Screenplay: The Blue Dahlia

Overview
Raymond Chandler's screenplay for The Blue Dahlia dramatizes a postwar noir set against the sun-drenched but morally shadowed landscape of Los Angeles. The story follows a recently returned veteran who finds himself at the center of a murder investigation and a tangle of secrets, lies and betrayals. Chandler's taut dialogue and searing atmosphere turn ordinary social scenes, bars, apartments, and Hollywood parties, into arenas of suspicion and emotional danger.

Plot
A former serviceman comes home to discover his marriage fractured and his domestic life uncanny. When his wife is found dead under mysterious circumstances, he wakes to a nightmare: the evidence seems to point to him. With a wounded reputation and a murky alibi, he becomes the focus of police attention and gossip, compelled to clear his name even as forces close in from unexpected directions.
As the investigation unfolds, loyalties fray and new facts surface that complicate the simple picture of a jealous husband or a random crime. A tight circle of associates, an outspoken war buddy, a glamorous woman from the veteran's past, and various opportunists in Hollywood, each carry motives and secrets. Blackmail, infidelity and old resentments come to light, and a relentless hunt for the truth leads the protagonist across the city's seedy underbelly and its gilded façades. The screenplay builds to a tense revelation, where Chandler ties together red herrings and character confessions into a decisive confrontation that exposes the unlikely culprit and the human cost of deception.

Characters and relationships
The central figure is a man shaped by wartime experiences, trying to reconcile what he saw and endured with civilian life. His vulnerability and blunt honesty make him both sympathetic and suspect; his moral center is tested as allies abandon him and enemies circle. A boisterous, loyal buddy provides comic relief and emotional contrast, but even that friendship is strained by jealousy, romantic entanglements and mutual suspicion.
A luminous woman from the hero's past functions as both confidante and provocation. Her charm, evasiveness and complicated loyalties reflect the ambiguous morality that Chandler delights in portraying. Other supporting figures, blackmailers, partygoers and cops, populate a world where appearances often mask violent impulses. Chandler's people are not merely plot devices but living contradictions, their small gestures and barbed exchanges revealing motives long before the final denouement.

Themes and style
Chandler's screenplay emphasizes themes of alienation, moral ambiguity and the corrosive effects of secrets. Postwar dislocation is central: veterans return changed, civilian life feels distant, and ordinary social rituals are tinged with threat. The story interrogates honor and culpability, asking whether character or circumstance determines a man's fate. Blackmail and betrayal function as social dynamics as much as plot mechanisms, showing how personal weaknesses become weaponized.
Stylistically, the script blends hard-boiled dialogue with moments of sharp visual contrast, sunlit boulevards that conceal danger, domestic interiors that feel suddenly hostile. Chandler's ear for cadence and his knack for memorable lines inject noir flavor, while the narrative's careful pacing keeps the mystery taut without sacrificing character depth. The Blue Dahlia operates as both a gripping whodunit and a melancholic portrait of postwar America, where the search for truth reveals how easily decency can be compromised.