The Blue Gardenia (1953)

100% of critics liked it
(6 reviews)
57% of users liked it
(931 ratings)

After learning that her boyfriend, a GI in Korea, has found someone else, Norah Larkin (Anne Baxter) impulsively agrees to meet womanizer Harry Prebble (Raymond Burr) for dinner. Norah allows herself to get drunk and accept Prebble's invitation to his apartment. When he tries to force himself on… More After learning that her boyfriend, a GI in Korea, has found someone else, Norah Larkin (Anne Baxter) impulsively agrees to meet womanizer Harry Prebble (Raymond Burr) for dinner. Norah allows herself to get drunk and accept Prebble's invitation to his apartment. When he tries to force himself on her, she hits him with a poker. Unfortunately, Prebble is found dead the next morning, and Norah, not even remembering how she got home, thinks that she killed him. Meanwhile, newspaperman Casey Mayo (Richard Conte), looking for an angle, invites the "Blue Gardenia Murderess" to turn herself in to him. The high point of the film is the interplay between the vulnerable Baxter and Burr at his smarmiest. ~ Steve Press, Rovi

Rating, Runtime: Unrated, 1 hr. 30 min.
Directed By: Fritz Lang
Written By: Charles Hoffman
Genres: Drama, Mystery & Suspense, Classics

In Theaters: Mar 23, 1953 Wide
On DVD: Apr 11, 2000

Critic Reviews

Fernando F. Croce, CinePassion
Fritz Lang on a shoestring, photographing Los Angeles with Buñuelian speed and strangeness
Jeffrey M. Anderson, Combustible Celluloid
Made the same year as The Big Heat, Fritz Lang's lesser-known The Blue Gardenia plays just as well.
Michael E. Grost, Classic Film and Television
Emotionally involving thriller, directed with inventivess
Dennis Schwartz, Ozus' World Movie Reviews
Never has a chance to bloom.
Michael W. Phillips, Jr., Goatdog's Movies
Rent it as an example of a film noir that strayed from the formula, not as a really great film.

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Featured Audience Ratings

AJ V

Another good thriller from Fritz Lang. It's really exciting and dramatic, and the actors are good. I liked this movie.
Randy T

Have you ever discovered that someone was planning a surprise party for you so you went along with it, acting surprised even though you really weren't? And then you discovered that, instead of the expected fifty guests, only three or four of your friends showed up? And then only… More
Have you ever discovered that someone was planning a surprise party for you so you went along with it, acting surprised even though you really weren't? And then you discovered that, instead of the expected fifty guests, only three or four of your friends showed up? And then only one of them brought a gift? And then that gift turned out to be something you already have? If so then you already know what it's like to watch The Blue Gardenia.
Michael G

Really disappointing noir. The only entertaining thing was Raymond Burr.