The Blue Dahlia
Johnny Morrison, ( Alan Ladd ) Buzz Wanchek, ( William Bendix ) and George Copeland, ( Hugh Beaumont ) have arrived in California after their discharges from the United States Navy. Johnny was given leave after his heroic action in the South Pacific, George was released due to bad eyesight and Buzz suffers from shell shock and has a metal plate in his head above his ear. Johnny, apprehensive about seeing his wife Helen ( Doris Dowling ) and has not told her of his return, instead decides to surprise her. He arrives home to find a party going on and soon discovers Helen is having an affair with Eddie Harwood,alias of Bauer ( Howard Da Silva ) owner of a Sunset Strip nightclub, the Blue Dahlia. After the party guests have left, Johnny and Helen have a fierce quarrel, with Helen confessing that their young son Dickie really died in a car crash caused by her driving drunk, and not from diptheria as Johnny had been told. Angry, Johnny pulls a gun on Helen, but drops it and leaves. Meanwhile a disoriented Buzz leaves the apartment he shares with George, and ends up at a bar meeting Helen. Unaware of her identity, he goes to her bungalow for a drink. Eddie phones Helen to end the affair, and she blackmails him into seeing her again. Meanwhile, Johnny walking in the rain with his suitcase, is asked by a passing motorist if he wants a ride. The driver is Joyce Harwood, ( Veronica Lake ) who is seperated from Eddie. Neither reveals their name, and unaware, they both spend the night in the same Malibu Inn. Next morning Joyce is surprised to see Johnny and asks if they may go for a walk on the beach. While Joyce leaves to change her shoes, the lobby radio announces that Helen has been murdered and her husband Johnny is suspected. Joyce watches as a flustered Johnny quickly leaves the Inn. "Dad" Newell, ( Will Wright ) a house detective who saw Johnny and Helen fighting and witnessed Buzz and Eddie enter her bungalow, goes to the police. Buzz and George are both questioned, but Buzz can remember nothing. Johnny has checked into a cheap hotel under an assumed name, Corelli ( Howard Freeman ) the sleazy hotel manager, finds Johnny's photo of himself with Dickie and tries to blackmail him. Johnny knocks out Corelli, and discovers on the back of the photo, Helen has written that Eddie is really Bauer, a murderer wanted in New Jersey. Corelli comes to and sells information to a gangster named Leo ( Don Costello ) about Johnny's identity, who is then kidnapped. Buzz and George pay Eddie a visit at the Blue Dahlia, and Joyce introduces herself to them. As Joyce begins to pick at the petals of a dahlia flower, Buzz becomes quite annoyed, and the nightclub's loud music sets off a pounding in his head, which triggers a memory of the loud music he heard at Helen's bungalow as she picked at the petals of a dahlia. Meanwhile, Johnny escapes Leo's henchmen as Eddie arrives, he forces him to admit to the murder he was guilty of fifteen years ago. Leo tries to shoot Johnny, but hits Eddie instead. Johnny flees to the Blue Dahlia, where the police are trying to force a muddled Buzz to admit he murdered Helen. Johnny suggests they turn up the music on the loud speaker, as Buzz's head pounds, he remembers leaving Helen alive in her bungalow. Police Captain Hendrickson, ( Tom Powers ) then confronts house detective Dad with the accusation that he tried to blackmail Helen about her affair, then killed her when she refused to comply. Dad then tries to escape , but is shot by Hendrickson. As the case is now solved, Buzz and George decide to go for a drink, leaving a friendly Johnny and Joyce alone.
cult, mystery, murder