The Blue Gardenia, original vintage half sheet
The Blue Gardenia, 1953, Directed by Fritz Lang
Based on the short story Gardenia , by Vera Caspary (Laura)
Fritz Lang, the monocle wearing “Master of Darkness” and director of the Steampunk masterpiece * “Metropolis” could also churn out some melodramatic clunkers.
Fritzy is SOOO Steam Punk!
After “fleeing” Berlin with all his moola intact, Fritzy decamped in Paris, then Hollywood in 1936. His first American film “Fury”, instantly cemented his auteur status.
In the years that followed, Lang, more than any other director, influenced the development of film noir style in America. Lang’s dour, depressing, dark depiction of life combined with the sheer volume of flickage set the mode. What set Lang apart from a lot of other dour, dark and depressing German directors was his ability to make his films suspenseful and watchable.
Woman in the Window, 1944, Window Card
The noir world is filled with dangerous femme fatales. Unscrupulous. Scheming. Seductive women. And the men? Just innocent putty in their hands. Often driven crazy by love, longing and jealousy to do things they would normally never do.
The scene: A stunning brunette temptress meets up with her agent for an afternoon rendezvous. A few hours later the lovers linger at her car before they separate for the day. Suddenly, her jealous husband appears and shoots her lover’s nuts off — Bang! Bang ! Bang!…
Opphs. I forgot. That’s Joan Bennett’s story — NOT the plot for Fritz Lang’s, The Woman in the Window. Oh well, sometimes it’s hard to keep all these story lines straight. Back to my tale.
Official PR version: Joan’s agent is recovering nicely from gunshot wounds due to this “mis-understanding”. Joan swears nothing was going on. They were just having a business meeting. After hubby spends some time in jail, the couple remain married another 14 years.
