[1] An independent production distributed by Warner Bros., The Blue Gardenia – a cynical take on press coverage of a sensational murder case similar to the real-life Black Dahlia killing – was the first installment of Lang's "newspaper noir" film trio, being followed in 1956 by While the City Sleeps and Beyond a Reasonable Doubt.
The song "Blue Gardenia", performed in the film by Nat King Cole, was written by Bob Russell and Lester Lee and arranged by Nelson Riddle.
The night of her birthday, L.A. switchboard operator Norah Larkin opens the latest letter from her fiancé, a soldier serving in the Korean War.
When she arrives at the Blue Gardenia, a South Seas-themed restaurant, Harry is surprised to see Norah rather than her roommate Crystal Carpeneter.
Popular columnist Casey Mayo dubs the presumed killer the "Blue Gardenia murderess" (a reference to the Black Dahlia slaying).
That night, Sally Ellis, Norah's other roommate, reads aloud the newspaper report that the suspect was wearing a taffeta dress.
To capitalize on the case's publicity, Casey writes a column calling for her to turn herself in to him rather than the police, promising fairer treatment.
Leaving town, Casey notices that the music at the airport — the love theme from Tristan und Isolde — is the same composition the maid found playing on Harry's phonograph.
She noticed Norah's handkerchief on the floor by the record player, and enraged, a jealous Rose bludgeoned Harry with the poker.
[2] The Gardenia first appeared in the February–March issue of Today's Woman magazine;[3] however, the film rights for the novella had been acquired almost a full year earlier.
It was announced in April 1951 that the film, then titled Gardenia, would be a production of Fidelity Pictures, whose owner, Howard Welsch, had negotiated with Dorothy McGuire to play the female lead role,[4] which was subsequently offered to Linda Darnell, Joan Fontaine,[5] and Margaret Sullavan.
The film's second female lead was Ann Sothern's first cinematic role since she had been dropped by Metro Goldwyn Mayer in 1950 due to her health issues.
Formula development has an occasional bright spot, mostly because Ann Sothern breathes some life into a stock character and quips ... Baxter and Conte do what they can but fight a losing battle with the script while Burr is a rather obvious wolf.
[13]Film director and writer Peter Bogdanovich called The Blue Gardenia "a particularly venomous picture of American life".[3][when?]
In 1965, Fritz Lang – responding to Bogdanovich's assertion - recalled the film as "my first picture after the McCarthy business and I had to shoot it in twenty days.
Nat 'King' Cole makes a welcome cameo as the house pianist at the nightclub called The Blue Gardenia, crooning in his velvet voice the titular theme song.