Laura (1944)
#47 in my 2007 movie challenge was Laura, which had been lounging on my Tivo drive for some time. Based on the novel by Vera Caspary, it’s another classic noir. Story doesn’t matter so much as character and atmosphere, and the latter is exemplified by the famous theme song. On the surface, it’s about a detective who becomes obsessed with a dead woman’s portrait; he feels compelled to solve her murder. Less obviously but more interestingly, it’s about women and power, both in business and in personal relationships. Vincent Price is unsettling as the handsome, well-mannered man who Laura was engaged to marry, but Clifton Webb steals the show as the pretentious man who “made” Laura.
July 9th, 2007 at 7:21 am
I love Dana Andrews in that movie as the detective. I have an old WWII movie on the DVR just because I saw he was in it–because of alcoholism later in life, after Laura and The Best Years of Our Lives, he didn’t have many decent starring roles
(sources = my mom and IMDB).
July 11th, 2007 at 2:12 pm
I love how Andrew’s masculine cop is contrasted with Webb’s older fop and Price’s good-looking but oily sponger.