Main Cast: Gene Tierney, Dana Andrews, Clifton Webb, Vincent Price, Judith Anderson
Release Year: 1944
Country: US
Run Time: 90 minutes
MPAA Rating: NR
Plot
This adaptation of Vera Caspary's suspense novel was begun by director Rouben Mamoulien and cinematographer Lucien Ballard, but thanks to a complex series of backstage intrigues and hostilities, the film was ultimately credited to director Otto Preminger and cameraman Joseph LaShelle (who won an Oscar for his efforts). At the outset of the film, it is established that the title character, Laura Hunt (Gene Tierney), has been murdered. Tough New York detective Mark McPherson (Dana Andrews) investigates the killing, methodically questioning the chief suspects: Waspish columnist Waldo Lydecker (Clifton Webb), wastrel socialite Shelby Carpenter (Vincent Price), and Carpenter's wealthy "patroness" Ann Treadwell (Judith Anderson). The deeper he gets into the case, the more fascinated he becomes by the enigmatic Laura, literally falling in love with the girl's painted portrait. As he sits in Laura's apartment, ruminating over the case and his own obsessions, the door opens, the lights switch on, and in walks Laura Hunt, very much alive! To tell any more would rob the reader of the sheer enjoyment of watching this stylish film noir unfold on screen. Everything clicks in Laura, from the superbly bitchy peformance of Clifton Webb (a veteran Broadway star who became an overnight movie favorite with this film) to the haunting musical score by David Raskin. Long available only in the 85-minute TV version Laura has since been restored to its original 88-minute running time. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
With its collection of decadent New Yorkers embroiled in a murder mystery, Otto Preminger's hit Laura (1944) stands as an early, elegantly crafted film noir. Preminger's low-key approach to a story of lethal obsession allows the suggestions of sexual deviance emanating from Clifton Webb's epicene critic Lydecker, Dana Andrews's cynical yet besotted necrophiliac cop, and the pragmatic Vincent Price-Judith Anderson couple to permeate the seductively cool atmosphere. David Raksin's famously bewitching theme invokes titular mysterious beauty Gene Tierney, but it is questionable if the real woman can measure up to the power of portraiture and Lydecker's memory. "Proper" love may triumph but it is a compromised victory. One of the most popular suspense films of the 1940s, Laura earned Oscar nominations for Best Director, Supporting Actor for Webb, "Interior" (now Art) Direction, and the sharp screenplay based on the Vera Caspary novel, winning the prize for Joseph LaShelle's black and white cinematography. Released the same year as Billy Wilder's caustic noir Double Indemnity, Laura was another intimation of the wave of cinematic darkness that would crest post-World War II. ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide
Lyle Wheeler - Art Director, Leland Fuller - Art Director, Bonnie Cashin - Costume Designer, Otto Preminger - Director, Louis Loeffler - Editor, David Raksin - Composer (Music Score), Emil Newman - Musical Direction/Supervision, Guy Pearce - Makeup, Paul S. Fox - Production Designer, Thomas K. Little - Production Designer, Joseph La Shelle - Cinematographer, Otto Preminger - Producer, Paul S. Fox - Set Designer, Thomas K. Little - Set Designer, Fred Sersen - Special Effects, Harry M. Leonard - Sound/Sound Designer, E. Clayton Ward - Sound/Sound Designer, Jerry Cady - Screenwriter, Jay Dratler - Screenwriter, Samuel Hoffenstein - Screenwriter, Ring Lardner, Jr. - Screenwriter, Elizabeth Reinhardt - Screenwriter, Vera Caspary - Play Author
