Jeanskynebu the audience applauded

Greenes Please don't spend money on this.

AshUnow This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Zlatica One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

secondtake Blue Gardenia (1953)The likable Richard Conte makes a great news reporter here, and Anne Baxter as the woman in trouble is pitch perfect. In fact, Baxter's two sidekicks are also right on, Jeff Donnell (a woman, really sharp) and Ann Southern. It's a good story, a little forced, but with lots of atmosphere at the right times (including a scene with the real Nat King Cole playing and singing). What holds the movie back is a mixture of basic story line, which lacks velocity and credibility equally, and direction, which doesn't heighten what is really strong here. That is, a great cast, and some great situations (including murder). Fritz Lang, the director, is accountable, of course, for some judgements that let things loosen up too much, and for the cute but abrupt ending. There are some characters that got developed in the beginning that don't get a chance to blossom. If we just focus on the two leads (no counting Raymond Burr, who has a brief and different kind of presence), there is a chemistry not quite clicking. Nice, regular guy Conte and slightly sophisticated Baxter don't quite match up, even though both are convincing individually.There is some talent behind the scenes here worth mention, especially cinematographer Nicholas Musuraca, who has done a whole slew of great small movies with astonishing visuals. Lang uses him well, though with a studied restraint that almost implies this was a throwaway effort. It comes between two of his greatest American movies, however: Clash by Night and The Big Heat. It's worth a look, a good movie not quite a noir by usual measures, but filled with intrigue and a little touch of welcome romance.

lastliberal It is fascinating to see Raymond Burr (Ironside, Perry Mason) as a lounge lizard trying to pick up every women he sees. We see him working on the Oscar-nominated Ann Sothern (The Whales of August) in the opening, but she was having none of his charm.Director Fritz Lang and writers Vera Caspary (Laura) and Charles Hoffman (The Green Hornet, "Batman") give us an enjoyable film that has noirish elements, but is lighthearted at the same time.Just seeing and hearing Nat King Cole singing the title song is worth the time spent here.Crystal (Sothern) gets herself into trouble and turns to newspaperman Casey Mayo (Richard Conte). She needs help before Superman, I mean Police Capt. Haynes (George Reeves) finds her.

Terrell-4 Fritz Lang's The Blue Gardenia is not just a minor noir, it's a minor film. The story is so simple and linear, and the final revelation so ordinary, that it's difficult to get much involved. Except...and that's because Lang has put together the movie so professionally and with such craftsman-like assurance that it's difficult not to stick with it. The Blue Gardenia keeps moving and we keep watching. Norah Larkin (Ann Baxter) is a telephone switchboard operator at West-Coast Telephone Company in Los Angeles. She rooms with her two best friends, also operators. There's Crystal Carpenter (Ann Southern), a wisecracking, sympathetic lady who always has a cigarette in her mouth, and Sally Ellis (Jeff Donnell), a friendly, mystery-reading young woman who could use a date now and then. Norah's fiancée, a man she loves dearly and to whom she is faithful, is a soldier in Korea. On her birthday she opens a letter from him, a letter she has been saving for a special moment. Turns out it's a "Dear Norah" letter and he tells her he's decided to marry someone else. Norah's world crashes around her. When successful painter of calendar girls and major lecher Harry Prebble calls (he had discovered Crystal's number), Norah impulsively pretends to be Crystal and accepts Harry's invitation to dinner. All she has to do is take a taxi to The Blue Gardenia. When she arrives, Harry already has things well in hand. "Chinese peas," he tells the waiter before she arrives, "fried rice and Lobster Cantonese. Well, that's the dinner. The drinks...Polynesian Pearldivers...and don't spare the rum." While Norah is grateful not to be alone, Harry keeps ordering those Pearldivers and Nat Cole at the piano croons... "Blue gardenia...now I'm alone with you and I am also blue... she has tossed us aside. And like you, blue gardenia, once I was near her heart... ...love bloomed like a flower... then the petals fell... Blue gardenia...thrown to a passing breeze... but pressed in my book of memories..." Soon Norah is considerably more than tipsy and she's at Harry's apartment. He puts on a record of "Blue Gardenia," turns down the lights and starts getting way too physical. Norah is so woozy she can hardly see, but she finds a fireplace poker in her hand, swings and shatters a big mirror. She swings again, hits Harry and passes out. When she comes to she runs from Harry's apartment, makes her way home in the rain and can't remember much except the dinner. Then the newspaper headlines scream that Harry Prebble has been murdered. Hot on the case are the cops and Casey Mayo (Richard Conte), ace reporter on the Los Angeles Chronicle, "the peoples' favorite columnist." He's determined to find the woman who killed Prebble before the police do. Among the clues, a crushed blue gardenia at Harry's place, bought for the mysterious woman by Harry at The Blue Gardenia. Said the elderly, blind flower seller when she came to Prebble's table, "Good evening, sir. Would you like a blue gardenia for the lady? It's a specialty of the house. Aren't they pretty...?" Will Norah be caught? Will Casey find love? Will Crystal make wry observations? Will the real killer turn out to be interesting, unexpected, startling? Well, no the last question. This is Anne Baxter's movie. For me, that's more a drawback than an advantage. She was 29 when she made The Blue Gardenia but seems older. Baxter too often carried around with her an aura of well-bred graciousness. She spoke (and acted) with a carefully modulated voice. In The Blue Gardenia she gives the impression of one of those wealthy young matrons who live in the most exclusive of neighborhoods, not a young telephone operator with limited experience, natural warmth and real vulnerability. Baxter's great weakness as an actress, in my opinion, was too often appearing so earnest that the acting could be detected. This made her perfect as Eve Harrington in All About Eve. When she could tone it down, she could be most appealing, as in Yellow Sky. In addition to the pleasure of Fritz Lang's craftsmanship, Richard Conte was an intriguing actor, Ann Southern is a joy even if she's playing an Ann Southern character; Richard Erdman as Casey Mayo's photographer adds his fine ability to read a line and be both likable and wry; Jeff Donnell, now forgotten, always made an appealing best friend in so many movies; and Raymond Burr, considerably slimmer than in his Perry Mason years, makes a memorable and sleazy Harry Prebble. We even learn a little about the cost of living in Los Angeles in the early Fifties. Casey has met Norah in a diner. She wants to trust his offer of help, but she knows he's a newspaperman. Casey isn't quite sure if Norah is the Blue Gardenia murderer. They eat and they talk, but then it's time to leave. "How much do I owe you," Casey asks the counterman. We listen enviously to the reply. "Two hamburgers and five coffees...three for you and two for the lady. That's $1.40, Mr. Mayo."

GManfred Was expecting more from the list of credits, including Fritz Lang as Director and from a story by Vera Caspary, who wrote "Laura". Also Anne Baxter, who had an Oscar and a nomination to her credit. Ann Sothern was her sassy self and Raymond Burr was an excellent heavy. In retrospect, he would be an unlikely candidate for his role if the picture were made today, as his homosexuality would have made him an unlikely "lounge lizard", the lounge being 'The Blue Gardenia'.One of the highlights was the great Nat 'King' Cole singing the title song. The solid but uncharismatic Richard Conte was miscast as the reporter looking for a scoop. A disappointing effort all around from a film that starts out strong but falls flat with a contrived ending. A pseudo-film noir, it is more of a melodrama and a routine one at that.