The Black Dahlia

In 1947, LAPD detectives Dwight "Bucky" Bleichert and Lee Blanchard are made partners after engaging in a boxing match to raise public support for the department. Lee introduces Bucky to his girlfriend Kay Lake, and the trio becomes inseparable. Bucky is shocked when Kay tells him she is not sleeping with Lee. When she later tries to seduce him, he refuses. Bucky also discovers that Kay has been branded with the initials "BD", for Bobby DeWitt, the gangster whose arrest and conviction for a big bank robbery made Lee's career. Soon after, on January 15, Elizabeth Short's dismembered body is found and she is dubbed "The Black Dahlia" by the press. Bucky learns that Elizabeth was an aspiring actress who appeared in a pornographic film and hung out with lesbians. He goes to a lesbian nightclub and meets Madeleine Linscott, who bears a slight resemblance to Elizabeth. Madeline comes from a prominent family, and tells Bucky that she was very close to Elizabeth. She asks him to keep her name out of the papers in exchange for sexual favors. Madeline later introduces Bucky to her wealthy parents Emmett and Ramona. Lee's own obsession with the case leads him to become erratic and abusive toward Kay. After Lee and Bucky have a heated exchange about a previous case, Bucky goes to Lee and Kay's to apologize. Then he learns from Kay that Lee is responding to a tip about Bobby DeWitt. Bucky finds DeWitt in the atrium of a building before he is gunned down by Lee, then sees a man garrote Lee before a second figure steps out and slits Lee's throat. Lee and the man holding the rope fall over the railing to their deaths several floors below. The grief of losing Lee propels Bucky and Kay into having sex. The next morning, Bucky finds money hidden in Lee and Kay's bathroom. Kay reveals that she had been the girlfriend of DeWitt, who had abused her. Lee rescued Kay, stole DeWitt's money, and put DeWitt behind bars. Bucky realizes Lee was there to kill DeWitt and leaves, furious, to return to Madeleine, where he notices a painting of a leering clown. Kay follows him and she is appalled to see Madeleine's striking resemblance to the Dahlia. Bucky starts putting the pieces together. He remembers props in another movie, The Man Who Laughs, matched the set in Elizabeth's pornographic film. The end credits thanked Emmett, so Bucky digs deeper, into a story Madeleine told about him using old film sets to build cheap firetrap housing. In an empty house below the Hollywoodland sign built by Emmett, Bucky recognizes the set that was used in Elizabeth's film. He finds evidence in a barn on the property that Elizabeth was killed and butchered there, as well as a drawing of a man with a Glasgow smile. The drawing matches the painting in Madeleine's home and the gruesome smile carved into Elizabeth's face. Bucky confronts Madeleine and Emmett in their home and Ramona reveals that she killed Elizabeth. She confesses that Madeleine was not fathered by Emmett but rather by his best friend Georgie Tilden. She says Georgie became infatuated while watching Elizabeth film the pornography. Ramona was disturbed by the idea of Georgie having sex with someone who looked so much like his own daughter, and lured Elizabeth to the house and killed her. Before Bucky can decide what to do, Ramona shoots herself. A few days later, remembering something Lee said during the investigation, Bucky visits Madeleine's sister Martha with some questions. He learns that Lee knew about Madeleine and Elizabeth, and blackmailed Emmett to keep it secret. Bucky finds Madeleine at a seedy motel, and she admits to being the one who slit Lee's throat. Although she insists that Bucky wants to have sex with her rather than kill her, he tells her she is wrong and shoots her dead. Bucky goes to Kay's house, she invites him in and closes the door.

Plot from The Black Dahlia (film)CC BY-SA 4.0