The Black Dahlia **** (2006, Josh Hartnett, Aaron Eckhart, Scarlett Johansson, Hilary Swank, Mia Kirshner, Mike Starr) – Classic Movie Review 2925

Director Brian De Palma’s superb neo noir movie of James Ellroy’s retro hard-boiled thriller novel The Black Dahlia is criminally neglected and underrated. Ellroy’s novel is inspired by the most notorious real-life unsolved murder in Californian history.

The brilliant cast of Josh Hartnett, Aaron Eckhart, Scarlett Johansson, Hilary Swank, Mia Kirshner and Mike Starr are faultless and just couldn’t be better. Only Fiona Shaw lets the side down in an awful, misjudged performance as Ramona Linscott that briefly derails the film.

Hartnett and Eckhart play former boxers Dwight ‘Bucky’ Bleichert and Lee Blanchard, who become Los Angeles homicide detective partners. But their personal and professional lives fall apart in the wake of the Black Dahlia murder investigation in 1946. Bucky becomes a close friend of Lee and his girlfriend Kay Lake (Johansson), in a dangerous love triangle.

Lee obsesses on solving the case of aspiring actress Elizabeth Short (Kirshner), who is found dead and mutilated. Bucky’s investigation leads him to Madeleine Linscott (Swank), daughter of a rich, powerful builder.

With its great period atmosphere, the movie looks truly amazing, a glorious retro object. But Vilmos Zsigmond’s astounding cinematography was overlooked at 2007 Oscar time and was Best Achievement in Cinematography. Dante Ferretti’s equally astounding production design wasn’t Oscar nominated and won only the Italian National Syndicate of Film Journalists 2007 award for Best Production Design. Mark Isham’s fine score won only Best Original Score for a Drama Film at the International Film Music Critics Award (2006).

Shamefully, it was a box-office flop. Costing an estimated $50 million, it took only $22.5 million in the US. It is a close companion of Ellroy’s LA Confidential (1997) and is in most ways its equal, except in terms of recognition and popularity.

The Black Dahlia was filmed in Bulgaria, at the New Boyana Film Studios, Sofia, as well as on iconic LA locations: Alto-Nido Apartments -1851 North Ivar Street, Hollywood; City Hall, 200 North Spring Street, Downtown, Los Angeles; Echo Park, Los Angeles; MacArthur Park, Los Angeles; Pantages Theater – 6233 Hollywood Blvd, Hollywood.

The title accesses Raymond Chandler’s 1946 classic The Blue Dahlia.

Hartnett also made Lucky Number Slevin this same year. It was a lucky year for him.

Vilmos Zsigmond died on January 1 2016, age 85. He was known for his use of natural light and vivid use of colour on films like The Long Goodbye (1973) and Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), for which he won the Oscar for Best Cinematography. He was also nominated for The Deer Hunter (1978), The River (1984) and The Black Dahlia (2006).

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© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 2925

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