Laura (1944)

reviewed by
Steve Rhodes


LAURA
A film review by Steve Rhodes
Copyright 2001 Steve Rhodes
RATING (0 TO ****):  *** 1/2

Everyone's obsessed with Laura (Gene Tierney), who, in Otto Preminger's 1944 film, LAURA, has gotten herself murdered. I was privileged to see this classic suspense movie on the big screen at a local revival house, the Stanford Theater. Our almost packed audience ate it up, especially its wry comedy. Listening to the conversations beforehand, it seemed that about half of the people there had not seen it before. Well, both new and old viewers were in for a treat.

Dana Andrews plays Detective Lieutenant Mark McPherson, a man with a mission that starts off as mundane but quickly gets interesting as he comes under the spell of Laura's picture and her apartment. An unflappable type, he likes to disclose the minimum amount of information on his investigation to the suspects, which is just about everyone, and to the audience. With an ever-present cigarette hanging out of his mouth, he's about as taciturn and unforthcoming as he can possibly could be. In one of the movie's unintentionally funny scenes, he turns two enormous spotlights on a suspect during an interrogation. They did that a lot in crime dramas in the 40s. Another visual that seems funny now, but probably wasn't then, is the sight of one of Laura's big hats with its huge floppy ears made of a gaudy plaid. Since the story is told mainly in flashback, we see a lot of Laura.

Clifton Webb plays Waldo Lydecker, a wealthy and pompous newspaper columnist and radio personality. He discovered Laura and made her the toast of the town. Waldo is proud of his caustic and self-centered personality. "I'm not kind," he tells Laura when they meet, "I'm vicious. It's the secret of my charm." And he's right. He provides a deliciously snide narration for the film.

A clean-shaven and dashingly handsome Vincent Price plays Laura's fiancé, Shelby Carpenter. "I'm a natural born suspect," he confesses to the detective after being caught in a lie, "because I'm not the conventional type."

There are several other possible candidates for the murderer. The story, after following a intriguing but nonetheless conventional structure through most of the movie, has a dramatic twist just before the last act. It is the twist, as much as the acting, that I suspect is the secret to the film's long lasting appeal.

I do have one confession to make. It may be viewed as heresy by the movie's many fans, but I think that this is a story that could have been even better if Alfred Hitchcock had directed it. Preminger too often goes for the laughs when Hitchcock would have treated it all a bit more sinisterly and seriously.

LAURA runs 1:28. The film is in black and white. It is not rated but might be PG for mild violence. It would be fine for kids old enough to be interested in the story, which probably means kids around 12 and up.

The movie is available on tape but not yet on DVD.

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