shayne	...	Doctor (uncredited)
Carl Sklover	...	Photographer (uncredited)
Marjorie Stapp	...	Policewoman (uncredited)
Sailor Vincent	...	Drunken Sailor (uncredited)
Victor Sen Yung	...	Waiter (uncredited)

Directed by
Fritz Lang

Writing credits
Charles Hoffman		(screenplay)
Vera Caspary		(story)

Produced by
Alex Gottlieb	....	producer

Original Music by
Raoul Kraushaar

Cinematography by
Nicholas Musuraca		(director of photography)

Film Editing by
Edward Mann

Art Direction by
Daniel Hall

Makeup Department
James R. Barker	....	makeup artist (as James Barker)
Gene Hibbs	....	makeup artist

Production Management
Maurie M. Suess	....	production supervisor (as Maurie Suess)

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Emmett Emerson	....	assistant director

Sound Department
Ben Winkler	....	sound

Special Effects by
Willis Cook	....	special effects

Costume and Wardrobe Department
Izzy Berne	....	wardrobe: men
Maria P. Donovan	....	wardrobe: ladies (as Maria Donovan)
Joan Joseff	....	costume jeweller (uncredited)

Other crew
Don McDougall	....	script supervisor

Production Companies

• Blue Gardenia Productions

Distributors

• Warner Bros. Pictures (1953) (USA) (theatrical)
• Arbeitsgemeinschaft Kino (1953) (West Germany) (theatrical) (re-release)
• AFEX (1954) (Austria) (theatrical)
• Image Entertainment (2000) (USA) (DVD)
• Kinokuniya (2008) (Japan) (DVD)
• Kinowelt Home Entertainment (2008) (Germany) (DVD)

Also Known As:

Runtime:

Germany:88 min | USA:90 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Certification:

Norway:16 | West Germany:16 (f) | Finland:K-16 | USA:Approved (PCA #16317) | Sweden:15

Filming Locations:

Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Blue Gardenia Productions

Trivia:

While the record album of the "Tristan and Isolde" music is never shown close enough to the camera for the movie audience to see it, it either is, or has been created to resemble, a typical 78-RPM album set of the 1940's of an RCA Victor recording featuring Arturo Toscanini conducting the NBC Symphony Orchestra. The cover art greatly resembles that of a 78-RPM album pressing featuring Toscanini conducting that orchestra. Toscanini was considered the greatest conductor of that era.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: At the end of Nora's first visit with Mayo at Bill's Cafe, when they are leaving, he is held up by some friends just coming in. She hustles out and gets into a cab of early '50s Chrysler Corporation manufacture (looks like a '53 DeSoto). When Mayo frees himself from his friends and rushes outside, he sees what is apparently meant to be her cab rounding a corner at the end of the block. This time it is a Chrysler product of the late '40s ('47 Desoto, one would guess). DeSotos were very popular as cabs in those days because they were as large as Chryslers, but at the next lower price range.

Quotes:

Casey Mayo:How about you slip into something more comfortable, like a few drinks and some chinese food.

Soundtrack:

Prelude and Liebestod from 'Tristan and Isolde'

Fritz Lang directed this solid mystery thriller that has our complete attention from beginning to end

Norah Larkin (Anne Baxter) is a telephone operator who plans to spend her birthday evening alone with her boyfriend - or rather, with his photograph and a letter she just received from him. The real guy is 6000 miles away in Korea. While her two roommates - Crystal (Ann Sothern), a wisecracking divorcée and Sally (Jeff Donnell), a sweet girl with a taste for bloodthirsty mystery novels - are gone, Norah, wearing a black taffeta dress and sipping champagne, reads the letter and blanches. Her sweetheart has dumped her. She ends up spending the rest of her evening with Harry Prebble (Raymond Burr), a wolf who draws girls for a living and ruins them as a hobby. He takes her to the Blue Gardenia and they listen to Nat King Cole as he gets her very drunk on Polynesian pearl divers. The next morning she wakes up with a terrible hangover, but that's the best part. At work she learns of a murderess soon to be called the Blue Gardenia Girl. The label is invented by a newspaper columnist named Casey Mayo (Richard Conte), who hopes to find the femme fatale before the police. What worries Norah is that he and the police may both be looking for her.

Fritz Lang directed this solid mystery thriller that has our complete attention from beginning to end. A good script and good performances are accentuated by Fritz Lang's camera and his usual sharp eye for detail and way of creating mounting dread.