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| Laura (1944) | |
| Background
Laura is characterized by shadowy, dream-like, high-contrast black and white cinematography, and taut and smart dialogue in a quick succession of scenes. It presents the recognizably-poignant and haunting 'Laura' signature theme music, and a decadent and morally-corrupt group of upper-class society types. Almost all of the main protagonists in the entertaining who-dun-it are treated as suspects for a down-to-earth detective. Among the unusual characters are:
Trailers for the compelling film promised: "Never has a woman been so beautiful, so exotic, so dangerous to know!", and Gene Tierney (in her signature film role as Laura) delivered with exquisite elegance and sublime, breathtaking beauty the role of the untouchable 'work of art'. [Note: Both Jennifer Jones and Hedy Lamarr had turned down the title role.] A film with the similar theme of a man bewitched with a woman's portrait was Fritz Lang's sad and nightmarish film noir The Woman in the Window (1944). The highly-polished film was nominated for five Academy Awards: Best Director (Otto Preminger), Best Cinematography (Joseph LaShelle), Best Supporting Actor (Clifton Webb), Best Art Direction and Best Screenplay, and it received the award for Best Cinematography. The crisply-written screenplay (by Jay Dratler, Samuel Hoffenstein and Betty Reinhardt) was based on the play and novel of the same name by Vera Caspary. [Though a number of allusions to Lydecker's homosexuality were cut from the script before filming began, the hyper-protective character expressed hetero-like jealousy over anyone else's attention toward Laura, particularly by the detective, even resorting to murdering her to keep her 'pure' and to himself.] The successful novel had previously been serialized in Collier's Magazine (October-November 1942) as "Ring Twice for Laura." The StoryThe opening title and credits play atop the haunting portrait of the eponymous title character as the haunting 'Laura' theme music (the film's famous atmospheric theme tune by David Raksin) plays. [Otto Preminger had originally wanted Duke Ellington's Sophisticated Lady to be the film's theme.] After the black opening screen, society columnist Waldo Lydecker's (55 year old Clifton Webb in his sound-film debut - his last feature film had been the silent The Heart of a Siren (1925)) off-screen voice intones, in a measured way, during the flashback. [The character of Waldo Lydecker was reportedly based upon New Yorker theatre critic, columnist and broadcaster Alexander Woolcott.] [It is deeply ironic that the narrator was actually a dead man by film's end, and that he was the one who was responsible for 'Laura's' presumed murder! The narration could also possibly be partially composed of quotes taken from a diary or notes that Lydecker might have written - that were found after his death.] During the narrated flashback, the camera tracks from left to right across glass cabinets with beautifully-displayed shelves of priceless objets d'art that are placed in the alcove of his elegantly-expensive, New York City apartment/penthouse. The narration continues throughout the filmed tour, past an Oriental statue, wall-mounted ceramic heads, and a baroque grandfather clock with pendulum (the clock holds more meaning beyond its present context!). The film opens on the hottest day of the summer of 1944. The narration reveals that the story takes place in the recent past, at the time of 'Laura's' death:
Rough-hewn, but handsome gumshoe/police detective Mark McPherson (Dana Andrews) of the Homicide Bureau examines the interior of Lydecker's apartment until the writer calls to him (from off-camera) to join him in his lavish bathroom:
The acerbic critic/writer is naked - reclining in his bath water at one end of his gigantic marble bathtub. A swing-away marble shelf or platform positioned across the marble sides of the tub holds his typewriter and hides his nudity. Caustically, Lydecker describes the murder of his protege Laura Hunt (on Friday night) and his earlier statement to police on Saturday morning:
Lydecker admires McPherson's reputation for hard-boiled, tough-nosed police work: "The Siege of Babylon, Long Island. The gangster with a machine gun killed three policemen. I told the story over the air. Wrote a column about it. Are you the one with the leg full of lead? The man who walked right in and got him?" And then, Lydecker stands (off-camera) to reveal his entire naked body as he asks McPherson for his robe. Amusingly, McPherson glances at Lydecker, looks down, smirks, and then reaches for the robe. He also compliments the columnist on his memory:
Lydecker can't shed much information about the Friday night murder, even though he claimed (in the narration) that he "was the only one who really knew her." Interested in details, McPherson questions Lydecker about his October 17th column two years earlier, when he "switched over" from a book review to an account of the Harrington murder case. Lydecker had written about the past murder with the same modus operandi as the Laura Hunt murder:
Because murder is his "favorite crime" and he writes about it regularly, the renowned, droll columnist Lydecker insists on helping McPherson in his assigned investigation, even though he is a suspect:
And he is egotistically pleased and flattered to be considered one of the murder suspects on the list: "To have overlooked me would have been a pointed insult." As the vain Lydecker finishes dressing in his apartment, he gives telling glances toward the young detective, and appears to have gay affects [typical of films in the 1930's-1950's]. As he knots his tie in a mirror, Lydecker taunts McPherson's investigation with his own innocence:
[McPherson eventually collects four suspects in his search for the murderer of Laura Hunt - a successful advertising career girl who was shot in the face with a shotgun in her NY apartment. Because her face was obliterated by the blast at close range, she was identified by her clothing:
The detective pays little attention to Lydecker, and amuses himself with a hand-held pinball puzzle, as he tries to fill the four bases of a baseball diamond with rolling balls. Their conversation continues as Lydecker puts on his coat and places a white carnation in his lapel:
They first proceed in a taxi to the apartment of one of the other suspects, Laura's upper-crust, spinster aunt named Anne Treadwell (Judith Anderson), a middle-aged society woman. Anne "adored her" niece and "collapsed" when she identified the body - but Laura's face was unrecognizable and "not very nice to look at." As the kept woman ("patroness") of Shelby Carpenter, a handsome young Southern aristocrat, Mrs. Treadwell is decidedly defensive and jealous of the younger Laura, her engagement, and her possible forthcoming marriage to Carpenter:
The night of the murder, Anne spent her Friday evening all alone because she hadn't been asked to go to a concert with Shelby. At that moment, the Southern gold-digging, charming playboy Shelby Carpenter (Vincent Price) enters the apartment, claiming that he has "hardly slept a wink since it happened." Lydecker takes note of the disreputable man's answer: "Is that a sign of guilt or innocence, McPherson?" Since Laura and he were going to be married that week, Shelby claims that he's innocent, but Lydecker (who knows about Shelby's ambivalent relationships and his second love for Diane Redfern, a model in Laura's advertising agnecy) doubts the cagey assertion of Carpenter - referring to him as "a male beauty in distress." Laura had planned to go to her country house to decide whether or not to marry Carpenter:
To conclude his questions, McPherson asks Shelby to identify the classical pieces of music that were played at the Friday concert [Brahms First and Beethoven's Ninth, later substituted with Sibelius], and whether Shelby has the key to Miss Hunt's country house. On his first visit to Laura Hunt's apartment, accompanied by both Lydecker and Shelby, McPherson callously re-enacts the murder at the door, basing his information on graphic police photographs of the "dame":
In the living room is a grandfather clock identical to the one in Lydecker's place, and a stunning oil portrait of Laura, the 'murdered' title character. [The human-like portrait was actually a photograph of Gene Tierney taken by studio photographer Frank Polony - and touched-up with a few light brushings of paint.] Without the film's theme music to convey additional meaning to the scene, McPherson sees the portrait for the first time and reacts cooly and bluntly: "Not bad." According to Lydecker, "Jacoby was in love with her when he painted it. But he never captured her vibrance, her warmth." McPherson is absorbed with opening up the phonograph console and putting on Laura's favorite record when Lydecker asks him about his love life. The cop's love life is unromantic and pragmatic:
Shelby considers himself "a natural born suspect" because he's "not the conventional type." With two back-to-back alibis, Shelby proves himself a perpetual liar - questionable, untrustworthy and possibly involved in Laura's death. He conceals his ignorance about the classical music pieces at the concert, and plants Laura's country-home key in the apartment. According to Lydecker, the detestable Shelby should be directly implicated: "You have private reasons, no doubt, to lie about the key." McPherson steps between the two antagonistic men to block their sharp exchange, and then is scolded by Lydecker for playing an immature puzzle game and calming his nerves in their presence:
The next scene opens in a small restaurant, where a string quartet plays the 'Laura' theme song. Waldo and McPherson share dinner together, seated at the very same table where Lydecker often came with Laura:
BEGINNING OF FLASHBACKS Lydecker relates a long montage-style series of flashbacks of his times with Laura, who is about 30 years younger. Each of the flashbacks is an idealized construct of her. [Whether the real Laura measures up to his adoring memories is open to question.] He begins with their dining together "the night before her twenty-second birthday. Just we two, happy, making plans for her future." But first, he recalls, from his point of view, when Laura Hunt (Gene Tierney) was still a young aspiring career woman five years earlier when she first approached him in the Algonquin Hotel dining room where he was having lunch. Laura, who works for an advertising firm as a designer and has an enterprising, ambitious and independent spirit, wishes to have him endorse a fountain pen her ad agency is promoting - her career rests upon his signature. But Lydecker arrogantly ridicules and snubs her. He refuses to endorse her ad, and turns her away:
Lydecker belongs to the elite class of high-society critics who inhabit the world of venomous wit and high-brow intellect:
Naively innocent and beautiful, Laura calls Lydecker "selfish" and "very lonely" in what he terms a "character analysis." The egotistical, jaded writer agrees with her astute assessments about his harsh, conceited character:
After Laura quickly packs her things and leaves, Lydecker reminisces that he had a sudden change of heart - he remembers how appealing Laura was: "She had something about her, that girl. I had to speak to her again. I had to see her." |
Laura (1944)
is one of the most stylish, elegant, moody, and witty classic film
noirs ever made with an ensemble cast of characters. Producer
Otto Preminger ultimately ended up directing the film, after filming
was begun by Rouben Mamoulian and his cinematographer Lucien Ballard.
Preminger's film falls under the category of romantic, melodramatic
mystery/detective thriller. It might also be called a psychological
study of deviant, kinky obsession, because almost everyone in the
cast loves the title character - Laura. One lobby poster dramatically
declared: