Post #507689 by JOHN-O on Thu, Jan 28, 2010 2:09 PM

Aha, VampiressRN has brought this thread back from the dead. How appropriate (for both a vampiress and an RN) !!

OK, let me contribute. I finally saw "The Blue Dahlia". It was on a double bill with "Double Indemnity" at the New Beverly. "The Blue Dahlia" was just OK, but "Double Indemnity" is a hard act to follow.

To me though it was significant for the following reasons:

1. The 2nd Noir pairing of Alan Ladd and Veronica Lake (after the superior "This Gun for Hire"). Veronica Lake was Alan Ladd's favorite leading lady since she stood 4'11" to his 5'5". He had to stand on an apple crate when paired with other actresses. Veronica Lake had a real Noir life herself. After peaking in the 1940's, she was found working as a cocktail waitress in the 1960's. Kim Basinger was "cut" to look like her in "LA Confidential".

2. Elizabeth Short was nicknamed the "Black Dahlia" after being found mutilated and severed in half in a Leimert Park vacant lot. The nickname was based on this movie's title which played the previous summer in 1946.

[ Edited by: JOHN-O 2010-01-28 16:47 ]