Laura Revisited: Preminger's Best?

 

 

 

LAURA (1944)

Directed by Otto Preminger

20^th Century Fox, 88 minutes, pre-ratings system

(In black and white)

★★★★

 

This review originally ran in 2021. I offer it again as I am in the midst of films directed by Otto Preminger (1905-86). This version is lightly edited.

 

There are many reasons to prefer Laura for film noir fans wishing to discover/rediscover actress Gene Tierney. They begin with Otto Preminger. He was a legendary director, whereas various remakes by other directors, including a 1968 made-for-TV film were at best middle-of-the-road. I’ve never seen Fiona on Fire, a porn film based on Laura, but let us assume that Gene Tierney was a superior actress. Preminger had the sense to tantalize rather than fetishize. His noir classic in black and white exemplifies how films about shadowy characters should be done. Preminger dusted his frames with psychological theory rather than encasing them.

 

Laura is a study in obsession. It begins when New York City Police Detective Mark McPherson (Dana Andrews) is assigned to a grisly murder scene. Wealthy advertising executive Laura Hunt (Tierney) is the presumed victim of a shotgun blast to the face. Although she was beautiful and accomplished, she also had a reputation for being difficult and ruthless, which means any of a number of people had motives to dispatch her. At first, McPherson centers his investigation on her snooty, no-account fiancé Shelby Carpenter (Vincent Price). Carpenter is a classic “kept man” with no discernible skills of his own, hence his motive for murder doesn’t add up. Maybe Hunt’s aunt, Ann Treadway (Judith Anderson), knows more than she lets on. She has also been bankrolling Carpenter and may have been having a side affair with him. There’s also a matter of a missing murder weapon and the ace in the hole: Waldo Lydecker (Clifton Webb). He’s a newspaper writer who “made” Laura by lifting her out of her uncultivated bumpkin ways, mentoring her, and showering her with expensive gifts, including her pricey apartment and most of its flashy appointments. Lydecker insists their relationship was non-sexual, but he speaks of Laura as if she is one of his possessions. 

 

McPherson finds himself making repeated trips to Laura’s apartment, and we soon suspect that his motive is to solve the crime because he has become creepily attracted to the large portrait of Laura hanging above the fireplace mantle. One night, McPherson falls asleep beneath her picture. When he awakes, Laura is standing before him!  It’s not a dream. McPherson concludes that the actual victim was one of Hunt’s models, Diane Redfern. McPherson arrests Laura for Redfern’s murder, a complication as he has fallen in love with Laura. Can he do his duty or will he help her, even if it means letting a murderer walk away? We know what Dashiell Hammett’s Sam Spade would do, but is McPherson cut from the same trench coat cloth? And is Laura actually guilty of anything?

 

Laura is a corkscrew mystery involving a cast of oil-covered, morality-challenged characters. Who, if anyone, is telling the truth? And where is the rifle that killed Diane Redfern?  I called it a study of obsession and that should be interpreted literally and broadly. It seems that everyone–especially Lydecker and McPherson–is obsessed with Laura. She, in turn, seems demure, but perhaps she’s infatuated with herself. Or maybe not!

 

The acting–though affected in 1940s’ ways–is superb, even Vincent Price and Tierney’s who at this stage of his career was a character actor more than a star. He’s quite good as Tierney’s castoff lover. The much-underappreciated Dana Andrews strikes the needed balance between believability and cheesy fascination, and Tierney scores as a raven-haired femme fatale. (Don’t believe those garish 1940s posters in which she’s colorized to look like a redhead!) Clifton Webb, though, comes close to stealing the glory. His is a performance that walks several lines, not the least of which is the thin one between utterly contemptible and wholly fascinating. For what it’s worth, elements of Preminger’s own personality can be read into Webb-as-Lydecker. One could easily become obsessed by this film. Several Preminger films are considered superior, but few surpass Laura.

 

Rob Weir