... and what style it has, from its cinematography to its score, to the interesting characters to the well crafted dialogue. However, in many ways it is like "The Big Sleep" and "The Maltese Falcon", because plot point by plot point it is baffling.
The body of Laura Hunt (Gene Tierney) is found shot point blank in the face, apparently as she opened the door to her apartment. She is an advertising executive who has risen to high society thanks to doors opened by columnist Waldo Lydecker (Clifton Webb), who has the opening lines "I'll never forget the weekend that Laura died..". The third main character is a tough New York cop, Detective Mark McPherson (Dana Andrews). Mark is instantly smitten with the portrait of Laura that hangs in her apartment. He is so smitten that he seems to forget all rules of evidence and police procedure. He lets a civilian and a suspect himself (Waldo) accompany him on his rounds to question other suspects and he walks all over the crime scene -heck - he practically moves in for a few days, reading Laura's private diary and letters, and drinks heavily, even in the morning, while on duty? Was Frank Drebin of Police Squad his only competition when he was promoted? While he was practically moving into Laura's home he MIGHT have asked why her housekeeper continued to come in every day when her mistress was dead. Exactly who was she cleaning up after and who was paying her? Questions unanswered and unasked.
And everybody in this film is lying their heads off, seemingly to no avail. Vincent Price as the lazy, effete, amoral Shelby is deliciously funny. Why does he lie - twice - about the classical music concert he claims he attended? To what purpose? And the scene where Laura and Waldo burst in on Shelby and Ann Treadwell (Judith Anderson) having dinner is priceless. In fact, every scene with Price and the wonderful Judith Anderson is both funny and touching. Judith's character really loves this charming skirt chasing gold digger in spite of the fact that she sees all of his flaws. He really should follow her advice and marry her.
Well then, it turns out that Laura is alive, and the very fact that she is alive makes her a suspect too. After all there WAS a killing it just wasn't her! Laura was all mystery and allure when she is just a beautiful portrait with a personality built by Waldo's words and Mark's imagination. However, the real Laura is disappointingly ordinary. Waldo does to some degree seem to be her Svengali, and he does seem to be right when he says that her doom is being attracted to any guy with a good build. Back to the lying - Laura herself lies like a carpet. What's all that nonsense about the radio? It's there, it's not there, it's broken, it's being fixed....who cares? Why does she lie about whether her radio works or not? Meanwhile, once Laura returns, Mark's attention in questioning suspects seems to be focused on whether or not Laura really loves Shelby or anybody else, in other words, does Mark have a shot with her? He acts like a schoolboy every time he gets an answer in the affirmative.
How does this all work out? Watch and find out. I highly recommend this one, just don't get too wrapped up in the plot. Instead, enjoy the atmosphere and dialogue.
As an aside, this was the first time Clifton Webb had been in any film since 1930, when he costarred in a Vitaphone short with radio personality Fred Allen. He refused to do a screen test from Laura's script, but did agree to be filmed doing a scene from "The Blythe Spirit", which was a play in which he was starring. So at age 55, from his single performance in "Laura", Clifton Webb was catapulted to stardom at Fox for the next 15 years.
The body of Laura Hunt (Gene Tierney) is found shot point blank in the face, apparently as she opened the door to her apartment. She is an advertising executive who has risen to high society thanks to doors opened by columnist Waldo Lydecker (Clifton Webb), who has the opening lines "I'll never forget the weekend that Laura died..". The third main character is a tough New York cop, Detective Mark McPherson (Dana Andrews). Mark is instantly smitten with the portrait of Laura that hangs in her apartment. He is so smitten that he seems to forget all rules of evidence and police procedure. He lets a civilian and a suspect himself (Waldo) accompany him on his rounds to question other suspects and he walks all over the crime scene -heck - he practically moves in for a few days, reading Laura's private diary and letters, and drinks heavily, even in the morning, while on duty? Was Frank Drebin of Police Squad his only competition when he was promoted? While he was practically moving into Laura's home he MIGHT have asked why her housekeeper continued to come in every day when her mistress was dead. Exactly who was she cleaning up after and who was paying her? Questions unanswered and unasked.
And everybody in this film is lying their heads off, seemingly to no avail. Vincent Price as the lazy, effete, amoral Shelby is deliciously funny. Why does he lie - twice - about the classical music concert he claims he attended? To what purpose? And the scene where Laura and Waldo burst in on Shelby and Ann Treadwell (Judith Anderson) having dinner is priceless. In fact, every scene with Price and the wonderful Judith Anderson is both funny and touching. Judith's character really loves this charming skirt chasing gold digger in spite of the fact that she sees all of his flaws. He really should follow her advice and marry her.
Well then, it turns out that Laura is alive, and the very fact that she is alive makes her a suspect too. After all there WAS a killing it just wasn't her! Laura was all mystery and allure when she is just a beautiful portrait with a personality built by Waldo's words and Mark's imagination. However, the real Laura is disappointingly ordinary. Waldo does to some degree seem to be her Svengali, and he does seem to be right when he says that her doom is being attracted to any guy with a good build. Back to the lying - Laura herself lies like a carpet. What's all that nonsense about the radio? It's there, it's not there, it's broken, it's being fixed....who cares? Why does she lie about whether her radio works or not? Meanwhile, once Laura returns, Mark's attention in questioning suspects seems to be focused on whether or not Laura really loves Shelby or anybody else, in other words, does Mark have a shot with her? He acts like a schoolboy every time he gets an answer in the affirmative.
How does this all work out? Watch and find out. I highly recommend this one, just don't get too wrapped up in the plot. Instead, enjoy the atmosphere and dialogue.
As an aside, this was the first time Clifton Webb had been in any film since 1930, when he costarred in a Vitaphone short with radio personality Fred Allen. He refused to do a screen test from Laura's script, but did agree to be filmed doing a scene from "The Blythe Spirit", which was a play in which he was starring. So at age 55, from his single performance in "Laura", Clifton Webb was catapulted to stardom at Fox for the next 15 years.