The Blue Gardenia

The film is Fritz Lang's seventh Hollywood feature, made in 1953 on a miniscule budget and shot in just twenty days by one of the best 'noir' cameramen Nicholas Musurca (Out Of The Past, Cat People) and is considered one of his best murder mystery films.

Norah (Anne Baxter) is a pretty telephone operator engaged to a soldier posted overseas. When she receives a letter from him ending their engagement, feeling despondent, she falls for the charms of Officer Lothario (Raymond Burr) and agrees to a date. They go to the Blue Gardenia Club, where he gets her drunk and then takes her back to his apartment. She is later forced to fight off his lecherous advances by bludgeoning him to death and flees, leaving behind her handkerchief, high heels and a blue gardenia at the scene. She awakes the next morning remembering nothing while a nationwide murder hunt gets underway, but journalist Casey Mayo (Richard Conte) offers his support and suggests an interview in exchange for a fair trial.

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