DIRECTOR: Otto Preminger
BOTTOM LINE: One of the reasons for firing Laura’s” original director, Rouben Mamoulian, was his attitude towards Clifton Webb. His less-than-stellar treatment of the seasoned theatrical actor on the set because of his sexual orientation has become the stuff of Hollywood lore. However, a more likely reason for his dismissal was the direction he was taking the material. Remember, Mamoulian is more famous for the films he didn’t make (for which he was fired) than those he did. In addition to “Laura,” he was also fired from the sets of “Oklahoma” and “Cleopatra.” Zanuck then handed the film over to producer Otto Preminger. It was a stroke of sheer genius that will never be forgotten. The result is one of the classic film noirs.
Detective Mark McPherson (Dana Andrews) is investigating the murder of a young, beautiful advertising executive, Laura Hunt (a magnificent Gene Tierney in a star-making performance), killed by a shotgun blast to the face just inside the doorway of her apartment. He first interviews newspaper columnist Waldo Lydecker (Clifton Webb, who had become a Hollywood star at fifty), an imperious, effete (read: homosexual) older man who has become Laura’s mentor. McPherson also questions Laura’s parasitic playboy fiancé, Shelby Carpenter (Vincent Price), a “kept man” tethered to her wealthy socialite aunt, Ann Treadwell (Judith Anderson). One night, the detective falls asleep in Laura’s apartment in front of her portrait. He is awakened by a woman entering with her key, and he is shocked to see that it is Laura. She finds a dress in her closet that belonged to one of her models, Diane Redfern. McPherson concludes that the body assumed to have been Laura was Redfern, drawn there for a liaison by the unfaithful Carpenter while Laura was away in the country. With Laura still alive, unmasking the killer becomes even more urgent.
Adapted from Vera Caspary’s novel by Samuel Hoffenstein, Elizabeth Reinhardt and an uncredited Ring Lardner Jr. The Oscar-winning cinematography is by Joseph LaShelle (trumping John Seitz’s equally stunning work on “Double Indemnity”), and the haunting score -one of the all-time greats – is by David Raksin.
LIKE MOST OF THE GREAT FILM NOIRS FROM THE FORTIES, THE FILM BEGINS WITH A NARRATION, AND THE NARRATIVE UNFOLDS IN A FLASHBACK
“I shall never forget the weekend Laura died. A silver sun burned through the sky like a huge magnifying glass. It was the hottest Sunday in my recollection. I felt as if I were the only human being left in New York. For with Laura’s horrible death, I was alone. I, Waldo Lydecker, was the only one who really knew her. And I had just begun to write Laura’s story when – another of those detectives came to see me. I had him wait. I could watch him through the half-open door. I noted that his attention was fixed upon my clock. There was only one other in existence, and that was in Laura’s apartment in the very room where she was murdered”
Fade in Narration by Clifton Webb as Waldo Lydecker
REMADE AS SHARKY’S MACHINE BY BURT REYNOLDS IN 1981
