Master storyteller Brian De Palma, known for such classic crime dramas as “The Untouchables,” “Scarface” and “Carlito’s Way,” as well as his suspense thrillers “Carrie,” “Dressed to Kill” and “Blow Out,” directs this adaptation of James Ellroy’s (“L.A. Confidential,” “American Tabloid”) best-selling crime novel.
“The Black Dahlia” weaves a fictionalized tale of obsession, love, corruption, greed and depravity around the true story of the brutal murder of a fledgling Hollywood starlet that shocked and fascinated the nation in 1947 and remains unsolved today. Two ex-pugilist cops, Lee Blanchard (Aaron Eckhart) and Bucky Bleichert (Josh Hartnett), are called to investigate the homicide of ambitious silver-screen B-lister Betty Ann Short (Mia Kirshner) A.K.A. “The Black Dahlia”-an attack so grisly that images of the killing were kept from the public.
While Blanchard’s growing preoccupation with the sensational murder threatens his marriage to Kay (Scarlett Johansson), his partner Bleichert finds himself attracted to the enigmatic Madeleine Linscott (two-time Oscar® winner Hilary Swank), the daughter of one of the city’s most prominent families-who just happens to have an unsavory connection to the murder victim.
True crime meets urban legend when De Palma brings Ellroy’s “The Black Dahlia” to the big screen.
Production Information
“Looking up, I felt cold all over; my breath came in spurts. Shoulders and arms brushed me, and I heard a jumble of voices: ‘There’s not a goddamned drop of blood—’ ‘This is the worst crime on a woman I’ve seen in my 16 years—’…” — James Ellroy, “The Black Dahlia”
For nearly 60 years, one story has captivated the horrified imagination of a city and inspired scores of newspaper, book and screenplay writers to ponder the dark, diabolical impulses of humanity. This cautionary tale has served as warning to wideeyed starlets who come west to chase their dreams of Tinseltown. And it all began with an unremarkable girl hungry for stardom.
In life, she was called Elizabeth “Betty” Short, a 22-year-old aspiring actress from the East Coast who wore a delicate flower in her raven hair and became many things to many people—dear friend, beloved sister, estranged daughter, frequent girlfriend and accused prostitute.
On January 15, 1947, she was discovered brutally splayed in a vacant lot near Leimert Park in downtown Los Angeles. Naked, cut in half at the waist, her organs were removed and blood drained from her small body in an attack so grisly that most images were kept from the public. Her killer had bludgeoned her, sodomized her and slit her mouth from ear to ear in a sickening, clownish grin. False accusations and confessions still abound, and Betty’s remains one of the most gruesome, unsolved homicides in the City of Angels’ history.
In death, she would become newly christened and forever remembered as The Black Dahlia.
Forty years after her killing, crime novelist JAMES ELLROY (“L.A. Confidential,” “American Tabloid”) wrote “The Black Dahlia,” a best-selling whodunit with Betty’s murder as its crux and boom-era L.A. as its backdrop. Weaving a story of obsession, body doubles and those who became fixated on the brutal homicide, Ellroy hoped the book would help exorcise demons from his own mother’s 1958 strangulation. Now, master storyteller BRIAN DE PALMA, director of such classic crime dramas as The Untouchables, Scarface and Carlito’s Way, and suspense thrillers Carrie, Dressed to Kill and Blow Out, films screenwriter JOSH FRIEDMAN’s (War of the Worlds) adaptation of Ellroy’s classic. Known for his works’ multilayered themes of unrestrained passions, doppelgangers, vivid violence and ruinous obsessions—motifs and throughlines he shares with Ellroy—De Palma would become the most likely of filmmakers to finally bring the tragic, lurid tale to the screen.
The Black Dahlia weaves a fictionalized tale of lust, love, corruption, greed and depravity around the brutal murder of the fledgling Hollywood starlet that shocked and fascinated the nation in 1947 and remains unsolved today. In the film, we meet Betty Short in the heyday of post-World War II Los Angeles. Corrupt politicians manipulate dirty cops who help ruthless gangsters fund seedy filmmakers as they prey on young actresses desperate to find their place in a fantasy world. Enter onto the scene two ex-pugilist police officers, Lee Blanchard (AARON ECKHART) and Dwight “Bucky” Bleichert (JOSH HARTNETT), the poster boys for 1940s LAPD. The new partners’ first homicide case starts with a call from their supervisor, Detective Millard (MIKE STARR), to investigate the slaying of the ambitious silver screen B-lister Betty Short (MIA KIRSHNER), just as they are leaving a deadly shootout.
Blanchard and Bleichert, like the rest of the fascinated city, become drawn into the lurid world of the Dahlia’s L.A. While Blanchard’s growing preoccupation with the Dahlia’s murder threatens his relationship with girlfriend Kay Lake (SCARLETT JOHANSSON), Bleichert finds himself irresistibly drawn to the enigmatic Madeleine Linscott (two-time Oscar® winner HILARY SWANK), the daughter of one of the city’s most prominent families—who just happens to have an unsavory connection (and resemblance) to the Dahlia.
Blanchard spins into obsession trying to solve the case, seeing in Betty the chance to redeem himself for letting down the other women in his life that he failed to protect. Bleichert, too, begins to question his own footing as his feelings fluctuate wildly between two disparate dames: the seemingly innocent Kay and the knowingly seductive Madeleine—whose unhinged mother, Ramona (FIONA SHAW), proves to hold more than a passing clue to the mystery.
Determined to be famous, destined to be infamous, Betty Short affected more lives dead than she possibly could alive. She dreamed of being photographed for the big screen but wound up the pin-up girl of tabloid autopsy photos. Now, director De Palma brings his signature style and sharpest directorial instincts to take us into her world and the ones that revolved around her story.
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