Film director and writer Peter Bogdanovich called "The Blue Gardenia" "a particularly venomous picture of American life". Jans B. Wager stated that it is a "film that rigorously contains black masculinity within a peculiar studio set". Critic Dennis Schwartz gave the movie a mixed review, writing: "A minor film noir from Fritz Lang ("Clash by Night"/"The Big Heat") that never has a chance to bloom because of its dull script. It is based on the short story "Gardenia" by Vera Caspary. It plays as an unimaginative newspaper melodrama that takes jabs at the middle-class and how neurotic and fearful they are about romance. Nat "King" Cole makes a welcome cameo as the house pianist at the nightclub called The Blue Gardenia, crooning in his velvet voice the titular theme song. Noted cinematographer Nicholas Musuraca injects the film with some intriguing noir touches, such as those ominous rain drops on Raymond Burr's window the night of the murder ... Lang himself in interviews dismissed the film as a 'job-for-hire'. ... But the story itself wasn't original and the acting wasn't engaging enough to elevate it past being a mild thriller."