WHO IS THE BLACK DAHLIA? (TV)
Summary
A drama film featuring a fictionalized account of the events surrounding the murder of Elizabeth Short, popularly known as “The Black Dahlia,” in 1947.
On the morning of January 15th, 1947, in Los Angeles, California, an old man and his grandson discover a dead body in the bushes near a vacant lot while out for a walk. Los Angeles Police Department detectives Harry Hansen and Finis Brown are assigned to investigate, discovering that the body has been bisected. Four years earlier, on January 26th, 1943, young woman Elizabeth Short, the eventual murder victim, informs her grandmother that her father has sent her money to come move in with him in California from her home in Maine, much to her excitement. Her grandmother is disturbed by the notion that she has been communicating with her father and pleads with her not to go; Elizabeth has not seen her father since she was a small child and her grandmother warns that she has no idea what she is getting herself into. However, Elizabeth is anxious to see her father and harbors aspirations of becoming a film actress. She arrives in Vallejo, California on February 3rd, 1943 and walks to her father’s house. He says that he was not expecting her to move in with him and that he simply gave her “traveling money.” He gruffly offers to allow her to stay temporarily, until she can find her own place to live. She writes to her grandmother, making it seem as though her father was happy to see her and that everything is fine.
In 1947 a detailed investigation is launched to determine the body’s identity and more details about how the murder was committed. The coroner’s initial assessment notes the care and skill with which the victim was bisected and removed of all blood. The news media starts to seize upon the unusual nature of the case, and Hansen and Brown are instructed to resolve the case before the newspapers can sensationalize it. On February 17th, 1943 in Alameda, California, Elizabeth is hit on by a sailor on shore leave and she tries to walk on by. Another sailor joins and also tries to hit on her. She runs away as the two sailors get into a fistfight with each other and they decide to leave on their own; Elizabeth retains a fake ruby ring given to her by the first sailor. The investigation continues as the newspapers label the murder a “sex crime.” Hansen starts to become strangely attached to the case, ascribing characteristics to the victim without knowing her identity or anything about her, much to Brown’s concern.
A woman comes in to the police station claiming that she saw the murderer’s car pulling away from the place where Elizabeth’s body was found, giving a vague physical description of the vehicle. On March 27th, 1943, Elizabeth gets into an argument with her father, who believes she is not contributing enough to the household. He gives her money to send her back to Maine, although she protests. In 1947, a man named Jack Owen, claiming to be Elizabeth’s boyfriend, arrives at the police station in order to identify the body. The cause of death is determined to be a combination of lacerations and blunt force trauma, and the police speculate on the exact nature of the subsequent bisection. The police arrest a mugger driving a vehicle similar to the one described, and Hansen goes to check it out. The back seat is stained with what the suspect claims is chicken blood, although Hansen and the other officers are dubious of this claim; a switchblade is found on his person. The man, Redfield, is interrogated at the police station and he admits to the mugging, but does not confess to anything else. Further scrutiny by the police lend validity to some of his claims; furthermore, the woman he tried to steal from is discovered to be a serial shoplifter. Hansen is dismayed that they have not yet found the true culprit.
On March 30th, 1943, a soldier finds Elizabeth walking on the side of a road near Camp Clarke, California. He offers her a ride, but she declines. He attempts to convince her that he has no ulterior motives and is simply trying to do her a favor. He tries to accost her and she fights back, and the timely arrival of an older couple driving past allows her to escape. They keep driving, leaving Elizabeth alone. She writes to her grandmother again, claiming that she is going to start taking acting lessons in order to become an actress and pay her own way. In 1947, the lack of substantial evidence about Elizabeth’s murder continues to wear on Hansen’s nerves as the investigation enters its second day. On April 1st, 1943, Elizabeth attempts to get a job at the Camp Clarke PX office, although the manager believes she is too young for the position. She lies about her background and convinces him to give her a job. On September 5th, after working at Camp Clarke for a time, she tells her manager that she is considering getting acting lessons, although she notes that it is “a long way off.” The other women working at the PX are somewhat jealous that Elizabeth gets a great deal of attention, although she makes it a point not to get involved with the men on the base. She leaves the day after an article is published about her in a local newspaper, labeling her the “Camp Clarke Cutie.”
Hansen uses one of his contacts in the FBI to speed up the processing of Elizabeth’s fingerprints. On June 6th, 1944 in San Diego, California, Elizabeth goes out on a date who tries to ply her with alcohol despite her resistance to it. A policeman arrives and arrests her for underage drinking. She is fingerprinted and held for a brief time; in 1947 Hansen obtains a copy of the police report from this arrest, thus identifying Elizabeth. Hansen and the rest of the police department use this information to try to create a list of murder suspects. His captain cautions him not to expend too many resources on the case, unwilling to ignore their other police duties; he feels that they must pursue the case only to a certain extent and then leave it be. Owen drinks heavily in a diner and mumbles to himself incoherently, leading to his arrest by the police. He is considered a suspect, although Hansen does not agree with this assessment; Owen is a ship’s navigator operating out of San Francisco and the police place him aboard his ship on the night of the murder. Hansen becomes agitated at the increasing number of red herrings in the case, finding it impossible to sleep and speaking to his police sketch of Elizabeth’s face when no one else is around.
Hansen and Brown interrogate a number of morticians, as the police coroner theorized that Elizabeth’s bisection may have been performed on an embalming table. On June 16th, 1944, Elizabeth is released from the San Diego police station on probation. She is given a bus ticket back to Maine, and the police matron takes pity on her and gives her a little extra money. She promises to return home and be a “good girl,” but decides to stay in California, continuing to tell her grandmother that she is successfully pursuing a movie career. The police discover what they believe to be Elizabeth’s suitcase in a bus station. Inside they find a bundle of letters, a doll with the words “Love, Doc” written on it, and a few sets of clothing. On November 14th, 1945, Elizabeth arrives in Hollywood and attempts to get cast as an extra, although a doorman informs her that no casting is taking place that day. The doorman suggests that she get a day job such as waiting tables. For the time being she rents out a cheap apartment with several other young women. When asked, she claims that she wears all black to mourn for her fictitious husband, killed in the war.
The police comb through the letters sent to Elizabeth, mostly from her grandmother; they ask several studios if they employed her, but they do not recognize her. Brown discovers that at some point Elizabeth moved in with noted movie theater promoter Miles Harmonder. On May 12th, 1946, Elizabeth arrives at the Harmonder residence and claims that he invited her to stay there; she encounters a number of other young women lounging around the pool. She proves to be somewhat standoffish with the other women, particularly one Susan Winters. In 1947, Hansen and Brown pull up to Harmonder’s house and question Susan, who says that Harmonder is in San Francisco at the moment and that she knows very little about Elizabeth; she claims that Elizabeth was highly promiscuous and had numerous liaisons. She says Elizabeth stayed for about a month before leaving and believes that her behavior suggested that she was afraid that someone was after her. On June 6th, 1946 in Santa Monica, California, Elizabeth gets a tattoo of a rose on her back at the behest of a sailor she is dating, although he quickly abandons her.
In 1947 Jimmy Richardson, the editor of a Los Angeles newspaper, receives a phone call from a man claiming to be the murderer, recounting numerous details of how he carried out her torture and bisection. He says he will mail Richardson some “souvenirs” in order to prove that his story is genuine. Richardson informs Hansen and Brown of this development, and they believe that his confession may be genuine. The three of them inspect a package delivered to the paper, containing several of Elizabeth’s identification papers such as her passport. The passport contains the same signature as the one they found on Elizabeth’s doll, suggesting that “Doc” is the killer, although it is written in Elizabeth’s handwriting. They also find a address book emblazoned with Harmonder’s name, and they decide to arrest Harmonder for questioning. On July 1st, 1946, Elizabeth finds Harmonder’s address book discarded on the floor and tries to keep it, although Susan asks for her to return it, claiming that it could contain information which might be detrimental to Harmonder’s business. Elizabeth swipes the address book and runs out of the house.
Harmonder is brought in for questioning and confirms that Elizabeth stole the address book and that he has not seen her since then. He says he knows very little about Elizabeth and calls her “strange” and “secretive.” On September 14th, 1946 in Oxnard, California, Elizabeth manages to avoid a man asking her out at a luncheon counter; the luncheon counter gives her the nickname “the Black Dahlia” for her propensity for wearing all black clothing. In 1947 the name “Black Dahlia” becomes a moniker for Elizabeth in many newspapers, who continue to report on the case. Hansen follows a lead and interrogates Susan about any mutual acquaintances between her and Elizabeth, but she provides little in the way of help. She claims that Elizabeth was “a tease” and was likely killed by one of her jealous lovers, and also believes that Hansen has become obsessed with Elizabeth. She notes that Elizabeth had a changeable temperament and was something of an enigma. Brown and his police captain become concerned about Hansen’s behavior and believe that he should be taken off of the case.
On December 8th, 1946, in Santa Barbara, California, a movie theater ticket booth attendant finds Elizabeth waiting in front of a movie theater, claiming that she was promised a place to stay by a man she was supposed to meet. The ticket booth attendant offers to put her up for the night. She writes to her grandmother again, claiming that there is a movie strike and that she is working in a hospital for the time being. The police question the woman she stayed with and find the fake ruby ring that Elizabeth wore. They discover that Elizabeth left them intending to go to the bus station with her suitcase. The bus station manager states that they never sold her a ticket and says she only visited in order to use the telephone, and did so for several hours before leaving with a man who pulled up in his car. He describes the vehicle and notes that it had an insignia on the license plate, possibly signifying that the driver was a doctor of some sort. Hansen and Brown track down the vehicle in question and speak to its owner, Dr. Wallace Coppin. Dr. Coppin attempts to flee but they capture him, arresting him under suspicion of killing Elizabeth.
Later, Hansen calls in Elizabeth’s grandmother and questions her; she is distraught over Elizabeth’s death. Dr. Coppin is interrogated and accused of being the “Doc” mentioned in several of Elizabeth’s possessions. He says that he is, and they accuse him of utilizing his medical knowledge in order to bisect Elizabeth, although he vehemently denies this. He states that Elizabeth is the one who wrote “Love, Doc” and that he tried to distance himself from her after going out with her a couple of times but did not murder her. He recounts how he was driving to Santa Barbara for a job interview and met Elizabeth in a bar on the way, purchasing the doll for her from the bar. He claims that he took her back to the boarding house where she was staying and they parted ways, and that nothing untoward happened between the two of them. He also claims that their second and only other meeting was accidental, and that he did not wish to see her again; he says that she was calling all over town from the bus station to find a lift, and that he happened to be the one to answer the call.
On January 8th, 1947, Dr. Coppin picks her up and she claims that she is accompanying him back to Los Angeles, much to his surprise. They get into an argument and he invites her out for a drink. They get drunk and commiserate, and Elizabeth talks about her father’s resentment towards her and how it has affected her emotionally. They leave the bar and drive off until morning, January 9th, when Elizabeth apologizes for becoming emotional. She leaves him and tell him not to worry about her. Hansen has only scant evidence about her whereabouts after that, only that she deposited her suitcase in a locker at the bus depot and waited for several hours in a hotel lobby until walking out, never to be seen again. Hansen remains haunted by the mystery surrounding the case and the failure to resolve it; he and Brown are retired after spending over twenty years investigating the case. Program ends abruptly. Commercials deleted.
(This program contains audiovisual errors. It represents the best copy available at this time.)
Details
- NETWORK: NBC
- DATE: 9:00 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 1:35:27
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: 118687
- GENRE: Drama, police/private detective
- SUBJECT HEADING: TV - Drama, police/private detective
- SERIES RUN: NBC - TV, 1975
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- Henry Colman … Producer
- Joseph Pevney … Director
- Robert W. Lenski … Writer
- Efrem Zimbalist Jr. … Cast, Sgt. Harry Hansen
- Ronny Cox … Cast, Sgt. Finis Brown
- Macdonald Carey … Cast, Capt. Jack Donahue
- Lucie Arnaz … Cast, Elizabeth Short
- Tom Bosley … Cast, Bevo Means
- Linden Chiles … Cast, Dr. Wallace Coppin
- Gloria De Haven … Cast, Police Matron
- John Fiedler … Cast, PX Manager
- Rick Jason … Cast, Miles Harmonder
- Henry Jones … Cast, Lee Jones
- June Lockhart … Cast, Mrs. Fowler
- Mercedes McCambridge … Cast, Grandmother
- Donna Mills … Cast, Susan Winters
- Brooke Adams … Cast, Diane Fowler
- Henry Beckman … Cast, Traveling Salesman
- Lee Debroux … Cast, Casting Man
- John Fink … Cast, Reporter
- Ted Gehring … Cast, A. Redfield
- Murry MacLeod … Cast, Soldier on Highway
- Frank Maxwell … Cast, Mr. Short
- Lana Wood … Cast, Boarder
- Don Keefer … Cast, Jimmy Richardson
- Randolph Roberts … Cast, 1st Sailor
- Tim Scott … Cast, Counterman
- Sid Haig … Cast, Tattoo Artist
- David Knapp … Cast, Naval Officer