After making his name in elevating pulp novels to a higher art form with his series of detective novels starring Phillip Marlowe, Raymond Chandler heard Hollywood calling. After a number of films based on his work, Chandler was given the chance to create his own original screenplay. The result was 1946’s The Blue Dahlia.
The film follows Johnny Morrison (Alan Ladd), a recently returned World War II veteran who finds that his wife has been unfaithful to him while he served overseas. Soon after, his wife is murdered and he becomes suspect #1. While on the run, Johnny meets Joyce Harwood (Veronica Lake). The film is filled with intertwining storylines that eventually lead to all the principal characters untangling the mystery of who killed Johnny’s wife.
The banter between Johnny and Joyce is one of the high points of the film. Unfortunately, not all of the Chandlerisms come off the tongue of Alan Ladd as they did with Humphrey Bogart (The Big Sleep) or Fred MacMurray (Double Indemnity). In The Big Sleep, Chandler’s words were adapted by William Faulkner and Double Indemnity was co-written by Billy Wilder and Chandler. Both situations enhanced the dialogue. Still, the fault does not lie in the writing but with Ladd’s terse performance.
A second bright spot is the film’s portrayal of a war veteran suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Buzz Wanchek (William Bendix), one of Johnny’s war buddies who has returned home with him, portrays an ex-soldier who has a metal plate in his head, the result of a traumatic wound. Buzz suffers from blackouts when he hears certain types of music, thus making him one of the main suspects. Buzz and Johnny can be seen as the prototypes for battle- scarred war veterans that would dominant in the post-World War II film-noir genre. Given our nation’s current awareness of the seriousness of PTSD and postwar traumatic brain injuries, The Blue Dahlia serves as an object lesson in the long term effects of war.
