Who Is the Black Dahlia?

This made for t.v. movie terrified me when I saw it in 1975. One of the people with whom I was living at the time said, "Watch this and tell me how it turns out," then left to go out.

By the end, in which the Sgt. Harry Hansen character looks at the camera and speculates about the murderer (I won't say any more than that), I was so scared that I ran around the whole house and turned on the lights and didn't go to bed until my housemates returned at 2:00 a.m.

The plot develops well, in a series of flashbacks. The characters are sympathetic. The period atmosphere seems/seemed right. And most of all, unusual for the time before "docudramas," this film was based on a real case.

I am not the world's largest Efrem Zimbalist, Jr. fan (though I did enjoy 77 Sunset Strip as a child), but his work here is very good.

Enjoy .

Elizabeth Short was a beautiful woman,who desperately wanted to become an actress.She went to Los Angeles and met her terrible destiny there.Her dismembered body was found discarded in two sections like a shattered doll on a vacant lot in LA on 15th January 1947.She had been tortured while being drained for her blood,before the killer hacked her torso in two.A beautiful woman in black killed by unknown slayer."Who Is the Black Dahlia?" is a terrific mystery thriller with excellent acting and some eerie overtones.Lucie Arnaz is perfect as a desperate Liz Short.Her dreams of becoming a film star never materialised.Her fate was more than horrible.The tragic story of Black Dahlia haunts me since my childhood.8 out of 10.

Who Is the Black Dahlia? (1975)

*** 1/2 (out of 4)

Sgt. Harry Hansen (Efrem Zimbalist, Jr.) and Sgt. Finis Brown (Ronny Cox) are called to an empty lot and when they arrive they locate a body that has been brutally mutilated and cut in half. The two start investigating who the body belongs to and it eventually leads them to a mysterious woman named Elizabeth Smart (Lucie Arnaz).

WHO IS THE BLACK DAHLIA? is an extremely entertaining and very interesting made-for-TV movie that manages to play like a wonderful film noir of the 50s while at the same time capturing the spirit of a 70s TV movie. The mystery surrounding Elizabeth Smart's death has led to countless theories over the decades so being able to watch one of the theories from 1975 is interesting when viewed today. The film manages to be highly entertaining from start to finish and offers up two different sides of the story.

The first side is that of the police. Through narration we hear from Hansen as he tries to solve the various mysterious surrounding the Smart character. The second portion of the film shows us various things about Smart from her deciding to leave her home in Maine, to getting kick out of her father's house as well as the various issues she had trying to break into show business. I'm not sure how accurate these personal stories can be but they're all told in an entertaining way. Of course, the mystery of who the killer is has yet to be solved but the film puts out there some interesting ideas.

The performances are all extremely good with Zimbalist having no problem carrying the film. He certainly fits the film noir detective and manages to hold your attention throughout. Arnaz is also good in the role of Smart and I thought Tom Bosely, Cox, June Lockhart, Donna Mills and Brooke Adams were good. WHO KILLED THE BLACK DAHLIA? works just fine as a mystery and it certainly helps build the story behind the actual case.

There's only one thing more sensational and fascinating than a gruesome murder case, and that's an unsolved gruesome murder case! Why are authors and filmmakers still inspired by Jack the Ripper, the Zodiac Killer, and - of course - the Black Dahlia? Well, probably because we can't stand the idea that someone capable of committing such cruel and gruesome crimes is still walking around free and unpunished (even though that's highly unlikely since these cold cases are almost a century old).

Black Dahlia is the nickname given to the unfortunate Elizabeth Short. She was a young girl who moved from Maine to California to find success and happiness, but - during the turbulent WWII years - all she got were a few difficult years and ultimately a tragic death. Elizabeth's corpse was so barbarically mutilated that the case deployed a huge police investigation and massive media attention, but the culprit was never identified.

"Who is the Black Dahlia" is something between a documentary and a fictional crime/thriller, but rest assured, it's an excellent film and absorbing from start to finish. The narrative structure is sublime with, told in parallel, sequences revolving around the slow-moving police search and flashbacks showing Elizabeth's daily struggles. The letters to her grandmother, in which she writes that everything is going swell in LA even though she's suffering, are harrowing. The film isn't entirely accurate or truthful, but it's respectful, overall well-researched, and - do I daresay - hundreds of times better than Brian De Palma's 2006 effort.

This is by far the best-told, best-acted and best-produced of all the many movies about Elizabeth Short's story.

Lucie Arnaz's restrained performance succeeds in presenting Short as a woman of thwarted ambition, floating in a vacuum of failure, just hanging on by a thread. She should have received an Emmy for it.

This version of the Black Dahlia story has more in-depth characterization of Elizabeth Short than other versions, which go more for sensationalism.

I don't understand why "Who Is The Black Dahlia?" isn't out on DVD, especially considering its cult following.