Stevecorp
Don't listen to the negative reviews
Spoonatects
Am i the only one who thinks........Average?
Verity Robins
Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.
Phillim
Loves me some Fritz Lang -- but this one ain't no Metropolis.The script's not terrible, but badly needs some punching up with actor chemistry and general *aggressive* actor collaboration -- zero of that in evidence.Richard Conte never gets started -- his underwritten role won't let him. Raymond Burr genially goes through the motions without much help from the director. At the center of it all, Anne Baxter connects neither internally nor externally -- it's a cold shell of a performance, full of vocal tricks and mugging -- wilts everything it touches. Baxter appears to be working hard, but she's oppressive here: won't play well with others, wants to be in her own separate movie.Ann Sothern brings it as a wise-cracking roommate, but her sass is wasted on, again, an underwritten role.Nat "King" Cole gets to sing the title song straight through in a nightclub. He's great, but the song is woozy mush.George "Superman" Reeves as the chief cop tries hard to blend in with the scenery.I add two stars for the core sequence of Baxter getting sloppy drunk and Burr trying to take advantage -- a low-key depiction of attempted date rape. It is plausibly staged, but unimaginative, lazy cinema.And one more star for the giggle from an in-joke -- Cleaning Lady to Reeves in Burr's crime scene apartment: "This ain't the first pair of lady's shoes I've found in front of this couch . . . "
dougdoepke
The first part is rather cute. Sothern, Baxter, and Donnell play off one another really well as three girl buddies living together. Of course, viewers like me also have to get used to Raymond Burr as a lover-boy. After so many years as a movie heavy and TV's Perry Mason that takes some getting used to. But the lighter part ends when Burr turns up dead and Baxter thinks she did it. At that point, things turn more mysterious and psychological.Baxter is easy to look at as she assumes the central role of conflicted woman. More importantly, Baxter the actress wisely avoids her sometimes tendency to over-emote. But the movie's remainder is only mildly suspenseful as Baxter tries to deal with her supposed guilt. Did she really bonk Burr on the head with a poker since she was too drunk to know. And who can she turn to for help. Newspaperman Conte appears helpful, but maybe he's just interested in a big story. And what about Superman's George Reeves as a detective with a moustache, no less.There are some interesting visuals as one might expect from an artist like director Lang. Nonetheless, the overall result could have been helmed by a dozen lesser directors than the maker of Metropolis (1927) and Woman in the Window (1944). All in all, the movie's an interesting time-passer. But for fans of the German director like myself, it's nothing special.
Michael_Elliott
Blue Gardenia, The (1953) *** (out of 4) Telephone operator Norah Larkin (Anne Baxter) has her heart broken by the man she loves so she decides to go out with another (Raymond Burr) just to forget. She ends up drinking too much and going back to his apartment and the next morning he's dead. Norah can't remember what exactly happened but she seeks the help of a reporter (Richard Conte) who can hopefully piece everything together. This is a far cry from director Lang's greatest film but it does offer up some light entertainment and the cast is good enough to carry the thing through to the end. This is certainly pretty light material as everything is pretty straight-forward and you just know there's eventually going to be a twist that pops up. The twist here is something I won't give away but I personally didn't buy it too much but I guess you had to have some sort of mix-up to throw the viewer. I'm sure they could have thought of something better but this happens at the very end of the film so it doesn't hurt things too badly. The film actually never tries to piece together what happened but instead it's more of a character drama as Baxter is constantly being tormented by thinking she has killed a man. There's no question that they were going for some sort of psychological drama and for the most part everything works, although, at the same time, I can't help but think a stronger story might have helped things. Speaking of Baxter, she's very good in her role and we actually believe her as she struggles to remember what happened in the apartment. A lot of times the forgotten motive is just a gimmick in this type of film but here it actually works and the actress makes us believe she really has forgotten and is struggling to remember. Conte is also very good as the reporter, although one could argue that he should have had more to do in the story. Burr is fine in his small role as is Ann Sothern and George Reeves. Fans of ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN will notice Frank Ferguson (McDougal) playing a drunk reporter here. We also get Nat 'King' Cole doing the title track and he too appears in the film. I love Cole and the song here isn't too bad but having him appear in the restaurant singing was just too much and really wasn't needed in the film. This here is certainly far from a classic movie but there's enough here to keep one entertained from start to finish.
GManfred
Was expecting more from the list of credits, including Fritz Lang as Director and from a story by Vera Caspary, who wrote "Laura". Also Anne Baxter, who had an Oscar and a nomination to her credit. Ann Sothern was her sassy self and Raymond Burr was an excellent heavy. In retrospect, he would be an unlikely candidate for his role if the picture were made today, as his homosexuality would have made him an unlikely "lounge lizard", the lounge being 'The Blue Gardenia'.One of the highlights was the great Nat 'King' Cole singing the title song. The solid but uncharismatic Richard Conte was miscast as the reporter looking for a scoop. A disappointing effort all around from a film that starts out strong but falls flat with a contrived ending. A pseudo-film noir, it is more of a melodrama and a routine one at that.
