FFVP Review - THE BLACK DAHLIA

THE BLACK DAHLIA

I haven’t read “The Black Dahlia” by James Ellroy that was inspired by the actual unsolved murder of Elizabeth Short who was found dismembered in a vacant lot in Los Angeles in 1947. Everything I did read prior to seeing the film version indicated that the beginning stuck closely to its literary source. I can’t say if the same can be said about the rest of the movie. I can say the end result never fulfills the promise of the first forty plus minutes that paves the way for director Brian De Palma to hang his ideas like wash on a cinematic clothes line for all to see.

Style triumphs over content in many of my favorite De Palma movies. Framing devices and famous scenes from classic films are re-imagined, and reconfigured to meet the demands of a new narrative. But the story must have substance for them to work. For instance, the voyeurism of Alfred Hitchcock’s “Rear Window” (1954) is an essential element of De Palma’s low budget masterpiece “Sisters” (1973) and the baby carriage scene in “The Untouchables”(1987) is an homage to Sergei Eisensten’s Odessa Steps sequence in “Potemkin” (1925). Stanley Kubrick’s “2001: A Space Odyssey” (1968) is very much at the heart of “ Mission to Mars” (2000). This time around De Palma culls key structural elements and motifs from Alfred Hitchcock’s “Vertigo” (1958). He also pays a left handed compliment of sorts to Billy Wilder through the machinations of a has-been silent screen actress who goes off the deep end far less convincingly than Tallulah Bankhead in “Sunset Boulevard” (1950). But it is an appreciation of “Vertigo” that lends itself to a clearer understanding of what - I suspect - De Palma was aiming for in “The Black Dahlia.”

“The Black Dahlia” starts off on a high note with two of LA’s finest - Bucky Bleichert (Josh Harnett) and Lee Blanchard (Aaron Eckhart) - well known for their boxing skills, sparring for charity. Lee is playful before the fight and ferocious in the ring. He knocks out Bucky’s front teeth and claims the limelight. Lee ingratiates himself to Bucky and insists they become partners. Lee is the trend setter with Bucky riding his coat tails to his warped idea of fame and glory. Meanwhile Bucky develops feelings for Lee’s girlfriend Kay (Scarlett Johansson) whose past is hidden in a shroud of secrecy.

Up to this point, “The Black Dahlia” appears to be a straight forward crime film charting the two men’s rise within the LAPD. While on a surveillance detail gone bad, Lee saves Bucky’s life from a stray shot. Meanwhile the discovery of Elizabeth Short’s body just a few blocks away lures the two men from one crime scene to the next in a matter of minutes.

At this point key elements comparable to those in Alfred Hitchcock’s “Vertigo” slowly rise to the surface to shed new light on the motives behind Lee’s actions in the first half of “The Black Dahlia.” Scottie Ferguson’s obsession in “Vertigo” is transposed to Bucky’s fixation on the image of Elizabeth Short (Mia Kirshner) in the audition tapes and porno film discovered by the police. He falls for Madeleine (Hilary Swank) a well to do heir to a warped real estate mogul’s fortune by day and call girl by night whose duality of nature parallels Hitchcock’s Madeleine in “Vertigo.” De Palma even goes so far as to imitate Scottie’s climb toward the truth behind his delusion in the bell tower at the end of “Vertigo” with Bucky running up a cathedral high staircase in pursuit of a sniper while another assailant lurks in the shadows. Once again De Palma transposes the relationships yet retains the imagery to achieve a strikingly similar psychological structure that reflects Bucky’s state of mind. Like Scotty who suffers from vertigo in Hithchock’s movie, Bucky passes out at a crucial moment at a murder scene. As the story progresses from one set up to the next, it becomes apparent that Lee has exploited Bucky’s character flaws in much the same way Scottie’s old friend exploited his fear of heights in “Vertigo.” Later still, Bucky’s naivete and sense of dignity is usurped by Madeleine, as did the Madeleine in “Vertigo.” So what does all this have to do with “The Black Dahlia”? Precious little.

And what of Kay? She is a slim thread with the most flimsy of ties to all the characters that could have easily been written out of the movie. She is the eye candy - a diversion that references the icy blondes of Hitchcock’s movies put in “The Black Dahlia” to keep the audience guessing. She is closer in feel and temperament to Grace Kelly’s character in “Rear Window” who helps James Stewart solve a crime. Similarly Kay holds the key to a robbery case in Lee’s past without realizing it.

The narrative with its endless shifting of alliances and relationships seems to exist for the sole purpose of stringing De Palma’s visual tableaus together. The fictitious fate of Elizabeth Short takes up the last half of the movie; but once again, her story is just one more element used to explore the movie’s real subject - Bucky’s psyche. Events from Lee’s past, the purpose for his pivotal stakeout, a silent movie version of the Charles Dickens story “The Man Who Laughs,” the seduction of Bucky by Madeleine and the ravings of her lunatic mother are all interrelated in a complex web of deceit and betrayal. All the loose ends come together in a loosely constructed finale that makes sense but feels patently false.

Ultimately “The Black Dahlia” was a major disappointment.

Before the success of “Carrie” and the smash hit “The Untouchables” Brian De Palma got my attention with these three low budget movies that paved the way for the bigger budget movies that lay ahead. I’ve mentioned these films in the past. They are well worth mentioning again

“Greetings” (1968) - Any description of this will not do it justice. It’s a low budget affair that is all over the place with Robert De Niro as a draft dodger who will undergo any experience to avoid his civic duty at the height of the Viet Nam War. Despite the poor sound, the movie still kicks in with sight gags and satiric barbs that are right on target. It’s movies like this that gave the term ‘Indie’ its coinage. It seemingly made enough money to bank roll the superior sequel, “Hi, Mom!”

“Hi Mom!” (1969) - Robert De Niro is a Viet Nam Vet turned urban guerilla. The highlight of the movie is an uproarious sequence of white upper class patrons paying to go through the Black Experience. No one is safe from the filmmakers’ scrutiny. This alone is worth the price of a rental.

“Sisters” (1973) - Margot Kidder is(are) the title character(s) in an amazingly suspenseful whodunnit slasher movie involving Siamese twins, a couch, a mental institution and the female reporter (Jennifer Salt) who thinks she witnessed a murder. Charles Durning is the PI who picks up the clues. This is every bit as good as the blockbuster, “Carrie,” that turned De Palma into a force to be reckoned with several years later.