The Black Dahlia
The movie is based on a true story of the brutal murder of a fledgling Hollywood starlet that shocked and fascinated the nation in 1947 and remains unsolved today. Two cops, Bucky Bleichert and his partner, Lee Blanchard, investigate the death of 'Elizabeth Short (I)', a young woman found brutally murdered and find their personal and professional lives fall apart in the wake of the investigation.
30 December 1976, New York City, New York, USA
12 July 1971, Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, England, UK
22 June 1948, Colorado, USA
22 November 1984, New York City, New York, USA
29 July 1950, Queens, New York City, New York, USA
17 March 1964, Liverpool, England, UK
30 November 1964, Ystrad Mynach, Hengoed, Wales, UK
6 May 1952, Lakewood, Colorado, USA
2 November 1961, Consort, Alberta, Canada
5 September 1973, Florence, Tuscany, Italy
10 July 1958, County Cork, Ireland
20 September 1940, Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA
12 February 1965, New York City, New York, USA
7 July 1975, Bulgaria
4 September 1972, Waltham, Massachusetts, USA
24 October 1981, Hammersmith, London, England, UK
21 July 1978, St. Paul, Minnesota, USA
12 March 1968, Cupertino, California, USA
29 December 1969, Los Angeles, California, USA
27 October 1978, Bergen op Zoom, Noord-Brabant, Netherlands
2 October 1950, Basingstoke, Hampshire, England, UK
August 30, 2009
Visual marvel after visual marvel
September 23, 2006
Ellroy's prose crawls into characters' secret hearts and under the reader's skin, but its foetid horrors become kitschy here, the script too streamlined and the lead performances too shallow to dredge the story's depths.
September 15, 2006
There are moments when The Black Dahlia projects a spectral world, but its ghosts in broad daylight are elusive at best.
April 26, 2008
DePalma is like a magician who dazzles us with a trick only to show us, alas, it really was only a trick, and in the meantime he's stolen our watch.
February 17, 2014
The Black Dahlia doesn't solve the eternal De Palma dilemma, but it sure does fascinate.
September 23, 2006
The pairing of Ellroy and De Palma proves a marriage made in hardboiled heaven.
September 23, 2006
The picture is a kind of fattened goose that's been stuffed with goose-liver pâté. It's overrich and fundamentally unsatisfying.
July 06, 2010
An over indulgent and often confusing stab at film noir, The Black Dahlia leaves little to be desired as director Brian De Palma continues to prove that his best days are behind him.
July 23, 2007
Won't do much to dissuade the common rap against De Palma as a cold technician who takes projects just for the elaborate set pieces they provide him.
September 20, 2006
Mr. De Palma and his collaborators have been unable to translate Mr. Ellroy's depth of feeling into cinematic equivalents.
December 07, 2007
You've barely time to soak up one revelation before another one is dumped on you from a great height.
September 23, 2006
This is far from one of the director's better efforts and should be avoided by all those who are not sworn De Palma boosters.
