#MEMORIES OF A MURDERER LIFETIME CAST MOVIE#
#MEMORIES OF A MURDERER LIFETIME CAST SKIN#

She was 18 when she moved to the Bay Area to be with her father, who had deserted the family. This much appears to be settled: Elizabeth Short grew up in Medford, Mass., as a free-spirited girl who enjoyed being noticed - and being different. It's about characters who are impacted and obsessed with what happened to her.'įor the many people who have followed the Dahlia case over the years, Short has been the ultimate mystery woman, representing everything from broken dreams to misogynistic savagery to the lure of unsolved crime. De Palma said, explaining that the Dahlia is shown in flashback. 'It is not the story of Elizabeth Short,' Mr. De Palma's film is a tangled tale of friendship, love and sexual desire among several Los Angeles detectives and the trio of mysterious women in their lives, and it is just as labyrinthine as Mr. 'I started having these horrible nightmares about Elizabeth Short.' (He later examined his mother's murder in his 1996 memoir, 'My Dark Places.') 'I used to ride my bike' to the Dahlia crime scene, Mr. 'Elizabeth Short and my mother kind of merged,' he said. Ellroy, who was drawn to the Dahlia case as a child through the Jack Webb book 'The Badge,' also became fixated, in large part, because his own mother was murdered when he was 10. Ellroy said, rather than in solving the actual case. Confidential,' using her murder to propel the novel's many twists and turns. Ellroy fictionalized Short in much the same way he transformed real-life characters in his book turned film 'L.A. I love to get the characters in the suits and the hats, and I love that great kind of noir cynicism that pervades the Ellroy novels.' and I haven't shot too many pictures in L.A. De Palma added: 'I love all that 40's stuff, all that noir stuff shot in L.A. Ellroy's novel, a dark mystery involving a love triangle and corruption, Mr. People getting new information, having recovered memories, finding old files and new theories.' De Palma was nonetheless surprised by the public fascination with the Black Dahlia. America has the Black Dahlia.'Īn avid reader of detective fiction and true crime, Mr. 'There aren't many cases with the mythic quality of the Dahlia,' Mr. Directed by Brian De Palma and budgeted at about $45 million, the film will reach theaters in the fall, with a cast that includes Josh Hartnett, Aaron Eckhart, Scarlett Johansson, Hilary Swank and, as the mysterious title lady, Mia Kirshner. Now, nearly six decades after her death, Universal Pictures is preparing to release 'The Black Dahlia,' based on James Ellroy's 1987 novel of the same title, giving Short her first big-screen close-up. But to this day the case has not been solved, further adding to the lore. Obsession has surrounded Short's murder from the beginning, as a roll call of confessors - there were dozens - stepped forward, claiming they had done the Dahlia in.

Short, who at the age of 22 stood out with her black clothing and her dark, sometimes flower-adorned hair, was known to friends as the Black Dahlia.

#MEMORIES OF A MURDERER LIFETIME CAST MOVIE#

It was derived from a popular movie of the day called 'The Blue Dahlia,' starring Veronica Lake and Alan Ladd. Photos of her corpse - torso cut in two, face slashed into a hideous mock of a grin - were suppressed.īut the nickname cinched it. Screaming headlines reporting her murder in 1947 warned of a 'werewolf maniac,' as this city's five newspapers sought to outscoop one another. And she died right: young, mysteriously and gruesomely.

#MEMORIES OF A MURDERER LIFETIME CAST SKIN#

Along with a hubba-hubba figure, she possessed a great smile, alabaster skin and dark, curly hair. Yet within popular culture, Short - who frequently told friends she wanted to break into show business - has emerged as something of an honorary leading lady whose shadowy life and violent death follow the contours of a classic film noir script. There is no record of her having played so much as a bit part. LOS ANGELES - DURING her brief lifetime, Elizabeth Short never starred in a single movie.

Memories of a murderer lifetime cast