Black Dahlia Adaptation Debut

Elizabeth Short

Brian De Palma's adaptation of James Ellroy's book about one of the city's most notorious unsolved murder mysteries has had its premiere at the Venice Film Fest and has recieved mostly high marks from critics who saw it there. We'll reserve judgement on the adaptation of what is a very good novel until we see the film ourselves. The last James Ellroy book to make it to the screen was LA Confidential, easily one of the best realizations of period LA ever, so there may be hope. Of course, De Palma has been all over the map in the past 20 years so we're hoping this is the old De Palma, finally working with meaty-enough material to invoke the dread, terror, and sunlit sickness the novel revels in. As a special promotion for the film, the LA Times has provided the original Black Dahlia stories to a special website for the film. Also, our friends at the 1947 Project are staging a Black Dahlia Crime Bus tour which is a five hour guided luxury coach tour to the real and imagined scenes from the life, death and myth of Beth Short and the lost L.A. of 1947.