THE BLACK DAHLIA
Director: Brian de Palma Stars: Josh Hartnett, Aaron Eckhart, Scarlett Johansson, Hilary Swank
Reviewed by PETER MALONE
For almost sixty years, the brutal and gruesome murder of prostitute and would-be actress, Mary Elizabeth Short, (nicknamed by the media The Black Dahlia, after the Alan Ladd film The Blue Dahlia) has intrigued Californians and crime readers around the world. Film-makers and novelists have also been fascinated by the case itself and its characters, as well as the police investigation.
In 1975, an effective telemovie explored the case, its background and investigation, Who is the Black Dahlia? Lucie Arnaz was Mary Elizabeth Short. A large supporting cast of veteran screen actors also appeared, including Efrem Zimbalist Jr as the investigator, and Macdonald Carey, Gloria de Haven, Tom Bosley, Mercedes McCambridge.
Now, novelist James Ellroy has revisited the scene of one of the best of the LA police investigation films, LA Confidential. However, the action is set in the aftermath of World War II, in 1946-47, five years or more before LA Confidential. Ellroy has taken notice of how effective the speculations of Polanski’s Chinatown were, that behind crime were corrupt police and corrupt businessmen who were shaping the city’s growth by crooked means and were also touched by more personal moral depravity.
There is a solution offered here, but it is a fictional one, plausible in the Chinatown vein.
The release of The Black Dahlia coincided with the release of another Hollywood mystery death film, that of superman actor, George Reeves in 1959: Hollywoodland. It treads something of the same ground but is set in a sunnier, post-Chandler kind of suburban LA. The two films have a lot in common with Hollywoodland having an edge as the better and more effective film.
The Black Dahlia is directed by Brian de Palma, who showed how well he could do spectacular crime thrillers in the 1980s with his Scarface and The Untouchables. As with The Untouchables, he is able to bring art styles, costumes and décor, atmospheric colour and music score together to immerse the audience in the era.
And he has a good cast. Josh Hartnett is not the greatest of emotional actors on screen which means that he is an interesting choice to play the detective who solves the case (though he has to become involved in scenes of passion where, despite his good intentions, he is not exactly convincing). Aaron Eckhart has shown in many films, especially In The Company Of Men and Thank You For Smoking, that he can do genial but slippery characters. The femme fatale is Hilary Swank, rather different from her recent roles. She is the spoilt and amoral rich girl. The (comparatively) nice girl is Scarlett Johansson who is made to look a replica of Lana Turner at the time.
The plot is definitely murky and has some insights into police workings and procedures. It has the overtones of the film noir of the times – and the plot is complicated indeed.
But that is what crime aficionados like.
Reviewed by MARCUS SINCLAIR
Another big, prestigious film with a fine cast: Josh Hartnett, Aaron Eckhart, and Hilary Swank: and there's Scarlett Johansson also, attempting to do a Lana Turner impersonation, all in Brian De Palma's production of The Black Dahlia, which is based on the novel of the same name by James Ellroy. Set in Hollywood in the late Forties, the director and his crew of technicians have brought the period vividly to life: sets, decor, clothes, cars. All has been hazily photographed in soft and muted colours by Vilmos Zsigmond with the result that the harsh reality of the situation has a dreamlike quality about it. And harsh is its subject matter: brutal murders, savage gunfights and a boxing match, crooked cops, degenerates, prostitutes, money and decadence. You name it, Hollywood HAD it all.
For all the attention to detail and skill lovingly lavished on this work we never, unfortunately, become involved in the characters. The director tries hard, with studied close-ups and medium shots that are held, and he varies the intensity of the colour between scenes, but by film's end there are just too many WHYs and WHATs that remain unanswered. Yet, The Black Dahlia is worth the price of admission even if it is only for the boxing bout and the death scene centred around the stair well.
This is superb film-making. The pity of it all is that the parts are greater than the whole.