Laura.
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| Dana Andrews in a picture of Laura |
I am so
infatuated with this movie; I forget that not everyone has seen it. Laura is perfection. Noir perfection.
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| Gene Tierney and Vincent Price at their most attractive |
Laura is
(like so many of my choices) a detective story, a mystery and a love story all
rolled into one. It stars the enigmatic
Gene Tierney as the title character, Laura Hunt. Seen in flashback, Laura is the woman
murdered. Gene Tierney has a breathless
authenticity as a girl on the knife edge of something unique. Here gift is exposing that the choice isn’t
between opposites, but between two almost
opposites. Sanity vs. crazy-eyes,
love vs. obsession, strength vs. lose of control – she teeters between these
two items like Melissa McCarthy in stilettos, it works, but you don’t know
how.
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| Judith Andersen, Vincent Price, Clifton Webb and Dana Andrews |
You might
wonder why you don’t hear more of the amazing Gene Tierney. If you have the DVD, there might be a
biography episode on her. If not, well,
it is a sad story. She did amazing work
(nominated twice for Best Actress) but had a breakdown after a failed marriage
Oleg Cassini, the birth of a downs syndrome child and several failed love
affairs.
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| Clifton Webb and a stunning Gene Tierney |
But I get
ahead of myself. In the movie, Laura is
seen in flashback, because the movie opens with a detective (Dana Andrews at
his laconic best) investigating her murder.
What he finds is a love triangle with Waldo Lydecker (Clifton Webb in
his first movie) and Shelby Carpenter (Vincent Price when he was at his
romantic lead best – before the zombie blood phase). Laura’s Aunt, Ann Treadwell, is played by
Judith Andersen (later Dame Judith Andresen).
She is also in love with Shelby.
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Otto
Preminger directed produced and helped with the adaptation for this movie. It is wonderful.