蓝色大丽花

在剧本开篇，钱德勒称《蓝色大丽花》为约翰尼（Johnny）、乔治（George）和巴兹（Buzz）的故事——这是三个归来的老兵，代表了我们经常在反映第二次世界大战的战争片中见到的社会阶层截面。这三人是“一个被执行了太多任务的轰炸队的最后幸存者”，由于伤情或重压被提前造返。约翰尼的视力开始衰退，乔治无法集中注意力，而巴兹的颅骨里则留着一个弹片，使他经常头痛和昏厥。更糟的是，他们所回归的这个世界很难说比他们在海外离开的那个好。战前，约翰尼是一家南加州石油公司的“检测员”，和妻儿一起住在五居室的房子里；在他离开的这段日子里，他的孩子得白喉死去了，他的妻子卖了房子搬到洛杉矶，并成了一家日落大道夜总会黑帮分子老板的临时情人。乔治是一个挂牌律师，但他既没受过很好的教育，也不成功，他的女朋友离开了他。巴兹是他们三个中最无产阶级的一个，回家后却发现酗酒的父亲已抛弃了母亲，而她只能在赤贫中艰难度日。钱德勒原始剧本中的情节设置和完成影片大致相同，除了在前者中，巴兹谋杀了约翰尼的妻子，然后遭遇昏厥，110从而忘记了这件事。钱德勒显然想写一个希区柯克式“冤枉的人”的电影，包含了约翰尼和巴兹之间的罪行交换（exchange of guilt）；然而，从另一个角度看，他是想让所有主角看上去像是普遍社会病（social malaise）的替罪羊。故事的最后，夜总会的老板埃迪·安塞尔（Eddie Ansell，电影中叫埃迪·哈伍德[Eddie Harwood]）承认了自己并没有犯下的罪行，并被警察枪决了——他所做的一切都是想保护他那不和的妻子乔伊丝（Joyce），而后者早在之前就为保护约翰尼承认了自己并没有犯过的罪行。安塞尔死后，警察结了案，随后是约翰尼和乔伊丝的简短爱情场面。第二天，我们看到乔治和巴兹在他们的公寓里，而隔壁吵闹的收音机声开始困扰巴兹。约翰尼和乔伊丝来了；乔伊丝戴着安塞尔的商标——一朵蓝色大丽花——“作为一种姿态”，而在他们交谈的过程中，她用手指拉着花朵。巴兹看在眼里，越发心烦意乱。突然，他开始疯狂地自言自语，躺在了睡椅上，很像一个接受分析的病人。在他朋友们的注视下，他似乎幻想出谋杀的场景，最后累得睡死过去。这个剧本以他那两个战时兄弟的冷酷反应结尾：他们坐在那里看着他。他的眼睛闭着，开始深深地呼吸。约翰尼（对乔治）：好吧，够了。希望他永远不会记起来。乔治：他想让他的母亲过上好日子，他想让她有自己的家。他想要很多东西。可现在他要待在铁窗里了。约翰尼（低声地）：希望他永远不会记起来。结束----------《黑色电影》据传钱德勒为改这个结局还酗酒了几日，最终换掉了杀手。让颇具新意的点子变成了常规的侦探小说路数。

This dahlia is “blue”, not “black”, but no less pestilent, noteworthy for being the first script penned by Raymond Chandler, George Marshall’s murder mystery casts Alan Ladd as Johnny Morrison, a discharged US Navy aviator, who returns to his homeland in Hollywood, California and only to be hounded as a prime suspect after his disloyal wife Helen (Dowling) is offed by his own pistol. Helen is unregenerate in Chandler’s script, a satiny minx who dallies with Eddie Harwood (da Silva is delectably in the form of a well-clad, moustachioed snake), the owner of a night club which gives the title of the movie, she is bitter, bibulous and self-destructive, her temperamental sea change is rooted in a tragedy that she shouldn’t be the sole culprit, but as per in Chandler’s misogynous, or more accurate, misanthropic views, she has no redeeming feature (though Dowling spunkily if subtly spikes the vilification with an air of defiance and vulnerability that reminds viewers that Helen is not a total monster, she might be merely a lonely girl defeated by the world around her, and gets acrid towards the missing father of their child). But what is loud and clear is that Johnny is not the killer, after he storms off and inexplicably leaves his pistol behind, he is picked up by the petite doll Joyce Harwood (Lake), who actually is Harwood’s wife, yet the story never cares to elucidate her side of story since she will soon be reduced to a distraction rather than a key factor in Johnny’s quest of truth. Is their encounter a chance meeting or by her design, if it is the latter, what is her motive? That’s as murky as the movie’s pitch black backdrop. Granted, Ladd is in the pink as the diminutive, unflappable, hardboiled veteran, who can be pugnacious at a word and not easily overpowered; as Buzz, Johnny’s shell-shock comrade-in-arms, Bendix has to overplay the sonic disturbance that he handles with no dexterity, although, glaringly, we are aware that it serves a grand purpose to this whodunit, but Chandler concedes to alter the original end under the pressure of the Navy, for casting a murderous shadow on returning soldiers, thus a forced one is purveyed in the last minute, to spectator’s utter dismal, the killer is an out-and-out reprobate. A fine film-noir if, technically speaking, nothing too spectacular to elaborate on, at least it is a taut, wholly composed divertissement that shines a light on the city’s nightmarish tenderloin, and pathetically, there is no peace for war heroes, not even on the land of peace. referential entries: Billy Wilder’s DOUBLE INDEMNITY (1944, 8.2/10); George Marshall’s DESTRY RIDES AGAIN (1939, 7.1/10).