because of its dull script. It is based on the short story "Gardenia" by Vera Caspary. It plays as an unimaginative newspaper melodrama that takes jabs at the middle-class and how neurotic and fearful they are about romance. Nat 'King' Cole makes a welcome cameo as the house pianist at the nightclub called The Blue Gardenia, crooning in his velvet voice the titular theme song. Noted cinematographer Nicholas Musuraca injects the film with some intriguing noir touches, such as those ominous rain drops on Raymond Burr's window the night of the murder ... Lang himself in interviews dismissed the film as a "job-for-hire". ... But the story itself wasn't original and the acting wasn't engaging enough to elevate it past being a mild thriller. A Lux Radio Theatre adaptation of The Blue Gardenia aired on November 30, 1954, with the lead roles taken by Dana Andrews – in the role Fritz Lang had wanted him to play in the film – and Ruth Roman: Andrews would later play the male lead in both the 1956 films: While the City Sleeps and Beyond a Reasonable Doubt, which were the second and third installments of the "newspaper noir" film trio Lang began with the film The Blue Gardenia (Lang was not involved in the Lux Radio production). References External links The Blue Gardenia at Senses of Cinema 1953 films 1950s crime thriller films 1950s English-language films American crime thriller films American black-and-white films Film noir Films about journalists Films based on novellas Films based on works by Vera Caspary Films directed by Fritz Lang Films scored by Raoul Kraushaar Films set in Los Angeles Warner Bros. films 1950s American films