Golden Oldie: Laura..... Will you stop calling her a dame!

Laura 1944, directed by Otto Preminger. I picked Laura for my first choice as a Golden Oldie. They don't get much better than this movie. It has everything going for it. Crackling good dialogue and the quirkest bunch of characters you could ever hope for.

Laura is a haunting movie, surprisingly elegant and sophisticated for the film noir genre, but falling into the film noir category due to the hopelessness of obsessions, a femme fatale, and the magnificent images captured by Joseph La Shelle's photography, which won an Oscar for best black and white cinematography that year. Every scene is rich with shadows, no detail has been spared.

A murder is committed due to an obsession, but it's also solved because of one.

The first half of the movie has a voice over narration by one of the would be suspects and is told mainly through flashbacks.
The opening voice over narration of Waldo Lydecker:

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... I had just begun Laura's story when another of those detectives came to see me. I had him wait.

Dana Andrews plays detective Mark McPherson. He's investigating a murder where a woman's face was blown apart by a shot gun blast at close range. While roaming around her apartment looking for clues he becomes obsessed with her portrait that hangs over the fireplace. One gets the feeling that the detective would be just as happy to sit and stare at the painting all day rather than try to figure out who killed her.

Beautiful Laura Hunt (Gene Tierney) has been murdered and hard-boiled detective McPherson sets out to solve the case. For much of the film that means questioning the three, well eventually four, suspects.

The four suspects include Laura's mentor, the acerbic, super-anal retentive radio personality/columnist Waldo Lydecker (Clifton Webb). Her weasely, ne'er-do-well, gigolo fiancée Shelby Carpenter (perfectly portrayed by Vincent Price). Judith Anderson as Laura's aunt, Ann Treadwell, a rich older woman who would love to have Shelby Carpenter as her own personal boy-toy and the last suspect, the femme fatale herself, Laura.

Half way through the movie as McPherson is sitting in Laura's apartment dozing after having a few too many drinks and staring at her portrait, Laura comes walking through her front door. McPherson awakes, for a moment we don't know if he is dreaming or not. But it soon becomes apparent that he is awake and Laura is indeed alive and well.

We then spend the rest of the movie trying to figure out who was killed, why and whodunit. This movie is alot more fun than any film noir has a right to be. And it is rich in quirky characters, obsessions and contrasts, not only in the cinematograpy, but in the characters themselves. It's smart, sophisticated, witty and stylish, in dialogue, set decorations and high fashion costumes. All the characters are unique and richly drawn. There is not a bad performance in the film.

I will have to say that Laura Hunt wears the silliest hats I have ever seen though.

Brilliant choice, Oz.

This is the sort of film Preminger was best at, as anyone who's ever sat through Exodus - "Otto! Let my people go!" - will agree. Simultaneously tough and witty, with nice big ambiguous question marks hanging over the characters. What other film would have a policeman hero who plays with a palm-sized baseball game all the time and falls in love with a murder victim?

The most memorable presence is Clifton Webb in his movie debut as Waldo Lydecker, based on Alexander Woollcott. (Also the basis for Sheridan Whiteside in The Man Who Came To Dinner, played Monty Wooley, and Addison DeWitt in All About Eve (George Sanders). If any of these characters came close to the original, what a total bitch Woollcott must have been.

Brilliant choice, Oz.

This is the sort of film Preminger was best at, as anyone who's ever sat through Exodus - "Otto! Let my people go!" - will agree. Simultaneously tough and witty, with nice big ambiguous question marks hanging over the characters. What other film would have a policeman hero who plays with a palm-sized baseball game all the time and falls in love with a murder victim?

The most memorable presence is Clifton Webb in his movie debut as Waldo Lydecker, based on Alexander Woollcott. (Also the basis for Sheridan Whiteside in The Man Who Came To Dinner, played Monty Wooley, and Addison DeWitt in All About Eve (George Sanders). If any of these characters came close to the original, what a total bitch Woollcott must have been.I really think Clifton Webb was the star of the movie, I can't imagine anybody else playing that part with such zeal, gusto or aplomb. He looks like he was having a wickedly good time as Waldo. And also Vincent Price as Shelby appears to be having a good time as well. He seems to play the part with a sly knowing grin on his face.

I always see Otto Preminger, in my mind, wearing joppers, riding boots and carrying a riding crop and barking orders to the cast and crew.

I always see Otto Preminger, in my mind, wearing joppers, riding boots and carrying a riding crop and barking orders to the cast and crew.

What a coincidence! I dreamt of you last night in exactly the same outfit!

What a coincidence! I dreamt of you last night in exactly the same outfit!You must have looked quite funny going to bed dressed like that. ;)

You must have looked quite funny going to bed dressed like that. ;)

More comfortable than the frogman's outfit, though.

So gee Byron, what was your favorite moment in Laura?

I think when Laura walks in on Mark sitting in her apartment. I can remember the first time I saw the movie I was thinking "What the hell?" it is a great moment.

So gee Byron, what was your favorite moment in Laura?

Not a moment, a line.

Lydecker: "You seem to be completely disregarding something more important than your career - my lunch."