Laura (1944) - film review

Inspector Mark McPherson investigates the killing of Laura Hunt.  The prime suspect is Waldo Lydecker, a renowned writer with a high opinion of himself and a low opinion of everyone else – except Laura.  Lydecker was besotted with Laura from the moment they first met.  She became his friend, his protégée, his muse, and may have become much more, if she had lived.  But Laura had many admirers, including Shelby Carpenter, the womanising playboy who is suspect number two.  The third suspect is Laura’s aunt Anne Treadwell, who had hopes of becoming Carpenter’s wife and resents his interest in Laura.   Things take an unexpected turn when McPherson falls asleep in Laura’s apartment one evening – and awakes to see the murder victim standing before him, apparently unharmed...

One of the most elegant and seductive examples of classic film noir is this haunting study in obsession.  It is unusual in that it uses the familiar noir motifs to lend a dreamlike character to the narrative, contrasting with other film noir dramas where these techniques are usually intended to add a sense of realism through their psychological impact.  The film was based on a popular crime novel by Vera Caspary.  Rouben Mamoulian was initially hired to direct it, but he was sacked by Twentieth Century Fox executive Daryl F. Zanuck shortly after filming began, and replaced with Otto Preminger.  Zanuck was disappointed with the film’s original ending and insisted it be replaced with something better.  

Laura is both a compelling murder mystery and a dark satire on male attitudes towards women.   The two principal characters Waldo Lydecker and Mark McPherson are about as different as they would be – the one is a self-opinionated intellectual, the other a laconic muscle man.  Yet they both have a craving for the female sex which has the power to drive them to destruction.  The obviously gay Lydecker wants a woman he can possess like a rare ornament, to be admired for its aesthetic and spiritual qualities.   McPherson’s attraction for Laura may have a more natural, earthier basis, but it is strange that he should fall in love with her in full knowledge of the fact that she is dead.   For both men, it is the unattainability of Laura which makes her an irresistible object of desire, but whereas one of the two is driven by his love to kill her, it is the love of the other that brings her back to life.       

All of the central performances in this film are faultless, but the one that stands out is Clifton Webb’s.  His Waldo Lydecker exudes the mix of suave velvet campness and intellectual pomposity that you only ever find in the senior common rooms of the older Oxford colleges, yet he delivers venomous put-down one-liners with the precision and force of an Olympic javelin thrower.   Webb was nominated for an Oscar, one of the film’s five nominations.  As it turned out, the film won just one Oscar, for Joseph LaShelle’s beautiful and highly atmospheric noir cinematography. In one of his early film appearances, many years before he became closely associated with the fantasy-horror genre, Vincent Price revels in the part of a handsome playboy. He gets to say the film’s best line: "I can afford a blemish on my character, but not on my clothes."

© James Travers 2008

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