Trama

A telephone operator ends up drunk and at the mercy of a cad in his apartment. The next morning she wakes up with a hangover and the terrible fear she may have committed murder.

In Los Angeles, on the day of her birthday, the telephone operator Norah Larkin decides to celebrate dining alone at home, with the picture of her beloved fiancé, a soldier overseas, and reading his last letter to her. In the letter, he tells her that he met an Army nurse stationed in Japan and plans to marry her. Norah, completely upset, accepts a blind date with the Don Juan and photographer of calendar girls, Harry Prebble. They go to the Blue Gardenia Club, and Norah drinks six strong cocktails, Polynesian Pearl Divers, and gets very, very drunk. Harry takes her to his apartment and tries to force Norah to have sex, and she grabs a fireplace poker to fend off Harry. On the next morning, she wakes up in her apartment with her two roommates, but she cannot remember what happened. When she reads the newspaper, she finds that Harry is dead and the police have her handkerchief, her high heels, and her blue gardenia, and they are trying to locate the woman who killed the famous wolf Harry. When she reads in the newspaper that the journalist Casey Mayo is offering his support, as well as his newspaper's, in exchange for an exclusive interview, Norah decides to call him.—Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Crystal Carpenter, Sally Ellis, and Norah Larkin are friends, roommates, and fellow operators at the West-Coast Telephone Company in Los Angeles. Crystal is the streetwise one, Sally the slightly scattered one, and Norah the straight-laced one who pines for her boyfriend, a lieutenant in the military, stationed in Korea. Artist Harry Prebble, a notorious skirt chaser, has been a recent fixture at the telephone company in the hopes of picking up one of the many female operators. So when Harry overhears Crystal's telephone number in she having given it to Los Angeles Chronicle newspaper columnist Casey Mayo solely in a flirtatious manner, Harry calls looking for a date, his intention to get Crystal drunk and have his way with her. Who shows up instead at the discussed location of the Blue Gardenia nightclub is Norah, who needs to be with a man on this, her birthday, and in having just received a Dear Jane letter. When Norah awakens the next morning with a severe hangover not knowing much about the previous night after the third or so drink or how she even got home, she discovers that Harry had been found murdered in his apartment. Sam Haynes, leading the police investigation, knows certain things about the woman he was seen with at the Blue Gardenia, and discovers certain female items, Norah's items, at Harry's apartment. While not his regular beat, Casey becomes fascinated with who he coins the Blue Gardenia Murderess and makes a very public plea for her to get in touch with him for an exclusive, in return he promising assistance from prosecution from him and the newspaper, which doesn't sit well with Sam. Norah has to decide what best to do for herself.—Huggo

Norah Larkin is a telephone operator who plans to spend her birthday evening alone with her boyfriend - or rather, with his photograph and a letter she just received from him. The real guy is 6000 miles away in Korea. While her two roommates - Crystal, a wisecracking divorcée, and Sally, a sweet girl with a taste for bloodthirsty mystery novels - are gone, Norah, wearing a black taffeta dress and sipping champagne, reads the letter and blanches. Her sweetheart has dumped her. She ends up spending the rest of her evening with Harry Prebble, a wolf who draws girls for a living and ruins them as a hobby. He takes her to the Blue Gardenia, and they listen to Nat King Cole as Harry gets her very drunk on Polynesian Pearl Divers. The next morning she wakes up with a terrible hangover. At work she learns of a murderess, soon to be called the Blue Gardenia Girl. The label is invented by newspaper columnist Casey Mayo, who hopes to find the femme fatale before the police. What worries Norah is that he and the police may both be looking for her.—J. Spurlin

Casey Mayo (Richard Conte) is the star reporter of the newspaper world and everybody knows him by his reputation as writer and a playboy. Harry Prebble (Raymond Burr) is a star commercial artist and a playboy too it seems when we meet him amidst the pool of female telephone receptionists. Both men are cruising for a date, and Crystal (Ann Southern) readily offers her phone number to Mayo, who gives it over to Prebble with Crystal's flirtatious objections. Another side of Prebble's character is seen later when he coldly rebuffs a former lover over the phone when she pleads for his attention. Norah Larkin (Anne Baxter), Crystal (Ann Southern) and Sally (Jeff Donnell) live together in what seems like a one-bedroom house and share the household duties. Each woman is shown to have a particular personality in a household built on positive outlook about life and careers. Norah plans a solitary dinner doting on the picture of her fianc, a GI stationed in Korea, but is heartbroken when his letter to her states that he is marrying someone else. Norah tries to rebound by meeting Harry Prebble who has phoned for Crystal. At dinner Prebble plies Norah with drink and charm and lures her back to his studio apartment. When he tries to force himself on her, she hits him with a poker and runs out drunken and confused. Prebble is found dead the next morning, and Norah, blanking from the alcohol she consumed, and seeing news headlines believes she may have killed him. Casey Mayo, trying to develop a story angle, comes up with the idea of publishing an open letter to the "Blue Gardenia Murderess", to turn herself in with protection from the newspaper. Norah contacts Mayo pretending to be a friend of the murderess with information on the case and the two begin to fall in love. The Police catch up with Norah soon after, and Mayo, reviewing the circumstances surrounding the murder aids the Police in further questioning of possible suspects with a startling discovery.