Who Is the Black Dahlia? (1975 TV Movie) User Reviews (20)

terrified me when I first saw it on t.v. in 1975

[JGWalker · 7/10 · 2 March 1999]

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 .

Brilliant portrayal of a sad and brutal true story

[harrypaals · 8/10 · 9 January 2016]

This 1975 TV movie brilliantly portrayed the tragic true story of an young aspiring actress and her brutal murder in 1947, which has never been solved.

The story told in flashbacks with some style for an old TV movie. Very good acting and well written screenplay mostly based on facts. Although Elizabeth Short's murder scene was one of the most disturbing crime scenes ever recorded in history, this movie never tried to exploit it by using unnecessary gore, which may disappoint a few fans of the genre. Here the focus is on the characterization of Elizabeth Beth.

Lucie Arnaz did well playing the innocent yet mysterious young and gorgeous Beth. It was very sad at times and depressing as well. Efrem Zimbalist Jr. was superb as the detective who was obsessed and frustrated with the mystery beauty. The co-stars did their parts okay.

A true hidden gem. Probably one of the best TV movies made in the 70s.

The sad story of Black Dahlia.

[HumanoidOfFlesh · 8/10 · 6 September 2010]

Elizabeth Short was a beautiful woman,who desperately wanted to become an actress.She went to Los Angeles and met her terrible destiny there.Her dismembered body was found discarded in two sections like a shattered doll on a vacant lot in LA on 15th January 1947.She had been tortured while being drained for her blood,before the killer hacked her torso in two.A beautiful woman in black killed by unknown slayer."Who Is the Black Dahlia?" is a terrific mystery thriller with excellent acting and some eerie overtones.Lucie Arnaz is perfect as a desperate Liz Short.Her dreams of becoming a film star never materialised.Her fate was more than horrible.The tragic story of Black Dahlia haunts me since my childhood.8 out of 10.

Real Life Film Noir

[Lechuguilla · 10/10 · 2 January 2005]

"This is about a murder that really happened. Nobody made it up. As far as I know, there's never been another one before or since, quite like it --- ever!" Those ominous words, spoken in VO by Efrem Zimbalist, Jr., open this 1975 docudrama that chronicles a real life murder mystery that has never been solved.

Elizabeth Short moved to California in the 1940's, in search of show-biz stardom. The fact that this beautiful young woman wore mostly black clothes to match her black hair led others to nickname her "The Black Dahlia". On January 15, 1947, her mutilated and exsanguinated body was found in a vacant field in Los Angeles. The homicide immediately created national interest. And in the fifty-plus years since her death, this unsolved murder has evolved into a major legend.

The screenplay for "Who Is The Black Dahlia?" is factual, well written, sensitive, and thankfully low-key. The story, told in flashbacks, is riveting. In one chilling scene, a man stands in a telephone booth and, with his back to the camera, conveys to the newsman on the other end of the line crucial details about the murder that only the killer could know. The man's face is never shown.

Playing the role of Elizabeth Short, Lucie Arnaz gives a credible and sympathetic performance. Efrem Zimbalist, Jr. convincingly plays Sgt. Harry Hansen, the frustrated, lead detective. The support cast is equally effective. The film's music is appropriately downbeat and depressing.

Some viewers may find the plot to be slow. Certainly, the film's lack of in-your-face violence and gore will disappoint the tabloid crowd. But for thinking people, for viewers who can appreciate a thoughtful and insightful analysis of a horrible crime, I recommend this film most highly.

In the film's final VO, Sgt. Hansen reflects: "We never found anybody who saw Elizabeth Short the last six days of her life ... In Los Angeles police files, The Black Dahlia murder case is still open."

Excellent, but with an additional "side mystery" to it

[bigpurplebear-1 · 8 November 2003]

**Warning: Possible spoilers for anyone unfamiliar with the story!**

The grisly murder of Elizabeth Short -- the "Black Dahlia" -- has fascinated crime-buffs (along with ghouls of various stripe) virtually nonstop since that January 1947 morning when her savaged body was discovered in a south-central L.A. vacant lot. Almost immediately, and almost without exception, this focus has been sensationalized and has tended to dehumanize Short to such an extent that it's all too easy to overlook the fact that she was a human being as opposed to merely a gaudily-nicknamed, conveniently placed puzzle.

The great exception to this treatment is 1975's "Who Is The Black Dahlia?"

The film tells two stories in parallel, and it does so very effectively. Alongside the police investigation into her murder, Beth Short's life is also examined in flashback as months and days unfold to lead her to her death. There's a sense of inevitability in the air that surrounds both stories; just as certain initial steps (or missteps) in the investigation seem to foredoom its chances of success, there is likewise an aura of "paths not taken" which seems to render the Black Dahlia's fate inescapable. As portrayed (hauntingly and convincingly) by Luci Arnaz, Short emerges as a vulnerable young woman who, for all her outward cynicism, is far too trusting. In the film's final glimpse of Beth, as you watch her walking away into infamy, you may well experience an urge to run after her, stop her, maybe buy her a cup of coffee, anything to forestall the inevitable . ..

And that final glimpse leads to the "side mystery" I alluded to in the title line. Police reports filed during the initial investigation indicate that Short was last seen walking south from the Hotel Biltmore, and yet in the film -- for which retired LAPD Sgt. Harry Hansen provided copious notes from his days (and official files) on that investigation -- she's depicted as walking west along 7th Street from the Hotel Mayfair. Curious . ..

Along with Arnaz (whose mother, Lucille Ball, was reportedly dead-set against her playing the role), the movie offers standout performances by Efrem Zimbalist Jr. (as Hansen), Tom Bosley (as longtime, and well-known, police reporter Bevo Means) and a very well-designed sense of time and place to heighten the authenticity in a strong film.

I told him his daughter was murdered...He said so what

[kapelusznik18 · 6/10 · 24 January 2015]

****SPOILERS**** On the morning of January 15, 1947 the dissected and mutilated body of 22 year old Elizabeth Short, Lucie Arnez,was found in pieces in Los Angeles's Limert Park. That soon causes a frenzy of newspaper and magazine headlines all over the country about the beautiful woman who suffered such a grizzly death. Dubbed the "Black Dahlia" by the press Short's background reviled that she was a young girl from New England looking to make it big in the movies who came up short or dead in doing it. Elizabeth didn't make it big when she was alive but became an Hollywood as well as major murder mystery after her death. It's the two LA policemen Sgt. Harry Hansen, Efrem Zimbalist Jr, & Sgt. Finis Brown, Ronny Cox, who were assigned to the case who came up with a number of suspects who all proved to be innocent. Both Hansen & Brown found it very difficult in finding Elizabeth's killer in that as many as 50 people, all BS artists, came forward claiming credit for it.

The one person who in fact did murder Elizabeth by providing the LA police a number of items only she could have had on her at the time of her murder. As well as being able to answer correctly the three questions, that's still after all these years kept from the public, concerning her murder but was never seen or heard from again. That's after he got in touch with an LA newspaper editor by phone a week after, January 23, 1947, her body was found. The futile search for Elizabeth's murderer has gone on for almost 70 years with no results in sight. It's very possible that whoever murdered Elizabeth is dead himself but the fact that he got away with it makes her death more disturbing. He may well have murdered other victims as well and even if he were caught and punished for those other crimes her murder is still an open not closed case.

It was sad that beside being brutally murdered and mutilated Elizabeth found the fame as well as movie stardom that she so desperately was seeking not in life but sadly in death. Dozens of books and magazine articles were written about her as well as a half or so dozen, including this made for TV movie, films which she never lived to see. And in being dubbed the "Black Dahlia" a name which she in fact gave herself made her over the years one of the biggest real life, not phony, legends in all of Hollywood & movie history.

One of the best TV-movies ever

[aromatic-2 · 10/10 · 26 May 2001]

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.

Bisected

[ctomvelu1 · 6/10 · 26 February 2013]

Sober dramatization of the infamous murder case of a delusional young woman in post-WWII Lo Angeles. The so-called Black Dahlia was a girl from Maine who went to L.A. to be reunited with her father only to end up end up a homeless hustler who dreamed of stardom. Her cut-up body was found in a field, and to this day, no one has been convicted of her death. Lucie Arnaz plays the lost soul and Efrem Zimbalist is the detective trying to solve her murder. For what little money the filmmakers had to make this TV movie, they did a fine job. The irony of all this is, if the girl had not been brutally slaughtered, we would have never heard of her. Just another small-town kid with big dreams and not equipped to achieve them. She just floats along from day to day, dressed all in black and convincing others to take care of her. I've known a few like her in my time. We all have.

Best of all Black Dahlia productions

[maggie-122 · 9/10 · 2 November 2010]

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.

Some errors

[bornagain710-331-212635 · 4/10 · 19 March 2019]

Body was discovered by a mother walking with her son in a stroller not by a grandfather with his grandson!

Eerie, atmospheric.

[ActorMan22 · 9/10 · 23 August 2002]

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.

Add to Some Errors

[bornagain710-331-212635 · 4/10 · 19 March 2019]

Sailors were part of 1943 arrest of Elizabeth Short and not the murder!

Fightening film

[jeff-hertel · 9/10 · 2 March 2007]

I watched the film when it was first broadcast and I remember actually being really frightened by it. It was the eerie, atmospheric setting of the movie and good acting that gave the movie it's frightening aspects not the gore and carnage that movies made today depend on. Also, after watching her for years in "The Lucy Show" it was a very pleasant surprise to see Lucy Arnez playing a sexy young woman. Her acting career was really hampered by being the daughter of the famous woman. I wish that the film would be shown again on a cable telvision channel such as TCM or AMC so I could tape it. The recent big screen movie version of "The Black Dahlia" was a major disappointment especially compared to this well done made-for-television version.

Very Good Film Noir

[Michael_Elliott · 30 August 2015]

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.

1946 was not a good year for dahlia's.

[mark.waltz · 8/10 · 11 December 2020]

There was the blue dahlia on screen and the black dahlia in the brush of a remote field, fortunately discovered by a young boy and his grandfather while taking a stroll. Had they not come across that gruesome sight, there may not have been as many clues as they were able to muster to identify her let alone create a case to discover what happened period as it turns out, the mystery still remains just that, and over 70 years later, it is not just a mystery, but a reminder to young women of the dangers of trying to pursue a career in pictures.

If Peg Entwhistle and the Hollywoodland sign tragedy wasn't enough 15 years before this (one of the most notorious suicides of a young acting hopeful who didn't make it), the Elizabeth Short story is doubly tragic because of gruesome murder. It's very apparent that Short, always dressed in all black (which brought her legend through the nickname she got far too late), was a bit of an opportunist, but the film has Elizabeth (Lucie Arnaz) showing the viewer why. It was only out of desperation and the desperation to fool herself into thinking that she could make it, let alone others.

Maternal grandmother Mercedes McCambridge, estranged father Frank Maxwell, neighbor Donna Mills, employer John Fiedler and San Diego police matron Gloria DeHaven are just a few of the people she either lies to, manipulated or gets sage advice from, although Mills seems to have figured her out from the start.

Members of the police force (Efrem Zimbalist Jr., MacDonald Carey and Ronny Cox) and the medical profession (Tom Bosley and Henry Jones) work together to make pieces of the puzzle fit together and come up with the identity and a list of contacts, yet the mystery just becomes more perplexing. The more perplexing it gets, the more riveting it gets for the viewer even though they know that the mystery will remain open.

It's a dirty little story as her reputation as a dead woman makes her appear to be a wicked girl, but even those who claim that she was wicked and deserved what she got to admit that they really didn't know her completely. The 1940's Hollywood atmosphere is perfectly captured and as a true story, is more film more than the fictitious stories that were being filmed as part of that genre at the same time. While most TV movies I can watch just once and discard, this one is a keeper that I can easily return to along with the great 40's noir like "Double Indemnity" and "The Big Sleep".

Revised my rating to 4 for accuracy content

[bornagain710-331-212635 · 4/10 · 20 March 2019]

So many factual errors in this movie! No Grandmother, Father Cleo was a drunk. Also Elizabeth aka Black Dahlia had mob ties which are never mentioned in the movie. Her uncle had ties to Meyer Lansky. Elizabeth stayed with her uncle off and on before 1943. Also, Elizabeth was rumored to have connection to Bugsy Seigal and Luck Luciano.

You must read the book: Black Dahlia Files! Don't bother with this movie unless you like the stars in it!

very good evan better than the 2006 version

[daniellenaveaux · 10/10 · 26 May 2022]

I saw both versions of this murder case and i prefer the 1975 one. What really got to me was how the Sgt. Came out at the end and said, that there was a clue never made public and that if you know what that clue is your the killer. A good friend of mine was so obsist with the case he flew to S. F to meet with Elizabeth Shorts best friend who was also trying to solve her case and my friend told me what that clue is. Let me tell you i got chills when i heard what he did to her you see he kept her for two days, brutally torchered her inside her body (female reproductive parts)

More Errors

[bornagain710-331-212635 · 4/10 · 19 March 2019]

No mention of Dr George Hodel a principle suspect. Lucille Ball begged her daughter Arnaz not to do the movie! Don't know why because she was good in the part! Read The Black Dahlia Files by Donald H. Wolfe for the real story.

Nothing alive and pretty is ever permanent...

[Coventry · 8/10 · 30 April 2024]

There's only one thing more sensational and fascinating than a gruesome murder case, and that's an unsolved gruesome murder case! Why are authors and filmmakers still inspired by Jack the Ripper, the Zodiac Killer, and - of course - the Black Dahlia? Well, probably because we can't stand the idea that someone capable of committing such cruel and gruesome crimes is still walking around free and unpunished (even though that's highly unlikely since these cold cases are almost a century old).

Black Dahlia is the nickname given to the unfortunate Elizabeth Short. She was a young girl who moved from Maine to California to find success and happiness, but - during the turbulent WWII years - all she got were a few difficult years and ultimately a tragic death. Elizabeth's corpse was so barbarically mutilated that the case deployed a huge police investigation and massive media attention, but the culprit was never identified.

"Who is the Black Dahlia" is something between a documentary and a fictional crime/thriller, but rest assured, it's an excellent film and absorbing from start to finish. The narrative structure is sublime with, told in parallel, sequences revolving around the slow-moving police search and flashbacks showing Elizabeth's daily struggles. The letters to her grandmother, in which she writes that everything is going swell in LA even though she's suffering, are harrowing. The film isn't entirely accurate or truthful, but it's respectful, overall well-researched, and - do I daresay - hundreds of times better than Brian De Palma's 2006 effort.