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Plot: A police detective falls in love with the woman whose murder he's investigating.
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Recent Reviews
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MCT:October 7, 2008Plotted meticulously and by the numbers, Laura is a textbook example of classic 1940's film noir. This dialog driven murder mystery is more notable for its outstanding casting than its slightly formulaic script.
I'm a tremendous fan of Gene Tierney, overbite and all, and she's absolutely wonderful in the title role, but it's a little difficult to write about her performance without giving away elements of the plot that would spoil the ending for those who have not yet seen the film. Suffice it to say that the intangible darkness that one occasionally glimpses behind those beautiful eyes plays perfectly into the psyche of her character.
Was there ever a role that Vincent Price could not master? He has played everything from villainous heavies to reluctant heroes. Here in Laura he is Tierney's love interest and a prime suspect in her murder. Even though his part is one of an unscrupulous, unsympathetic leech, he still carries an aura of utter likeability that is crucial to making Laura's attraction believable. There just aren't a great many actors who could have pulled that off and yet Vincent does it with ease.
And how about the talented Clifton Webb as the snobbish and possessive columnist Waldo Lydecker? His character reminds me of the cantankerous Dr. Smith from the old TV series "Lost in Space". He's rude, condescending, and spends a considerable amount of his screen time sitting in the bathtub. It is hard to imagine this role being played by anyone else.
Combine the aforementioned with genre staples like Dana Andrews and Judith Anderson and the result is a film worthy of its stature as a noir classic. -
MCT:June 25, 2008Gene Tierney is Laura, an angel immortalized in a portrait, who enthralled the soul of three men, and my humble self as well. David Raksin's beautiful and haunting score and the utmost exactness of skill, both in screenplay and direction take this film up high as an enchanting love story and as a dark and complex mystery. Now I know why Otto Preminger, allegedly, destroyed all of the original director Rouben Mamoulian's footage. Another pinnacle of noir, and an obvious precursor, along with Luis Buñuel's Él, of my favorite film, Vertigo.
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MCT:June 6, 2008
I am rather fond of film-noir. This is among the many classics that were churned out from the 30?s to 50?s. The category has died a slow death since only have a few here and there now. The category was famous for the stressing of the shadows and the dealing with crime and detectives although not always having detectives, but always crime. This particular film-noir had to do with the murder of a society woman named Laura Hunt, played by the beautiful Gene Tierney. The film features one of the most haunting scores in film history, certainly the most memorable film-noir score. The basic story revolves around the detective Lt. Mark McPherson, played by Dana Andrews, who is investigating all of Laura?s friends because he suspects no one and everyone. This also features an early role for Vincent Price as Laura?s playboy lover. In short it is greatly twisted film-noir.
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MCT:April 12, 2008
I just love this movie. Tierney shines, but Dana Andrews really makes this film work. Webb is amazing in this. He is so delightfully evil and nasty...
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MCT:March 27, 2008When the detective looking into a murder falls in love with the victim, then finds she isn't dead?!?! Dana Andrews was GREAT! Tierney was GREAT! Don't forget Price!
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MCT:February 23, 2008
a film noir , gives the opportunity to this great filmmaker for a story full of strong characters , in the exploring of human weakness
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MCT:December 29, 2007
This is like a Hitchcock of noir movies. Nowadays, we see movies with the same plot, I'm guessing this movie was the inspiration to those films.
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MCT:November 22, 2007
This movie is just so great, specially in the way it manages suspense. It happened to me that in one part like for five minutes I couldn´t take my eyes off of the screen. I highly recommend it.
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MCT:November 15, 2007
one of the best romanticized noir pieces which foundamentalizes gene tierney's cinema status and a smooth vehicle to emit her allure of mystica. it's a story about socialite laura hunt who tantalizes all the men's covetously yearning eyes but unwisely she falls for the frivilously worhless playboy that almost detonates her catastrophic doom. there's an obsessive admirer with exuberantly murderous drive and also a persistent detective heroic copper. further, it's ambushed with a twist which is not un-pleasant at all.
the best strategy applied in this flick is its abscence of lauren hunt in the first half, and you glimpse over her while other people babblingly talk about her, your mind is guided into seeking some remnant fragrance of this deceased lovely creature. if dana andrews' copper is a necrophilia who fancies the demised lauren hunt, so are the viewers in front of silver screen....you admire her well-porportioned facial contour and her glaringly demure wardrobe which just seems so perfectly agreeable on her, and every smile of hers sublimates you into an unknown heavenly bliss.
unlike the most noir pieces which tend to taut audience's crave for the femme fatale by enlongating the hero's anguished hunger, "laura" gratifies your secret wish by resurrecting laura hunt at its pinnacle of cynicism: while the copper stares into her portrait with agonized desire, and a cup of whiskey over his hand to mourn for his crush, with an annoying bystander commenting "i don't think i have a patient to fall in love with a corpse." just as he almost worsens into irrevocable bitterness, laura walks into the doorgate to salve him with her re-incarnation into life to grant his romantic wish.
another clever strategy about the story is that laura hunt is never aware of the perils of her charm, and she's oblivious to her surroudings...she just gleams with the ease of her natural glamour without any deliberated trial. she even sympathesizes her attempted murderer with an redeeming mercy. it's more of a romantic story of fatal obsessions and un-requited love. clift webb gives good portrait of a poignant lonesome man who is boiled with un-fulfilled desire for love. and there's finally a flick to provide judith anderson with a chance to present her glamourized self with elegant wardrobe, and as usual she gives good performance as a nymphomaniac aging socialite who loves vincent price's playboy role. dana andrews is in the right niche of his machismo. as for vincent price, he's barely passable as the playboy with his contrived trial to deliver any glossy charm which doesn't really work.
something worthy of a mention, there's some greek shock-cinema called "singapore slang" trying to pay its hommage to "laura" by recycling the plots of the same name, the same symbolic portrait, the same theme melody with extreme dose of perverseness by savoring it with necrophilia, bondage, sadism & maschoism, and vommiting intercourse(yuck!)...it's weird enough to take a look at it...but if you wanna have a cozy day relaxing on the couch, leave it alone!!! it's morbidly sickening to the actual literariness.
in a nutshell, "laura" is the mostly romantic film noir ever made with feminine rosy dreaminess tuned well with masculine chivalry in a gruesome murder case. -
MCT:November 6, 2007
Arguably the best film noir of its time or ever. My personal favorite! Laura is discovered dead in her apartment. Flashback on her life, with Waldo (a famous columnist and Laura's confidante) narrating everything about her. Mark, the detective in charge, falls in love with her portrait. While contemplating on it falls asleep and upon waking, Laura comes to life. Who then got killed? Great filming in b/w and the hauntingly beautiful music that accompanies it.
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MCT:October 27, 2007Nothing special, really. The movie has twists and turns, but there's no sense of grime or grit, and not enough of the deeper truths that propelled noir greats like "Double Indemnity". The music was almost spooky.
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MCT:October 10, 2007
Classic noir whodunnit, with a necrophilia fetish. Great performances by Tierney, Webb, and Price. The dialogue is so delightfully witty. Excellent soundtrack too.
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MCT:September 6, 2007
The beautiful Gene Tierney plays the kind of girl every man can't help but fall in love with,unknowingly inspiring lust, jealousy and obsession in all around her with tragic consequences. One the the classic noirs from Otto Preminger, this film is rather more romantic and less cynical than most as well as an exercise in cinematic economy. Not one scene, not one line is wasted, which in the current climate of lumbering 3 hour ego trips is hugely refreshing. It also has some fantastic dialogue, particularly from Clifton Webb's witty intellectual yet bitter columnist. Vincent Price's turn as a self-centred playboy does not entirely convince, but this is the only real weak point of note; otherwise it will keep you guessing til the end.
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MCT:September 6, 2007the only thing that saved this from complete obscurity was the twist in the middle where she turned up still alive. that suprised me. as for the rest it was a mish-mash of mediocrity. all of the characters were unlikeable. the plot, storyline & script were all bland except for the aforementioned one suprising twist. the acting was so run of the mill i spent most of the time wondering when it would end. i always used to have a fear of black and white movies (not that i do now because there are so many great ones) because once in a while you end up sat infront of the television watching one of these. these are the type of random black and white movies i saw so often before when watching one out of the blue before i started watching more of them
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MCT:August 24, 2007
I've watched this many times over the years- I enjoy it everytime even though I know "who dunnit". It was a special treat to watch it on DVD - the special features had full Biographies from the biography channel on both Vincent Price and Gene Tierney.
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MCT:August 8, 2007
Another one of my all time favorites. Gene Tierney was in my opinion the most beautiful actress of all time.
Read the book, it is well written. -
MCT:July 26, 2007
A woman is dead in her apartment, and the detective assigned to the case is drawn to her picture so much so that he becomes obsessed with her.
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MCT:July 17, 2007
It's one of those movies you can watch over and over again and enjoy. There's just something undefinable about it.
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MCT:July 9, 2007
I loved this film. I was a huge Twin Peaks fan when I saw this, so I noticed the influnces Laura had on the series straight away. I loved the photography & the whole mystery of the film. Definitely worth seeing for any film buff.
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MCT:June 30, 2007
I don't normally think of any particular movie as being me favourite, since they all have enough differences that it's an apples and oranges comparison situation. But if somehow, in real life, I could only have one movie available to watch for the rest of my life, I'd choose this one.
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MCT:June 18, 2007
easily some of the best characters ever. everyone involved in this film never came close to making anything even close to this, but this is one crowning achievement. it gives us some great lines and great names, ie waldo leidecker, david lynch says thanks in twin peaks.
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MCT:June 5, 2007
Preminger, Clifton Webb AND Gene Tierney. Those names singly attached to a production recommend any film, and they came together in this one. I just wish I had been born early enough to see Tierney working at Woolworth's in Topeka, KS after she became mentally troubled and entered Menninger's Clinic. Clifton Webb is like an anorexic, self-pitying version of George Saunders. But those are not insults: if you like good dialogue sharpened to a vicious edge with that rapid-fire studio delivery, Webb is your actor.
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MCT:June 4, 2007
This is a murder mystery involving a woman named Laura and the detective that is infatuatated with her.
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