In The Black Dahlia, Ellroy conjures up two extraordinarily divergent detectives, who not only differ from each other, but also bear little resemblance to the other L�A� Quartet’s protagonists. While almost all L�A� Quartet detectives seem to be gradually evolving into the paradigm of a hard-boiled detective, in The Black Dahlia it is not the case. Essentially, only the narrator of the story, Dwight
“Bucky” Bleichert, may be perceived as a neo-hard-boiled detective, while his partner, Lee Blanchard, should rather be analyzed as an “overcooked” detective, to use a culinary term. Even though one can discover an apparent resemblance between the characters, it is the dichotomy between them that eventually cul-minates in Dwight’s solving the Black Dahlia case.
Dwight “Bucky” Bleichert
James Ellroy’s novel, as well as De Palma’s adaptation, is narrated by the young police officer, Dwight “Bucky” Bleichert (performed by Josh Hartnett). Bucky is a lonely former boxer who has no friends in the police squad, since the fellow cops consider him a “snitch.” As a son of a Nazi sympathizer, in order to preserve his position he submits a report in which he provides the leadership with the names of Japanese-American acquaintances, the members of the Alien Squad, resulting in their deportation. It is not until the Zoot Suit Riots, when he meets a famous officer Lee Blanchard (Aaron Eckhart), who, just like himself, used to be a well-known boxer. Dwight strikes up a friendship with him and his beautiful cohabitant Kay Lake (Scarlett Johansson). The three of them create a peculiar family and live in a non-sexual triangle, caring about one another deeply. Like a true hard-boiled detective, he indeed forms very complicated bonds with other
people – his friendship with Lee is full of mystery, his relationship with Kay leans towards love, and the romantic affair with Madeleine (Hilary Swank) in which he is entangled makes him suppress the evidence of Dahlia’s crime. However, it is his devotion to Elizabeth Short (Mia Kirshner), also known as the Black Dahlia, that drives him insane.
After the body of Elizabeth Short is discovered, the police focus their atten-tion on the case, as this murder becomes a hot topic and is widely commented in all of the newspapers. Both Bleichert and Blanchard are put on the case and follow the leads. Although at first reluctant to leave all the cases that he has been working on, Bucky decides to solve the crime, especially after he discovers that Lee himself has been murdered. His devotion to Short’s case drives him mad.
He dreams about her, craves for her and even asks Madeleine, who is Elizabeth’s doppelganger, to dress like the victim while having sexual intercourse with him.
His obsession is clearly seen in the style of narration; Hoffman notices that the first quarter of The Black Dahlia is narrated in dense, smoothly written prose that is fairly easy reading [...]. In the rest of the book, however, the prose is harder to follow. As the action picks up, Bleichert becomes more nervous and jangly and, sentence by sentence, the writing gains speed and complexity” (2003: 391).
As regards his reasoning skills, a trait that every hard-boiled detective should possess, at first, Dwight is not very sure if he is capable of discovering the truth.
Hoffman claims that he “develops as a complex, poignant hero of ambivalent strength, a man whose self-doubt [...] can undermine his gifts of courage and intellect” (2003: 390). Only when he progresses in understanding the connec-tions and interrelaconnec-tions between the suspects, does he finally start to believe in his intellect and acknowledges himself as a detective: “dredging up the Issler/
Stinson/Vogel connection had convinced me of one thing – that I was a detective.
Thinking like one as far as Lee was concerned was another matter, but I forced myself to do it” (Ellroy 2005: 257).
One could claim that Bleichert is a true neo-hard-boiled detective only in the novel, as his final portrayal by De Palma in the film adaptation differs signifi-cantly from the one created in the literary original. The most crucial difference with regard to the plot is the change of the ending. Having discovered that it was Madeleine who killed Lee, Dwight is faced with the question whether he should be the one to bring justice, or whether he should handcuff her and let the court
be the judge of her crime. In the film, Madeleine dares him to kill her and says that he is not able to do it:
I think you’d rather f*ck me than kill me, but you don’t have the guts to do either.
You’re a boxer, not a fighter [...]. You should thank me for Lee Blanchard. If it weren’t for me, you wouldn’t have had the balls to f*ck your partner’s girl [...].
Wait. I forgot. You don’t f*ck her anymore because you’d rather f*ck me [...]. You chose me over her. You’ll choose me over him [...]. You’d never shoot me. Don’t forget who I look like. Because that girl, that sad, dead bitch. She’s all you have.
(The Black Dahlia)
She must be surprised, when Bucky actually shoots her. Nevertheless, by do-ing so, he breaks the law and becomes a murderer himself. Indeed, he does it to bring justice and to restore the order, but one could say that the ending provided by De Palma is less suitable than the ending written by Ellroy. In the novel, it goes as follows:
I mussed up Madeleine’s Dahlia hairdo, so that she looked like just another raven-clad floozy; I cuffed her wrists behind her back and saw myself in the sand pit, worm bait along with my partner. Sirens bared down from all directions;
flashlights shined in the broken window. Out in the Big Nowhere, Lee Blanchard reprised his line [...]: “Cherchez la femme1, Bucky. Remember that” (2005: 375).
The novel presents its readers with a more noir-like ending. It depicts a right-eous hard-boiled detective trying in vain to restore the order. After all, Madeleine is pronounced insane and institutionalized.
In conclusion, Dwight “Bucky” Bleichert may be classified as a neo-hard-boiled detective. He does have difficult relationships with other people. More-over, he has a few affairs with femme fatales, which will be discussed more elaborately later on. There is no doubt that he has outstanding reasoning skills, as he is the one who eventually solves the Black Dahlia’s mystery. He indeed is a knight-errant-like character who has to deal with degenerated society and the world with no order.
1 The expression originates from French and can literally be translated as ‘seek the woman.’
It refers to the notion that it is always a woman who is the cause of any crime.
Lee Blanchard
The second detective presented in The Black Dahlia is Lee Blanchard, who can hardly be called a neo-hard-boiled detective, even though he appears to be one.
While reading the story or watching a film, one could assume that Lee is even more committed to solving the Dahlia’s case than Dwight. However, it is not until the end of the novel that the reader/viewer discovers Lee’s true motives. It appears that Blanchard is a neo-hard-boiled imposter or, what one could call, an “overcooked”2 detective rather than a hero who devotes himself to fighting the criminals. How-ever, it is him who pushes Bucky into working Short’s case. There is no doubt that Lee Blanchard is a very complex character who transforms throughout the story, yet he does not become a hard-boiled detective, but rather ceases to be one.
As it has already been mentioned, Lee becomes Bucky’s friend after they meet each other during the Zoot Suit Riots. As a famous and valued officer who is to be promoted to sergeant, Lee is profoundly admired by his newly met friend.
He serves as Dwight’s mentor and takes care of him. Blanchard opens his house for the lonely cop and welcomes him to his odd family. One can notice that he is very devoted to both the friendship and his police profession. From the very beginning, it is clear that he engages himself in the Dahlia’s case even more than he should, yet his devotion is justified, as we discover that he lost his beloved sister and blames himself for it:
See, I doted on her. [...] Dad used to talk about getting Laurie ballet lessons and piano lessons and singing lessons [...] Laurie was gonna be an artiste, [...] it made me mad at Laurie. I started ditching her when she went to play after school [...].
I was dicking [this wild girl] when Laurie got snatched, when I should have been protecting my sister. [...] Laurie got snuffed. Some degenerate strangled her or chopped her up. And when she died, I was thinking ugly things about her. About how I hated her because Dad thought she was a princess and I was a thug (Ellroy 2005: 93).
The readers/viewers are convinced that Blanchard is an honourable detective especially after they discover that he actually saved Kay from Bobby DeWitt, the man who “took pictures of [her] with animals, and [...] pimped [her] to his
2 The term has been coined by the author of this article and will be discussed later on.
friends” (Ellroy 2005: 277). Moreover, Lee does not have a sexual relationship with her. Yet he sacrifices his good name, as non-marital partnerships are disapproved of, and shares his home with Kay, so as to provide for her and let her live a comfortable life. Thus, Lee Blanchard appears to be a caring friend and a loving partner, doing his best to solve Elizabeth Short’s case and thereby redeeming himself for his sister’s death. Just like Bucky, he becomes obsessed with the Black Dahlia and loses touch with reality.
To the reader/viewer, Lee’s motives seem pure. He struggles with the demons of the past and is rather lonely, although not alone. He can outsmart everyone and is highly admired by his fellow police officers. At this point in the story, one could probably acknowledge Lee as a neo-hard-boiled detective. Little would one know about the real motives that Lee has. It was previously mentioned that Blanchard undergoes a transformation, yet he does not evolve into a neo-hard-boiled detec-tive but ceases to be one. It is even risky to say that he used to be one at all, as the readers/viewers discover that he, in fact, is a criminal. Blanchard robbed a bank, framed Bobby DeWitt, killed the accomplice to the robbery and blackmailed the family responsible for Elizabeth Short’s death to obtain money. He discovers who killed Short, yet he suppresses the evidence. In the novel we read:
Blanchard came back the next day. He demanded more money. Father turned him down, and he beat Father up and asked him all these questions about Elizabeth Short [...]. Father was afraid that Blanchard would frame one of us for the killing, so he agreed to give him a hundred thousand dollars and told him what happened with Georgie and Elizabeth Short (Ellroy 2005: 358).
Had he not been killed in Mexico while pursuing Bobby DeWitt, he might have fulfilled his duty as a cop and caught the killer. In fact, before leaving, he tells Kay that “he’d go after the killer when he got back” (Ellroy 2005: 360), yet he does not live up to his promise.