The Blue Gardenia, from 1953, is a small picture (a thriller) that has a way of seeming not so small. This is because Anne Baxter‘s Norah is such a tragic figure and the mystery here of a man’s death is pretty puzzling and involving.

A womanizer (Raymond Burr) gets Norah drunk and she thinks that in his apartment she might have murdered him. Alas, when an ace newspaper reporter (Richard Conte) dominates the plot, the movie starts to sag. It would have helped had the piece been a tad more cynical about newspaper reporters. (Gee, wouldn’t you know it? Conte develops a crush on Norah.)

The film was directed by Fritz Lang. As a police detective George Reeves, the original TV Superman, is one of the best things in it.