A Bourbon Straight with a Bourbon Chaser

Oscar Noir: Week Nine

The Blue Dahlia

Monday, July 19, 2010

This week, I forgot my phone at home, so I had to keep on the lookout for Liz, so that she'd know that I was there.  She had parked behind me anyway, so she knew I was there.  I'm just glad that Linda responded to my email to let me know she wouldn't be there, so that I'd have one less person to find.  I arrived early and read my book.  When Liz and I got inside, she asked me to fill her in on the line drama, then looked around the room and couldn't believe that this group of people would do the things for which they had been accused.  

Cartoon:  "Donald's Crime" (1945)

Yay!  Donald Duck!  He stole from the nephews' piggy bank and went into a huge guilt trip about it.  He wanted to take Daisy out dancing.  So here's my question:  why doesn't Donald have shoes?  Daisy has shoes, so it can't be the webbed feet thing.  I'm trying to ignore the fact that he's not wearing any pants, because it must be difficult to find pants to go over the duck butt.  But why no shoes?

Short: "Adventures of Captain Marvel, Chapter Eight: Boomerang" (1941)

OK, last time I forgot the actual cliffhanger, because when they showed it again this week, I was like, "Oh, yeah!"  Liz said, "I'm so far behind!"  The actual cliffhanger from last week was that Billy and Betty were tied up (separately) in a shack, and it was about to be bombed.  Betty tried to radio Captain Marvel, but Billy was having trouble saying "Shazaam!" with the gag in his mouth.  He finally was able to do it, and got her out of there just as the bomb was about to drop.  She had been rendered unconscious by a falling beam, so she didn't see him change to Captain Marvel and back to Billy.  Betty remembered that she injured the Scorpion's right hand, and they thought of a plan to figure out which one of the board members was actually The Scorpion.  They had them all sign a contract, and one guy's hand was bandaged.  Billy went to that board member's house, and the Scorpion had his goons rig Whitey's car.  Stuff happened, though, and the other goons ended up driving Whitey's rigged car, and it blew up.  Our heroes are OK.  So it's not really a cliffhanger this week, just a close call.  Billy had been trapped in a garage with a car motor running, but he was able to get out as Captain Marvel.

Feature:  "The Blue Dahlia" (1946), screenplay by Raymond Chandler, directed by John Houseman, music by Victor Young, starring Alan Ladd, Veronica Lake, William Bendix, Howard da Silva, Doris Dowling, Tom Powers, and Frank Faylen.

• The film was introduced by Wesley Strick, screenwriter for "Arachnophobia" and "Cape Fear".
• Strick listed a lot of words that have been associated with Noir in this series, and added one:  "Booze".  The title is actually the name of a nightclub.  The opening scene is of guys going to get a drink of Bourbon straight with a Bourbon chaser.  Raymond Chandler, on the wagon when he started writing the script, was only able to write and finish it while drinking and never got back on the wagon again.  Chandler didn't even know who would be the murderer when the movie started shooting, until he got to write from home and drink.  (They had to step up the filming because Alan Ladd was being called back to active duty with the Army Air Forces).  
• I like how Strick said that was Hugh Beaumont "before he Left It to Beaver".
• I totally would have had a crush on Alan Ladd if I was alive back in 1946.  Quite the handsome man he was!
• The murderer was changed due to pressure from a certain branch of the government.  No wonder it didn't turn out the way that I thought it was leading.
• Liz's favorite line had to do with flipping a coin:  "Heads we go to Malibu, tails we stay in (Santa Monica, I think).  "What if it ends up in the davenport?"  "Then we go to Long Beach."
• My favorite line:  "Every guy's seen you before somewhere.  The trick is to find you."
• "It's funny but practically all the people I know were strangers when I met them."
• The "Dad" character creeped me out.  He sure did lurk a lot.
• Alan Ladd's son was interviewed after the film, and said that his father and Veronica Lake never had any kind of friendship or relationship outside of the 7 movies they did together, which is probably why their chemistry was so good.

I think that I need to see more Ladd/Lake films.  Mostly for the Alan Ladd part. :)

Next up:  "The Stranger"

p.s.  With all of that talk about bourbon, now I want some ribs so I can have a shot of bourbon on the side. ;)