arrest Norah. Bitter and confused, she mistakenly believes that Casey is the one who turned her in. (It was actually a diner employee.) At an airport, Casey, with his colleague Al (Richard Erdman), notices that the piped-in music—the love theme from Tristan und Isolde—is identical to the music the maid found playing on Harry's phonograph. Finally grasping the significance of the fact that the records on the machine had been changed, Casey realizes it's possible that Norah was not the killer. Following up this hunch, Casey and Police Captain Sam Haynes (George Reeves) go to a local music shop. Harry's ex-girlfriend Rose Miller (Ruth Storey) is working in the back room at the shop. The clerk tells the police that it was Rose who sold Harry the record, and calls to her to come out and help. Realizing the police are closing in, she attempts suicide. From a hospital bed, Rose confesses that while Norah was passed out at Harry's apartment, she herself arrived, demanding that he marry her. (Although she does not say that she is pregnant, the audience of that time would assume that that was the reason for her desperate demands.) He refused, she says, and started playing the record that had brought them together. (That record being Toscanini conducting Wagner's Tristan und Isolde.) Then, Rose recalls, she noticed Norah's handkerchief on the floor by the record player, and out of jealousy killed Harry with the poker. Norah, everyone finally understands, was simply an intoxicated and confused bystander. After Rose's confession, Norah is freed. She confides to friends that she has forgiven Casey and wants him as the new man in her life. Casey wants her as well, and tosses his "little black book" to his buddy Al. Cast Anne Baxter as Norah Larkin Richard Conte as Casey Mayo Ann Sothern as Crystal Carpenter Raymond Burr as Harry Prebble Jeff Donnell as Sally Ellis Richard Erdman as Al George Reeves as Police Capt. Sam Haynes Ruth Storey as Rose Miller Ray Walker as Homer Nat King Cole as himself Dolores Fuller as woman at bar (uncredited) Papa John Creach as man playing violin (uncredited) Production The source novella for The Blue Gardenia was written by Vera Caspary and entitled The Gardenia: the eventual amendment of the film's title to The Blue Gardenia would be an attempt to attract filmgoers by reminding them of the highly publicized unsolved