Who Is the Black Dahlia?

This is by far the best-told, best-acted and best-produced of all the many movies about Elizabeth Short's story.

Lucie Arnaz's restrained performance succeeds in presenting Short as a woman of thwarted ambition, floating in a vacuum of failure, just hanging on by a thread. She should have received an Emmy for it.

This version of the Black Dahlia story has more in-depth characterization of Elizabeth Short than other versions, which go more for sensationalism.

I don't understand why "Who Is The Black Dahlia?" isn't out on DVD, especially considering its cult following.

Literate, well-told, consistently excellent review of the events leading to the disappearance of the Black Dahlia? Marvelous performances, especially by Zimbaliest, Beckman, Mills, and DeHaven. Mystery buffs and crime drama enthusiasts alike should find this one as excellent exercise for the mind.

I too was frightened the first time I saw this TV movie. It tells the story of the short life, and gruesome, unsolved 1947 murder of Elizabeth Short, whose nickname was the Black Dahlia, a type of flower. There is a certain creepiness that pervades this low-key period story, told in flashbacks of Short's brief Los Angeles existence before her slaughter. Efram Zimbalist, Jr., portrays the detective who becomes obsessed with the young, attractive woman's story. The period details feel right, for I am too young to have any first-hand experience of the time, and Lucie Arnaz's performance as the doomed title character adds emotional weight to what could have been an exploitive picture. This is another example of how superior, in general, '70's made-for-television movies were to future endeavors.

This made for t.v. movie terrified me when I saw it in 1975. One of the people with whom I was living at the time said, "Watch this and tell me how it turns out," then left to go out.

By the end, in which the Sgt. Harry Hansen character looks at the camera and speculates about the murderer (I won't say any more than that), I was so scared that I ran around the whole house and turned on the lights and didn't go to bed until my housemates returned at 2:00 a.m.

The plot develops well, in a series of flashbacks. The characters are sympathetic. The period atmosphere seems/seemed right. And most of all, unusual for the time before "docudramas," this film was based on a real case.

I am not the world's largest Efrem Zimbalist, Jr. fan (though I did enjoy 77 Sunset Strip as a child), but his work here is very good.

Enjoy .

Who Is the Black Dahlia? (1975)

*** 1/2 (out of 4)

Sgt. Harry Hansen (Efrem Zimbalist, Jr.) and Sgt. Finis Brown (Ronny Cox) are called to an empty lot and when they arrive they locate a body that has been brutally mutilated and cut in half. The two start investigating who the body belongs to and it eventually leads them to a mysterious woman named Elizabeth Smart (Lucie Arnaz).

WHO IS THE BLACK DAHLIA? is an extremely entertaining and very interesting made-for-TV movie that manages to play like a wonderful film noir of the 50s while at the same time capturing the spirit of a 70s TV movie. The mystery surrounding Elizabeth Smart's death has led to countless theories over the decades so being able to watch one of the theories from 1975 is interesting when viewed today. The film manages to be highly entertaining from start to finish and offers up two different sides of the story.

The first side is that of the police. Through narration we hear from Hansen as he tries to solve the various mysterious surrounding the Smart character. The second portion of the film shows us various things about Smart from her deciding to leave her home in Maine, to getting kick out of her father's house as well as the various issues she had trying to break into show business. I'm not sure how accurate these personal stories can be but they're all told in an entertaining way. Of course, the mystery of who the killer is has yet to be solved but the film puts out there some interesting ideas.

The performances are all extremely good with Zimbalist having no problem carrying the film. He certainly fits the film noir detective and manages to hold your attention throughout. Arnaz is also good in the role of Smart and I thought Tom Bosely, Cox, June Lockhart, Donna Mills and Brooke Adams were good. WHO KILLED THE BLACK DAHLIA? works just fine as a mystery and it certainly helps build the story behind the actual case.