The Black Dahlia

Plot synopsis:
On January 15, 1947, LAPD Detectives Dwight "Bucky" Bleichert and Lee Blanchard investigate the murder and dismemberment of Elizabeth Short, soon dubbed "The Black Dahlia" by the press. Bucky learns that Elizabeth was an aspiring actress who appeared in a pornographic film. Through his investigation, Bucky learns that Elizabeth liked to hang out with lesbians. He goes to a lesbian nightclub and meets Madeleine Linscott, who looks very much like Elizabeth. Madeleine, who comes from a prominent family, tells Bucky that she was 'very close' with Elizabeth but asks him to keep her name out of the papers. In exchange for his silence, she promises him sexual favors. Continuing his relationship with Madeleine, Bucky meets her wealthy parents, Emmett and Ramona.
Bucky's partner, Lee, also becomes obsessed with Elizabeth's murder. Lee's obsession leads him to become erratic and abusive towards his long-time girlfriend Kay Lake, who is also one of Bucky's close friends. After Lee and Bucky have a nasty argument about a previous case, Bucky goes to Lee and Kay's to apologize, only to learn from Kay that Lee was responding to a tip about a recently released convict, Bobby DeWitt. Bucky goes to the location and gets into an altercation with DeWitt in the atrium of the building. DeWitt is gunned down by Lee, standing on the stairs across the atrium. Bucky sees a man sneak up behind Lee, and wrap a rope around Lee's neck. Lee fights back while Bucky, paralyzed with shock, watches from across the atrium as a second shadowy figure steps out and slits Lee's throat. Lee and the man holding the rope fall over the railing to their deaths several floors below. It is then that Bucky is helped by Millard and Morrie Friedman, a friend of Lee's whom Bucky saw with Lee at the New Year's party in 1946.
Dealing with the grief of losing Lee propels Bucky and Kay into a sexual encounter. The next morning, Bucky finds money from a bank robbery hidden in Lee and Kay's bathroom. Kay reveals that she had been DeWitt's girlfriend, that DeWitt had mistreated her, and that DeWitt had done the bank robbery; stealing a large sum of money from one of "Bugsy" Siegel's nightclubs. Lee had rescued Kay and stolen DeWitt's bank robbery money. Lee needed to kill DeWitt now that he was out of prison; leading to the encounter that resulted in Lee's death. Bucky leaves, furious with Lee and Kay for their actions and lies. He returns to Madeleine's family mansion and continues his intense relationship with her. Kay is furious when she discovers the relationship, especially with the fact that Madeleine bears a striking resemblance to the same girl Lee obsessed over before he was killed, and leaves the scene.
Watching an old movie one night, Bucky notices that a bedroom scene matches the set in Elizabeth's pornographic film. The credits at the end of the film includes the statement "Special Thanks to Emmett Linscott", Madeleine's father. Bucky's search for answers leads him to an incomplete housing project that Madeleine's father had started just below the Hollywoodland sign. In one of the empty houses, Bucky recognizes the set that was used to film Elizabeth's pornographic movie. In a barn on the property, Bucky finds where Elizabeth was killed and her body butchered, as well as a drawing of a man with a Glasgow smile. The drawing resembles a painting in Madeleine's family home and matches the disfiguring smile carved into Elizabeth's face during her murder.
Bucky confronts Madeleine and her father in their home, accusing them of murdering Elizabeth. Madeleine's mother Ramona reveals that she was the one to kill Elizabeth, who looked so much like Madeleine. She confesses first that Madeleine was not fathered by Emmett but rather by his best friend, George. She further reveals that George had been on set when Elizabeth's pornographic film was made, becoming infatuated with her. Finally, she felt that Elizabeth looked too much like Madeleine, was bothered that George was going to have sex with someone who looked like his own daughter, and decided to kill Elizabeth first. Upon finishing her confession, Ramona kills herself.
A few days later, remembering something Lee had said during the investigation, Bucky visits Madeleine's sister Martha with some questions. He learns that Lee knew about the lesbian relationship between Madeleine and Elizabeth and was blackmailing Madeleine's father to keep it secret. Bucky finds Madeleine at a seedy motel, and she admits to being the one who slit Lee's throat. Although she insists that Bucky wants to have sex with her rather than kill her, he tells her she is wrong and shoots her dead. Bucky goes to Kay's house. Kay tells him to come in and closes the door.

Tags: comedy, mystery, neo noir, murder, boring, violence, flashback

Review:
Hitchcock or even Lynch could have shot the same scene, with the same events and dialogue, and made it menacing and creepy, which it needed to be to function in the mystery.Other problems: De Palma uses the lesbian angle of the movie (never a part of the case) to full exploitative advantage, and the actresses seem unable to master to the expressive 1940s style acting that would have come naturally to even a marginal 40s star.Although the film brings a clearcut finale rather than a vague puzzle, too many loose threads come together too neatly and rather than bringing the film to a satisfactory conclusion, it leaves you scratching your head, is this what I spent the last 2 hours waiting to hear?
His noir-ish voice-over was like reading words off the script, making it feel less and less like the artsy film De Palma intended it to be.The only redeeming feature of the flick was Mia Kirshner who had about one minute of screen time as the Dahlia, but was the most memorable character.
It has all the trappings of a first-rate detective novel (James Ellroy) made into a 1940's thriller with appropriately moody music of the soulful trumpet (Mark Isham), lush production design (Dante Ferretti), and equally impressive costuming (Jenny Beavan), all set in a timelessly seedy Los Angeles.There's also the conflicted, sometimes dark hero detective (Josh Hartnett) and the sexy, dangerous femme fatale (Hilary Swank), accompanied by the questionably good voluptuary sex bomb (Scarlett Johansson).
It may not much for people knowing what the Black Dahlia murders were all about or that read the book, but for a movie, it was good.The film has the feel of L.A. Confidential (but it's not that good) or maybe more like Where the Truth Lies and is beautifully shot.
Some of the script scenes were weak, that's one thing an actor can't change.Bottom line: watch it in a slow night, when you feel like seeing a movie that removes you from everyday life.
While Brian De Palma's "The Black Dahlia" has much of the look and feel of Curtis Hanson's 1997 "L.A. Confidential," that far superior film boasted better performances and a well-written screenplay.
Unfortunately, De Palma's movie is equally if not more complex and leaves a few threads dangling or at least badly frayed.Although loosely based on a famous Hollywood murder, "The Black Dahlia" spends more time than necessary in establishing the three-way partnership, if not ménage, between Josh Hartnett, Scarlett Johansson, and Aaron Eckhart.
The trailer, which has played in theaters for weeks, was misleading, and the actual murder and resulting investigation do not begin until well into the film after we have witnessed boxing scenes between the police investigators, Hartnett and Eckhart, and some three-way flirtations that do little to advance the proceedings.The film only becomes interesting when the campy upper crust Linscott family enters.
Aaron tries for more, but goes a bit over the top; perhaps he would have been more comfortable playing a cousin of the Linscotts.Although "The Black Dahlia" is not the worst way to spend two hours, the film's pedigree would lead viewers to expect more.
And unfortunately, the film comes with mixed results.After taking part in a boxing match which ends up giving a whole lot more power to the L.A.P.D., Dwight "Bucky" Bleichert (Josh Hartnett) and Leland "Lee" Blanchard (Aaron Eckhart) are promoted to detectives and become partners.
Oh, you can add comic relief, maybe good music, some reasonable horror and nostalgia, but do not do what was done to The Black Dahlia.They obviously didn't intend to make this a serious movie, but rather it was a cheap attempt to imitate a Film Noir sometimes, a TV mystery sometimes and then other times I don't think they knew what they actually wanted to do.When I am sucked into a movie that I believe is going to be a mystery, I want to be able to enjoy the movie throughout and get involved in the mystery.
And honestly, the best and most interesting characters were treated somewhat like extras, though one of those "extras" was by far the best actress in the movie.You can call this an imitation Film Noir Graphic Novel that should have taken a more serious approach to even those genres.I gave it a 4 out of 10 out of generosity..
It was as if the writer wanted to suck the life out of every other genre just so he wouldn't have to deal with the supposedly main story arc, that being something about the dead actress; which doesn't even get a mention until more than half way through the movie, and from then on is nothing more than a footnote in a sidenote of some other black-comedy plot line.Be prepared to suffer through some completely arbitrary scenes.
A highly distracted person (IE, someone who is too busy getting popcorn or continuously getting up to answer the phone or go to the bathroom) is highly apt to give this a poor review, probably based on Aaron Eckharts performance, which does not seem to make sense.A film shows you certain things about what is going on, a good film actually reveals itself in the first few acts, and gives the viewer all kinds of clues as to what is going on.
The girl who played the actual Black Dahlia was an incredible find.If you want to enjoy this film, watch it and pay attention to it- Depalma rarely disappoints.
A lot of people however, might be disturbed by the subject material, and if that is the source of the "public opinion" of this film, than that is understandable.What people do not understand, is that this film is acted and played out just like a black and white film from the late 40's- Early 50's.Classic film buffs probably love this, but I am sure that the person who goes to movies with a lot of explosions, car chases, and fake looking CGI will not like it at all.My only complaint is that it was not filmed in B&W- But the sets, and the locations...
STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday Morning A new adaptation of a James Ellroy novel, The Black Dahlia is the story of the titular Hollywood diva Elizabeth Short, who is found brutally murdered on wasteland, plunging the city's police department into disarray and remaining the city's most high profile unsolved murder till this day.
It goes without saying that TBD doesn't come close to matching that film's standards, but that's not to say it's a film with absolutely no intrinsic value whatsoever.Based around a true story (which interestingly, as I said, remains the biggest unsolved crime in L.A.'s history today), the film brings the atmosphere of the time alive quite well, capturing a good period setting and decent film noir-ish style.
More recently true crime authors have gone so far as to speculate that Orson Wells was the killer.Enter novelist James Ellroy (L.A. Confidential) and Director Brian De Palma (The Untouchables, Scarface, Dressed to Kill), who had signed on to bring Ellroy's novel based on the case to the big screen in a film-noir homage to movies like Double Indemnity.
Anyone could be forgiven for thinking that with the talents of these two behind the camera, and the on screen presence of Scarlett Johansson, Josh Hartnett, Aaron Eckhart and Hillary Swank, The Black Dahlia would be a delightfully dark fedora-filled pot boiler that would be entertaining from beginning to end.Sadly, such is not the case.
Instead what gets served up is a muddled, confusing and at times hysterically over-acted movie that seems to treat the actual Dahlia case as mere window dressing for other, less engrossing story lines.
In fact, at times I got the impression that Ellroy's script would rather delve into anything else, other than the actual murder, as if looking for any excuse not to get in sync with the film's title.It's too bad because among this film's few highlights are the screen test clips featuring a glimpse into the soul of Elizabeth (Betty) Short, played mesmerizingly by the stunning Mia Kirshner.I couldn't help but feel that if Ellroy and De Palma had jettisoned some of the extraneous competing plots, and instead placed their focus on telling more of Short's back story rather than the confused gumshoe narrative that they went with, the end result would have been a vastly superior film..
They combine to tell a riveting tale of moral degradation in Hollywood, both within the movies (The "Black Dahlia" character, played wonderfully by Mia Kirschner) and outside of it (Josh Hartnett, very strong in the lead and his best performance to date).
The photography is amazing, the Hitchcock - like use of color and shadow, and the editing all make this a beautiful film to look at...but that's not where it shines (in my opinion).The plot, I believe, is fantastic...that's right, I said it: This is a great story.This is coming from someone who despised "Mullholland Drive" because I found the story impossible to follow and thought that it only appealed to aloof "art film" types who want to show how their "acquired taste" in cinema is one that normal folk are just too simple to appreciate.Simply put: I don't care for complex and confusing story lines.I found this film to be *very* linear and (aside from a few plot details that were mumbled more than highlighted), easy to follow and riveting.I think the acting was excellent as well.
She and Hillery Swank, among the leads played over the top like the lesser characters, and both did an excellent job.Not much suspense, I didn't think; not even much surprise, but of course, I did read the book.We'll never find an acceptable solution to the Black Dahlia Murder; there is none.
It is almost like Mel Brook's "The Producers" in reverse, where they picked everything wrong and came up with a hit, they picked everything right here and came up with a BOMB.I will not even attempt to explain the plot because it was such a convoluted mess, I don't even think the writer knew what was going on...But here's the short version, Crooked cops, boxing matches, payoffs, several murders, a twisted love triangle, a crazy family, lesbian bars, gangsters, stag films, and well, I think there was a Black Dahlia in there somewhere.
Despite the fact that they aren't put on the case, the two become deeply involved, with Blanchard becoming obsessed and Bleichart finding himself deep in the web of lies that surround Elizabeth Short, including Madeleine Linscott (Swank), the lesbian daughter of a rich man willing to trade sexual favours to keep her name out of the paper.Well, I like to think that is what the movie is about.
Hilary Swank goes against type and gets a great femme fatale look, proving she isn't just good for masculine roles, but her fading accent is continually annoying, as is the fact that she doesn't look anything like Mia Kirschner when that is actually a plot point.The one surprise is Mia Kirschner, who, with her ten minutes of screen time, has a much greater impact than the entire cast put together.
Excellent thriller.Fast paced,nuanced,beautiful to look at.There are grisly scenes,often explicit violence,but the overall timbre is that it is paced and not gratuitous.Scarlett Johanssen is wonderful,quite luminous.As is Mia Kirshner,who has a small and slowly fleshed out role,but who manages to layer sadness upon sadness,and seems to exude a foreshadowing of erg ultimate poor outcome from the first few shots.Aron Eckhart is good.Josh Hartnett pulls it off as an idealistic cop who tortures himself as he slowly uncovers his partner's complicated history.Hilary Swank,yet again,is compelling - beautiful yet emanating a cold core.All in all,it is a very watchable film but deserves close attention to detail- the producers have given it that and we need to observe closely to follow the complexity of plot(s).It is worth the admission fee and certainly,if compared with,for example,"Hollywoodland",which it by far exceeds,manages to hit all the right notes as a drama noire set with attention to beauty,nuance and detail.Worth seeing!.
One complaint is that there are so many things going on in this movie it takes away from the Black Dahlia case which we assume the film will be about, but in reality it is only a side story in this film with other characters and story lines being focused on more.
Personally, I would have also liked if this film stuck to a real story and followed the actual accounts of the Elizabeth Short murder, but perhaps seeing as it is unsolved there might not have been enough material to make a movie out of the real story.
Scarlett Johannsen looked like a young Lana Turner on tranquilizers.........very little emotion, so much mumbling.............poor Hilary Swank was just too distracting in her black wig trying to be a 40's vamp ...........I guess we are not accustomed to seeing her that way and she evidently does not do well in sexy, seductive roles............Josh Hartnett did pretty well.........although the constant taking off of clothing of his different ladies seemed a bit tiresome......if I would have had this on video I would have fast forwarded the constant "clothes removal" scenes.
Now I have to tell you that it was a terrible movie and encourage you not to watch it.For those that don't know, the "Black Dahlia" is a true story about the unsolved brutal murder of Elizabeth Short in Los Angeles in 1947.
And the story: It made no sense, bouncing like a pinball from here to there and then wrapping everything up in a nice, tidy package in the last 5 minutes as if DePalma said "Uhoh, running out of film, let's wrap this up!" There are great movies, good movies, mediocre movies, bad movies, and then there's the Black Dahlia..
In the least, it was a bit of a letdown, but unlike many people who despise this film, I didn't think it was nearly as bad as some say it is."The Black Dahlia" is a fictionalized story based around a real-life crime of aspiring actress Elizabeth Short, adapted to the screen from the also fictional novel by James Ellroy.
We will probably never know who really killed the real Elizabeth Short.To sum things up to this long review, "The Black Dahlia" is a great film-noir done with highly stylish direction and topped with near-perfect performances.
Then there is its truly terrible cast, Hartnetts' uncommitted narration lingering over every event, the director's preference of climaxes over continuity, the ostentatious bloated noir atmosphere and finally the fact that we know it cannot possibly live up to the majestic L.A. Confidential, a similar James Ellroy vehicle that received much acclaim in 1997, and rightly so.The Black Dahlia is nothing like the aforementioned, although it sees bouts of the same intrigue, lust, infidelity, murder and corruption within the police bureau in connection with a murder.
Scarlett Johansson, Lee's live-in bad-girl-gone-good, and Hilary Swank, a bisexual temptress with a rich dad and mad mom, between them pave the way to hell and heaven with seductive charms and it's hard to tell which one is femme fatale and which one is genuine (You find out at the end, but your brain will be working overtime by then to keep up, as loose ends are woven together with a speed that makes Hitchcock look positively geriatric).Black Dahlia is De Palma at the height of his artistic auteurship, but his style will so annoy the average viewer that you should think carefully before going to see it..
- and the movie is great!The cast is perfect, the film looks great, the script is well paced - the film has everything you want from a great Film Noir!The Crime Plot revolving around the main characters is based on the true story of the murder of Elizabeth Short (known as "The Black Dahlia") but the characters - and the story of the film - are fictitious!The buddy-stuff between the two cops Dwight "Bucky" Bleichert (Josh Hartnett) and Leland "Lee" Blanchard (Aaron Eckhardt) works great, but a couple of more scenes together would have been even better!
Who knows what DePalma has in store for us in repetitive viewings!I think THE BLACK DAHLIA is (till now) one of the best films of this year (can't wait for Verhoeven's ZWARTBOEK - BLACKBOOK and Scorsese's THE DEPARTED!) and you will like it - either you want to learn something from Grand-Master DePalma or want to see just two hours of great movie making!GreekGeek August-2006Visit my FilmNewsWebsite www.greekgeek.de.
Even though the final act tries to sew up all loose ends of the murder, (that has never been solved in real life), very rapidly and with every character we have met during the duration, I still must admit I enjoyed the ride.With all the trailers showing footage of the beautiful Mia Kirshner as Elizabeth Short in her screen tests and the words "Hollywood's most infamous unsolved murders" I assumed the film was going to be about the crime and its subsequent case.
One always expects so much out of a Brian De Palma film and trust me he does not disappoint at all.Though after The Untouchables it seemed like he has lost his touch and is not the same director anymore but he is back and the movie is amazing.The acting, screenplay and direction were superb.
The film follows two cops Bucky Bleichert (Josh Hartnett) and Lee Blanchard (Aaron Eckhart) who are investigating the horrific murder of Elizabeth Short.
Set in the late 1920's Black Dahlia sports the likes of Josh Hartnett, Scarlett Johansson, Hillary Swank and last but not least Aaron Eckhart.
One of the most disappointing films I have ever seen, "The Black Dahlia" spends around 10 minutes of screen time on the actual murder.