The Blue Gardenia (1953) review

Switchboard operator Norah (Anne Baxter) reads a Dear Jane note one night from her boyfriend serving in Korea notifying her that he found someone else - distraught, she impulsively goes on a date with "calendar girl" artist Harry (Raymond Burr), he feeds her too many drinks (Polynesian Pearl Divers, to be specific), gets too frat-boyish and ends up dead, with Norah on the run (and not being able to recall what happened).  I've knocked many of Lang's noirs in the past, but I found myself drawn in by the likeability of the cast: Richard Conte's newspaper columnist steps out of his role to try to be a police officer (which is frowned upon) and Norah's roommate Crystal (Ann Southern) is about as loyal as one can ask a friend to be.  Peter Bogdanovich called it "a particularly venomous picture of American life" which strikes me as odd because that's how I'd describe many of Lang's other noirs; I didn't particularly care for the "twist ending" although it does suggest that some of those fevered anonymous tip people may actually be guilty ... of something.