The Legend of The Black Dahlia

"Cherchez la femme, Bucky.  Remember that."

Los Angeles, 1947: an era of corrupt politicians, dirty cops, ruthless gangsters, seedy filmmakers and young actresses hungry for stardom.  This is the story of the seamy underbelly of a city in which the death of one girl led to the birth of a legend: The Black Dahlia.

For almost 60 years, the murder of a lost soul in a heartless town has fascinated the nation.  Hers remains one of the most gruesome, unsolved homicides in the City of Angels' history.  Conspiracy theories and false confessions abound, but no one has ever known why an aspiring young starlet named Elizabeth "Betty" Short was horrifically tortured or who committed the crime.

On January 15, 1947, detectives from the LAPD found the nude, mutilated remains of a young actress cut in half at the waist, with organs removed and blood drained from her small body.  Her killer bludgeoned and sodomized her, slit her mouth from ear to ear in a sickening, clownish grin and dumped Betty in a vacant lot near Leimert Park.  Her attack was so grisly that most images were kept from the public.

Forty years after her killing, crime novelist James Ellroy ("L.A. Confidential," "American Tabloid") crafted "The Black Dahlia," a best-selling whodunit with Betty's murder as its crux and boom-era L.A. as its backdrop.  Weaving a story of obsession, doppelgangers and those who became fixated on the brutal murder, Ellroy used the book as an attempt to exorcise demons from his own mother's 1958 strangulation.

In 2006, master storyteller Brian De Palma, known for such classic crime dramas as The Untouchables, Scarface and Carlito's Way, and his suspense thrillers Carrie, Dressed to Kill and Blow Out, directs this unforgettable adaptation of Ellroy's classic.

Two ex-pugilist cops, Lee Blanchard (Aaron Eckhart) and Bucky Bleichert (Josh Hartnett) are the poster boys for 1940's LAPD.  The new partners' first homicide case starts as a call to investigate the slaying of the ambitious silver screen B-lister Betty Short (Mia Kirshner).

A beautiful 22-year-old brunette who dreamed of life on the big screen, the transient Betty escaped her East Coast home with stars in her eyes.  She was known as a dear friend, beloved sister, estranged daughter, often girlfriend and accused prostitute.  When alive, Betty became the fixation of every man she met; they were obsessed with simultaneously saving and possessing her tortured spirit.

In death, the compulsion she inspired continues.

While Blanchard's growing preoccupation with the Dahlia's murder threatens his relationship with Kay (Scarlett Johansson), his best friend Bleichert finds himself drawn to the enigmatic Madeleine Linscott (two-time Oscar® winner Hilary Swank), the daughter of one of the city's most prominent families—who just happens to have an unsavory connection to the Dahlia.

As Blanchard spins into madness in trying to solve the case, he attempts to redeem himself for letting down other women he couldn't protect.  Bleichert begins to question his own sanity as his feelings fluctuate wildly between two disparate dames: the ruthless Madeleine and the seemingly innocent Kay.

Determined to be famous, destined to be infamous, Betty Short affected more lives dead than she possibly could alive.  She dreamed of being photographed for the big screen but wound up the pin-up girl of tabloid autopsy photos.  As De Palma hones his sharpest directorial instincts to take us into her world, true crime meets urban legend when he brings The Black Dahlia to the big screen.

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