Prolabas Deeper than the descriptions

Lollivan It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Lachlan Coulson This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.

Billy Ollie Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

Phillim Loves me some Fritz Lang -- but this one ain't no Metropolis.The script's not terrible, but badly needs some punching up with actor chemistry and general *aggressive* actor collaboration -- zero of that in evidence.Richard Conte never gets started -- his underwritten role won't let him. Raymond Burr genially goes through the motions without much help from the director. At the center of it all, Anne Baxter connects neither internally nor externally -- it's a cold shell of a performance, full of vocal tricks and mugging -- wilts everything it touches. Baxter appears to be working hard, but she's oppressive here: won't play well with others, wants to be in her own separate movie.Ann Sothern brings it as a wise-cracking roommate, but her sass is wasted on, again, an underwritten role.Nat "King" Cole gets to sing the title song straight through in a nightclub. He's great, but the song is woozy mush.George "Superman" Reeves as the chief cop tries hard to blend in with the scenery.I add two stars for the core sequence of Baxter getting sloppy drunk and Burr trying to take advantage -- a low-key depiction of attempted date rape. It is plausibly staged, but unimaginative, lazy cinema.And one more star for the giggle from an in-joke -- Cleaning Lady to Reeves in Burr's crime scene apartment: "This ain't the first pair of lady's shoes I've found in front of this couch . . . "

dougdoepke The first part is rather cute. Sothern, Baxter, and Donnell play off one another really well as three girl buddies living together. Of course, viewers like me also have to get used to Raymond Burr as a lover-boy. After so many years as a movie heavy and TV's Perry Mason that takes some getting used to. But the lighter part ends when Burr turns up dead and Baxter thinks she did it. At that point, things turn more mysterious and psychological.Baxter is easy to look at as she assumes the central role of conflicted woman. More importantly, Baxter the actress wisely avoids her sometimes tendency to over-emote. But the movie's remainder is only mildly suspenseful as Baxter tries to deal with her supposed guilt. Did she really bonk Burr on the head with a poker since she was too drunk to know. And who can she turn to for help. Newspaperman Conte appears helpful, but maybe he's just interested in a big story. And what about Superman's George Reeves as a detective with a moustache, no less.There are some interesting visuals as one might expect from an artist like director Lang. Nonetheless, the overall result could have been helmed by a dozen lesser directors than the maker of Metropolis (1927) and Woman in the Window (1944). All in all, the movie's an interesting time-passer. But for fans of the German director like myself, it's nothing special.

bkoganbing In The Blue Gardenia, Anne Baxter's feeling low and depressed because her GI fiancé in Korea has given her the brushoff. Against her better judgment she goes out with Raymond Burr, full time artist and full time wolf. A few Polynesian Pearl Divers in the local bar which might have been spiked and Anne's not doing so good. But good enough to hit Burr with a fireplace poker and somehow make her way home like Cinderella with both shoes missing.George Reeves taking a break from Superman plays the Los Angeles homicide detective gets a little unwanted help from Richard Conte, a Walter Winchell like newspaper columnist who's no doubt thinking of the black dahlia murders in LA a few years because a Blue Gardenia's been left at the crime scene and Nat King Cole both sang it live and on record in the film.In the meantime Baxter's mood swings are being noticed by her roommates Ann Sothern and Jeff Donnell. And Conte's got his own investigation going into the Blue Gardenia murder. It all makes for one interesting and murky film in the tradition of Fritz Lang.Anne in a sense does a reprise of her Oscar winning performance from The Razor's Edge as a woman being trapped in tragedy. She blamed herself for her family's death in The Razor's Edge and she may or may not have killed Burr. The only difference is that an arrest might lead to an expiation of sin of a sort.Fritz Lang made a specialty in harassed and harried protagonists getting themselves into some real jackpots whether it was Henry Fonda in You'll Only Live Once, Edward G. Robinson in Scarlett Street and The Woman In the Window, and we can even count Peter Lorre in M. These are people who in fact were guilty. For the first time however Lang's harried protagonist is a woman and Anne gives a great performance.One scene I really loved is one with Almira Sessions as a brain dead housekeeper who finds Burr's body and then proceeds to clean up the crime scene. After all as she explains to Reeves this is her job and what she's paid to do. The fact she's destroyed all forensic evidence doesn't seem to impress her in the slightest.On the other hand had she done like a normal person would have and not touched anything, the forensics would have cleared the whole thing up and we wouldn't have a movie.

dbdumonteil The feeling of guilt is essential in Fritz Lang's work.From "M" -where Petre Lorre told us he couldn't help it-to "you only live once" ,from "fury" -where an innocent man can turn into a ruthless person - to "The woman in the window" -where a man COULD have killed - and from "house by the river "-Stephen a man-next-door becomes a criminal - to this movie."Blue Gardenia " is marred by an artificial happy end ,but it does not matter.What 's fascinating is the evolution of a woman-next-door ,a woman like you or me ,who thinks she may have killed someone.She forgot all about it ,it's like a bad dream ,but she thinks she is capable of that ;Lang 's theory was that any man could turn into a criminal.Blame it on the society ("You only live twice" ) ,blame it on a confused mind ("M") or on a macho world (this movie),any man is a potential criminal. His final American movie which remains his most underrated ,"beyond a reasonable doubt" ,pushed the guilty/not guilty concept to its absolute limits ."Blue Gardenia" is a minor work for a giant like Lang.But some of its aspects predate "while the city sleeps " (the press,the fourth estate) .The depiction of Ann Baxter's fears is remarkable : cops are everywhere and a phone call can be as threatening as a front page .