The Blue Gardenia

The Blue Gardenia is a 1953 film noir directed by Fritz Lang and starring Anne Baxter, Richard Conte, Ann Sothern, Raymond Burr, and George Reeves. Nat King Cole has a cameo as the house pianist in the night club.

Here's Cole:

Senses of Cinema closes its consideration with this:

What we have in The Blue Gardenia is a death-in-life in which we can no longer tell whether the life we live is our own or just an episode from a television series. In this context the closing shot of a LA freeway concrete overpass – a repetition of the film’s opening image – takes on an unexpected relevance and poignancy.

Variety's review says it's "A stock story and handling keep The Blue Gardenia from being anything more than a regulation mystery melodrama". Time Out calls it "relatively minor but still gripping". Rotten Tomatoes has a critics consensus rating of 86%.