[Inspector Abberline]

The Blue Dahlia (1946)
Alan Ladd as Johnny Morrison returns from the war with William Bendix as Buzz Wanchek and Hugh Beaumont as George Copeland. Ladd goes looking for his wife Doris Dowling as Helen Morrison,and finds her in her apartment having a party with her boyfriend Howard Da Silva as Eddie Harwood who also is the owner of the nightclub The Blue Dahlia . Johnny later finds out that there son was killed when Helen was drink driving and crashed the car. In a fit of rage Johnny pulls a gun on her but decides not to use it, leaving her apartment he leaves behind the gun. Next morning the cleaning lady discovers the dead body of Helen Morrison. Based on an original screenplay by Raymond Chandler and re-uniting Alan Ladd with Veronica Lake as Joyce Harwood ,Blue Dahlia is a rather cool who done it with Alan Ladd's character as the main suspect in the murder of his wife Helen. I'm not sure if its Ladd's acting style but for a man who is being accused of murdering his wife his portrayal is awfully laid back one, he never seems to break a sweat whether he's kissing a dame or punching a hoodlum, perhaps Mr Ladd is to cool for school. In fact the whole film has a languid air about it , its a fairly slow paced movie which I assume is down to George Marshall directing style, Its slow but never boring. Surprisingly for a Raymond Chandler script the dialogue isn't as punchy or as slick as some of his other novel adaptations . I'm not sure about Veronica Lake ,she's a beautiful woman that's for sure. but I'm not convinced she's that great an actress she shoes less emotion than Ladd does, and there little romantic moments seem more like who can out stare each other competition. I liked Blue Dahlia it has a decent enough story and is pretty well made, but it just lacked a certain something, recommended for noir completest's.