If it were only about 2 detectives and a body in a love pentacle, then only KD Laing could save it. But it's film noir built for time, and that signifies depth and the influence of classical tragic Greek theatre. Here is a brand spanking new Oedipus Femme, with strong infusions of princess swapping. Look closely. It wasn't Beth Short in the parking lot at all! It was Madeleine Cathcart! Caught by her mother in flagrante delicto with her illegitimate father, who wreaks ultimate revenge upon the cuckolding George by substituting his own daughter in the darkness, they are surprised and ultimately killed, one by the mother, and the other by the cuckoo Beth Short, erasing the only impediment to the fortune snatching Black Dahlia to escape to Scotland with her friend's father, who is now free to indulge his own Oedipal fantasies with Madame Cathcart dead by her own hand. The key is the soldiers. Only the real Beth Short had the thing with soldiers. The screen test about the Air Force captain was just that, a screen test. A reading to throw us off the scent. It's a classic.
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