The Black Dahlia: So Bad it Doesn't Deserve a Witty Title

How many of us fell prey to this? A fascinating premise, a captivating trailer, and the lure of a horrific true-crime drama. A sad shame none of this was delivered. I think this was a waste of film and it added further shame to the unfortunate life of Elizabeth Short, also known as the Black Dahlia.

I've studied the Black Dahlia case. I've studied the Ripper cases in London (some parallels can be drawn rather obviously). I've seen the fictional account of In Hell, a film about a detective studying the Ripper's motives, victims, and trying to track him down. It's a period piece, fascinating and fantastic in some of the opium inspired scenes. It's based on a graphic novel (read: adult comic book) and remains fairly true to all known accounts of the Ripper case. Was it ever solved? No. People surmise and draw conclusions (from the Royal Family to Lewis Carroll) but no one knows who the true Ripper was.

The Black Dahlia, based on the novel by James Elroy who also wrote L.A. Confidential, is about the horrific real world murder of Elizabeth (Betty) Short, an Angelean girl who had a thing for men in uniforms and bouncing about here and there. She was found dead in a field, nude, vivisected, and with all of her blood drained. Her mouth was sliced from ear to ear in a grizzly parody of a smile.

Instead of a mystery about the hunt for the killer of this poor unfortunate woman, we get a story about lesbians, psychotic rich families, boxers, a love triangle, more lesbians, a bank-robbery, lesbians, senseless violence, and, oh yeah, a psychopathic drunk socialite murderess. The plotline surrounding the investigation to Betty Short's death seems resigned to a hastily cobbled together dénouement lasting all of 20 minuets. The 'Oh yeah, we forgot to solve the murder' thing. Caught up in the love triangle, the lesbians, and the occasional mention of Betty Short, the story about the tragic death and reasons behind it seem to be an afterthought on the part of the director.

While the costumes are gorgeous, as any period piece must demand, and the cars are enjoyable to look at, the story-plot leaves SO MUCH to be desired. It didn't need to be about Betty Short. Any fictional murder would have sufficed. In fact, a fictional murder would have been a better wrap-around since the story was resigned to so much C plot.

The last minute of the film feels like an after-thought. Oh yeah, let's show off the horrific dummy corpse that we made, to show just how horrible the crime was that was carried out on the unfortunate Ms. Short. No. The true crime here is how a film which could have been so much better was made in her name and about her tragedy.