Laura (1944 film)

Laura (1944 Film)

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Laura (1944 film)

Laura (1944

1944 in film

The year 1944 in film involved some significant events....
) is an American

United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
film noir

Film noir

Film noir is a film term used primarily to describe stylish cinema of the United States Crime film, particularly those that emphasize moral ambiguity and sexual motivation....
directed by Otto Preminger

Otto Preminger

Otto Ludwig Preminger was an Austrian-born Jewish film director who moved from the theatre to Hollywood, directing over 35 feature films in a five-decade career....
and starring Gene Tierney

Gene Tierney

Gene Tierney was an United States film and Theatre actor. Acclaimed as one of the great beauties of her day, she is best-remembered for her performance in the title role of Laura and her Academy Award-nominated performance for Academy Award for Best Actress in Leave Her to Heaven ....
as Laura, Dana Andrews

Dana Andrews

Dana Andrews was an United States film actor....
, Clifton Webb

Clifton Webb

Clifton Webb was an United States actor, dancer and singer....
, Vincent Price

Vincent Price

Vincent Leonard Price, Jr. was an United States film actor, remembered for his distinctive voice, his 6-foot 4-inch stature and serio-comic attitude in a series of horror films done in the latter part of his career....
, and Judith Anderson

Judith Anderson

Dame Judith Anderson, Order of Australia, Order of the British Empire was an Australian Tony award- and Emmy-winning actress of theatre and film, who was also nominated for a Grammy and an Academy Awards....
.

The movie was based on Vera Caspary

Vera Caspary

Vera Caspary was an American writer of novels, plays, screenplays, and short stories. Her best-known novel Laura was made into a Laura . Though she claimed she was not a "real" mystery writer, her novels effectively merged women's quest for identity and love with murder plots....
's Laura
Laura (novel)

Laura is a detective novel by Vera Caspary. It is her best known work, and was adapted into a popular film in 1944....
, a popular 1943 detective novel, and it was adapted for the screen by Jay Dratler

Jay Dratler

Jay Dratler was born in 1911 in New York City. After attending the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in the late 1920s, he transferred to a college in France where he became fluent in French and German....
, Samuel Hoffenstein

Samuel Hoffenstein

Samuel "Sam" Hoffenstein was a screenwriter and a musical composer. Born in Russia, he immigrated to the United States and began a career in New York City as a newspaper writer and in the entertainment business....
, Elizabeth Reinhardt and Ring Lardner Jr.

Ring Lardner Jr.

Ringgold Wilmer "Ring" Lardner Jr. was an American journalist and Academy Awards-winning screenwriter, who was Hollywood blacklist by the movie studio bosses during the era of McCarthyism....
(uncredited). The film's first director, Rouben Mamoulian

Rouben Mamoulian

Rouben Mamoulian was an Armenians-United States film director and theatre director....
, was fired early in the film's shooting due to creative differences with studio head Darryl F. Zanuck

Darryl F. Zanuck

Darryl Francis Zanuck was an Academy Award-winning Film producer, writer, actor, Film director, and studio executive who played a major part in the Hollywood studio system as one of its longest survivors ....
.

York police detective Mark McPherson (Dana Andrews

Dana Andrews

Dana Andrews was an United States film actor....
) investigates the murder of a beautiful advertising director named Laura Hunt (Gene Tierney

Gene Tierney

Discussion

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Quotations

I can afford a blemish on my character but not on my clothes.

I know you'll have to visit everyone on your list of suspects. I like to study their reactions.

I never have been and I never will be bound by anything I don't do with my own free will.

Laura, dear, I cannot stand these morons any longer. If you don't come with me this instant, I shall run amok.

She had something about her, that girl. I had to speak to her again. I had to see her.

This is our table, Laura's and mine. We spent many quiet evenings here together.

Encyclopedia

Laura (1944

1944 in film

The year 1944 in film involved some significant events....
) is an American

United States

Film noir

Otto Preminger

Otto Ludwig Preminger was an Austrian-born Jewish film director who moved from the theatre to Hollywood, directing over 35 feature films in a five-decade career....
and starring Gene Tierney

Gene Tierney

Dana Andrews

Dana Andrews was an United States film actor....
, Clifton Webb

Clifton Webb

Clifton Webb was an United States actor, dancer and singer....
, Vincent Price

Vincent Price

Judith Anderson

Vera Caspary

Jay Dratler

Samuel Hoffenstein

Ring Lardner Jr.

Rouben Mamoulian

Rouben Mamoulian was an Armenians-United States film director and theatre director....
, was fired early in the film's shooting due to creative differences with studio head Darryl F. Zanuck

Darryl F. Zanuck

Plot

New York police detective Mark McPherson (Dana Andrews

Dana Andrews

Dana Andrews was an United States film actor....
) investigates the murder of a beautiful advertising director named Laura Hunt (Gene Tierney

Gene Tierney

Clifton Webb

Clifton Webb was an United States actor, dancer and singer....
), who relates how he met Laura. Lydecker became her mentor and used his considerable influence and fame to advance her career. McPherson also questions Laura's fiancé, Shelby Carpenter (Vincent Price

Vincent Price

Judith Anderson

Dorothy Adams

Dorothy Adams was an United States character actress. She was married to character actor Byron Foulger from 1921-1970. She is the mother of soap opera star Rachel Ames....
).

Through the testimony of her friends and the reading of her letters, McPherson comes to know Laura and slowly falls in love with her. He becomes obsessed -- using the excuse of trying to solve the murder, he hangs around her apartment and is at one point accused by Lydecker of falling in love with a dead woman.

One night, he falls asleep under her portrait. He is awakened by the sound of someone entering the apartment. It is Laura. After recovering from the shock, McPherson determines that the murder victim was actually Diane Redfern, a model brought there by Carpenter while Laura was away in the country.

McPherson is pleased to discover that Laura is as lovable as he had imagined. Now it becomes even more urgent to unmask the murderer. He suspects that Lydecker is also in love with her and that he fatally mistook Redfern for her in his determination to keep her to himself. McPherson warns Laura not to let anybody in after he leaves, but Lydecker gets in anyway. Lydecker is about to kill Laura when McPherson returns just in time.

Cast

Gene Tierney
Gene Tierney

Gene Tierney was an United States film and Theatre actor. Acclaimed as one of the great beauties of her day, she is best-remembered for her performance in the title role of Laura and her Academy Award-nominated performance for Academy Award for Best Actress in Leave Her to Heaven ....
as Laura Hunt
Dana Andrews
Dana Andrews

Dana Andrews was an United States film actor....
as Detective Lieutenant Mark McPherson
Clifton Webb
Clifton Webb

Clifton Webb was an United States actor, dancer and singer....
as Waldo Lydecker. The character appears to be based on columnist, broadcaster and New Yorker
The New Yorker

The New Yorker is an United States magazine that publishes reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Starting as a weekly in the mid-1920s, the magazine is now published 47 times per year, with five of these issues covering two-week spans....
theater critic Alexander Woollcott
Alexander Woollcott

Alexander Humphreys Woollcott was an American critic and commentator for The New Yorker magazine, and a member of the Algonquin Round Table and the Fortean Society....
, a famous wit who, like Waldo, was fascinated by murder (and who died in early 1943). Woollcott always dined at the Algonquin Hotel
Algonquin Hotel

The Algonquin Hotel is a Hotel#Historic hotels located at 59 West 44th Street in Manhattan . The hotel has been designated as a New York City Historic Landmark....
, where Laura first approaches Lydecker, and had a habit of typing in his bathtub, as does Lydecker.
Vincent Price
Vincent Price

Vincent Leonard Price, Jr. was an United States film actor, remembered for his distinctive voice, his 6-foot 4-inch stature and serio-comic attitude in a series of horror films done in the latter part of his career....
as Shelby Carpenter
Judith Anderson
Judith Anderson

Dame Judith Anderson, Order of Australia, Order of the British Empire was an Australian Tony award- and Emmy-winning actress of theatre and film, who was also nominated for a Grammy and an Academy Awards....
as Ann Treadwell

Production

Otto Preminger's original idea for the film score was to use Duke Ellington

Duke Ellington

Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington was an American composer, pianist, and bandleader.Duke Ellington was recognized during his life as one of the most influential Jazz royalty, if not in all American music and he is of only four jazz musicians ever to have been featured on the cover of Time magazine ....
's "Sophisticated Lady." David Raksin later composed the familiar score for "Laura" over the course of a weekend, after being inspired by a Dear John letter

Dear John letter

The term "Dear John letter" refers to a letter written by a woman to her husband or boyfriend to inform him their relationship is over, usually because she has found another man....
he received from his wife. The theme from Laura was adapted by Johnny Mercer

Johnny Mercer

John Herndon "Johnny" Mercer was an American songwriter and singer. As a songwriter, he is best known as a lyricist, but he also composed music....
(who wrote the lyrics), Dick Haymes

Dick Haymes

Dick Haymes was an actor and one of the most popular Singing of the 1940s and early 1950s....
, Woody Herman

Woody Herman

Woodrow Charles Herman , better known as Woody Herman, was an United States jazz clarinetist, alto and soprano saxophonist, singer, and big band band leader....
and Frank Sinatra

Frank Sinatra

Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra was an United States singer and actor.Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became a solo artist with great success in the early to mid-1940s, being the idol of the "bobby soxers"....
, all of whom had hits. It has been recorded by various artists over four hundred times.

The famous portrait of Laura was in fact a photograph that the studio lightly brushed with paint. It was reused in the colour film On the Riviera
On the Riviera

On the Riviera is a 1951 in film comedy musical film made by 20th Century Fox. It was directed by Walter Lang, produced by Sol C. Siegel from a screenplay by Valentine Davies and Phoebe and Henry Ephron, based on the play The Red Cat by Rudolph Lothar and Hans Adler....
.

Awards

Academy Award win

Best Black-and-White Cinematography, Joseph LaShelle

Academy Award nominations

Supporting Actor
Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor

Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role is one of the Academy Award presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actor who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry....
, Clifton Webb
Director, Otto Preminger
Writing Adapted Screenplay
Academy Award for Writing Adapted Screenplay

The Academy Award for Writing Adapted Screenplay is one of the Academy Awards, the most prominent film awards in the United States. It is awarded each year to the screenwriter of a Adapted_screenplay from another source ....
, Jay Dratler, Samuel Hoffenstein, and Elizabeth Reinhardt
Black-and-White Art Direction-Interior Decoration
Academy Award for Best Art Direction

The Academy Awards are the oldest awards ceremony for achievements in film. The Academy Award for Best Art Direction recognizes achievement in art director#Film on a film....
, Lyle R. Wheeler
Lyle R. Wheeler

Lyle Reynolds Wheeler, , was an Academy Award-winning United States motion picture art director.Wheeler studied at the University of Southern California, then worked as a magazine artist and industrial designer....
, Leland Fuller
Leland Fuller

Leland Fuller was an American art director. He was nominated for six Academy Awards in the category Academy Award for Best Art Direction. He worked on 48 films between 1943 in film and 1962 in film....
, and Thomas Little
Thomas Little

Thomas Little was a United States set decorator on more than 450 Hollywood movies between 1932 and 1953. He won a total of 6 Academy Awards for art direction and received 21 nominations in the same category....

Other honors

In 1999, Laura was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry

National Film Registry

The National Film Registry is the registry of films selected by the United States National Film Preservation Board for preservation in the Library of Congress....
by the Library of Congress

Library of Congress

The Library of Congress is the de facto national library of the United States and the research arm of the United States Congress. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and holds the largest number of books....
as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". In June 2008, the American Film Institute

American Film Institute

The American Film Institute is an independent non-profit organization created by the National Endowment for the Arts, which was established in 1967 when President Lyndon B....
revealed its "Ten top Ten"—the best ten films in ten "classic" American film genres—after polling over 1,500 people from the creative community. Laura was acknowledged as the fourth best film in the mystery genre. The film was also honored on AFI's 100 Scores, ranking at #7. On the 100 Thrills list, Laura was ranked at #73.

Influence

Bollywood

Bollywood is the informal term popularly used for the Mumbai-based Hindi film industry in India. The term is often used to refer to the whole of Cinema of India....
movie Rog

Rog

Rog is a 2005 Bollywood film starring Irfan Khan,Ilene Hamann, directed by Himanshu Brahmbhatt, written by Mahesh Bhatt and produced by Pooja Bhatt....
is a copy of this film.

External links

at Filmsite.org
Filmsite.org

Filmsite.org is a website operated by Tim Dirks since 1996. It contains about 300 in-depth reviews of what Dirks judges to be the "greatest films" of all time....
by Tim Dirks; contains plot details.
French review by Marc Autret .
.