Laura (1944)
US 88m, B&W
Director: Otto Preminger; Cast: Gene Tierney, Dana Andrews, Clifton Webb, Vincent Price, Judith Anderson
Based on the 1943 novel by Vera Caspary of the same name, Laura is a complex and wholly contrived murder mystery about a young woman who charms her way into the hearts and minds of three eccentric men who would do most anything to earn and keep her favor. Despite the absurdities of the plot and the unlikely motivation of the murderer, Laura is one of the most interesting femme fatales of film noir as she is capable of seducing a hard-boiled detective who believes she is dead (Klaus Ming November 2012).
3 comments on “Laura (1944)”
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I like Roger Ebert’s review (http://tinyurl.com/34atjku) because it brings out how the movie works despite (or because of) the absurdities you refer to.
(It was also the only time I emailed Ebert, because the thing that so baffled him (the bathtub scene) was very clear to me. 🙂 )
I had trouble getting through Laura – Like a lot of murder mysteries of this style, I found myself being put off with all the twists and dead ends that didn’t really make sense.
The only thing that really stood out was Laura – and not so much the performance (which wasn’t necessarily all that great) – as compared to and Lulu (in Pandora’s Box) – but rather how Preminger “sold” her to Tierney’s character.
Just curious – Did you get a response from Ebert?
No, but that’s okay. It was fun to write it anyway.
(BTW, my explanation for the bath scene, which confused Ebert, is that Waldo is acting like the detective is his servant. I’m sure — based on Waldo’s personality — that his enjoyment was only increased by the fact that the detective doesn’t even understand that he’s being treated like he’s Waldo’s valet.)